Artcompiler Thesis

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[DRAFT]

Economics

  • Software eating the world creates niche markets between the larger markets subsumed by the incumbents
  • The flood of new technologies makes servicing those niche markets cheaper to address
  • The combination of more easily addressable markets and cheaper solutions means substantially lower risk to founders and investors
  • Prediction: We will see one million $1,000,000+ ARR SaaS businesses be built around the globe in the next ten years. 1% of those will be funded by traditional venture capital

Founders

  • Domain experts well versed in the experiences of working in a particular field
  • Able to articulate in words or pictures or no-code software (e.g. spreadsheet) a valuable solution to a problem that exists in their field
  • Willing to collaborate with the studio to refine and develop the solution into a working software prototype

Studio

  • Develops a platform for quickly building robust, secure and scalable minimum viable products
  • Partner with domain experts with earned secrets about their field of expertise
  • Project is formed between domain expert founder and the studio
  • Investor buys into the project for $250,000
  • Project objective is to achieve default alive status within 80 weeks (20 four-week cycles)

Investors

  • Patient early stage value investor happy with dividends rather than an exit
  • Personal interest, if not expertise, in the targeted space

Notes

Artcompiler is a software studio that makes API-first B2B Micro-SaaS products. We use an art thinking method of first asking what it is that we want to exist in the world, and then asking who cares.

Artcompiler makes certain kinds of software faster and cheaper than virtually any other dev shop by standardizing and automating the development process. To do this we need to choose a large class of software that can be built with a common set of tools and techniques. The class of software we have chosen is API-first B2B SaaS. We will earn profits from the profits and sale of the portfolio companies we build, as well as from renting this capability to other studios as a productized service.

  • Studio exists is to help founders build long-term profitable software businesses
  • Income comes from studio fees, usage fees, and distributions from portfolio companies
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