Less SoftBank, more venture builders

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Editor's note: In the last few months, enough words have been spent on SoftBank and the several ills of its kind. WeWork, Uber, Lyft, Peloton. It’s not a great time for venture capital. Investors around the world are (hopefully) rethinking how they value tech and what you would call tech-enabled startups. Venture capital models, especially late-stage VC, definitely need review, but today I’d like to talk about a different form of startup investing, one that doesn’t get as much screen time—venture builders. Almost an antithesis of the classic VC approach. Starting a company is tough. It’s not a coincidence most startups fail within the first two years of their launch, for reasons ranging from lack of product-market fit to poor chemistry between the founders. However, it also worth noting that, often enough, the failure could have been avoided only if the startup had the right support at the right time. Now, consider a scenario where an inexperienced founder is backed by a seasoned expert who already carries the battle scars of running a business. Or a scenario where a young budding entrepreneur …