Problems chosen with buyers in the room
Every idea begins with thirty interviews. If six buyers cannot name a budget for it, we shelve the idea and move on without regret.
A venture studio for hard, useful businesses · Austin
We start the company. Then we find the founder.
Anvil & Atlas begins where most investors stop. Our in-house team picks a stubborn problem in an unglamorous industry, validates it with real buyers, builds the first product and only then recruits the founder who will run it. Six companies a year leave our workshop with a customer, a prototype, a seed round behind them and a chief executive who owns the outcome from the first day.
Twenty-two companies built since we opened, and sixteen of them are still growing.
anvilatlas.example / studio / this-year
Six companies a year, each built from a blank page
Companies that began as a blank page
Search by problem or filter by industry, then open any company to read how it started and where it stands.
6 companies shown
Tidewell clamps a small acoustic sensor to a pipe and finds leaks before the street floods. Forty-one towns use it, and the chief executive spent twelve years as a water utility engineer.
Copperline lets a clinic of four nurses cover a county by planning routes around patients, not appointments. Missed visits fell by a third in the first year.
Haulmark reads damage photos, bills of lading and driver notes, then files and tracks the claim. A carrier that once spent nine weeks on a claim now settles in eleven days.
Switchyard converts empty warehouses into licensed kitchens that small food brands rent by the hour. Three sites are open and a fourth is under construction.
Hearthmap scans a house from photos and a utility bill, then returns three installer quotes with rebate paperwork attached. Homeowners go from curiosity to signed contract in nine days.
Brightsleeve collected outgrown uniforms and resold them through school offices. A national school supplier acquired it after two years, and the founding team stayed on to run it.
The shared workshop behind every company
A new business borrows people, patience and hard-won lessons from the ones that came before it.
A product team already on the floor
Designers and engineers who have launched four products before join each company for its first nine months, so the founder never starts alone.
Founders recruited, not discovered
We search for the person who has lived the problem for ten years, then offer them meaningful equity and a company that already works.
Money released in tranches
Capital arrives as each milestone is proven, which keeps early losses small and gives later investors a clear record of what was tested.
Operations on call
Finance, legal, hiring and security teams sit inside the studio. A new company gets professional back-office support from the week it forms.
A clean path to the next round
When a company is ready, we introduce it to the investors who funded our earlier ones and step back to a minority role.
What the studio has produced so far
- Companies built from a blank page
- 22
- Raised by studio companies after launch
- $190 M
- Months from first interview to first revenue
- 14
- Of companies still operating after five years
- 73%
The partners behind the workshop
We are operators first. Between us we have started eleven companies, sold four and shut down three, and we say so in the first meeting.
- Marguerite AnselmFounding partner, former chief operating officer of a logistics unicorn
- Idris OkaforFounding partner, product leader who shipped four consumer apps
- Hallie ThornburyPartner in charge of founder search, ex-executive recruiter
- Jonas EklundPartner for engineering, previously chief technology officer in health tech
Founders who walked in on day one
“I left a twelve-year career in water utilities to run Tidewell. By my first morning there were paying customers, a prototype and a team of six waiting for me.”
“I have started companies without a studio and with one. The difference is that now I sleep, because the legal and finance parts of the business are already handled.”
“As an investor I like that the studio shows me a clean record of what was tested, what failed and what was learned before I write a cheque.”
What founders and investors ask us
How much of a company does the studio own?
Typically between thirty and forty percent at formation, falling as the company raises. The founder-in-residence receives a meaningful share that vests over four years.
Can I bring my own idea?
Yes. If you have a problem you know deeply, pitch it. About a third of our companies begin with an idea from outside the building.
What kinds of industries do you prefer?
Industries with large budgets and old software: logistics, health services, water, energy, construction, food and education.
How long does a founder search take?
Usually four to six months. We interview around forty candidates and rarely offer the role to someone who has not worked in the industry.
Do you invest in companies you did not build?
Rarely. The studio's attention is limited, so we reserve it for the six companies we start each year.
Bring us the problem you cannot stop thinking about.
Describe it in a paragraph. If we recognise a company in it, we will say so within a week and tell you how we would start.
Start a conversation with the studio
Whether you want to pitch a problem, apply as a founder-in-residence or learn about co-investing, write to the partner who reads that inbox.