.avif)
"Spray and pray." That's how most people describe early-stage venture capital. And the description isn't unfair. The traditional model is rooted in power law thinking: deploy capital broadly, accept that most startups will fail, and wait for one outlier to return the fund.
What keeps a venture capitalist up at night isn't losing one investment. It's missing the next billion-dollar company. So the model optimizes for deal flow and check volume over founder relationships.
The math explains the model: venture funds follow a power-law distribution, with roughly 2% of funds capturing 95% of all profits. Deploying broadly and betting on outliers isn't irrational, it's the logical response to those odds. But what that approach often trades away, almost by design, is individual founder attention.
The Gap Between Capital and Support
Startups at the earliest stages fail for solvable reasons like poor runway management, an underdeveloped go-to-market strategy, a bad hire, among others. However, these are all avoidable with the right guidance and mentorship. And yet, 8 out of 10 funds take a fully passive approach, providing capital but little operational involvement. Which is only a disservice to the fund itself.
The accelerator model emerged as a response to this gap. Rather than investing early and waiting in the sidelines, or waiting for companies to mature before investing, accelerators came in earlier, diversified across larger cohorts, and layered in programming and mentorship to maximize the chances of success across the portfolio. The results were meaningful: accelerator-backed companies showed a 10–23% higher five-year survival rate compared to non-accelerator startups.
But the model has a ceiling. When you're investing in hundreds of companies per year, personalization isn't scalable. Attention naturally concentrates on the companies performing well, while others receive less support. This isn’t out of negligence, but because in-house resources simply don't stretch to match the size of the cohort. Mentorship helps, but it still stops short of the kind of deep operational involvement and time spent with founders that moves the needle at the earliest stages.
Forum's Co-Building Model
At Forum Ventures, we built our model around a different question: what if the investor functioned as a co-founder?
We call this co-building, and it's the operating philosophy behind everything we do across our pre-seed fund, accelerator, and venture studio. As of Q4 2025, Forum manages $125M in AUM across all three. Each arm is built around the same commitment to active company-building, not passive capital deployment.
Co-building means validating the market, crafting design partnerships, running sales motions, introducing first customers, building product, and helping fundraise, alongside founders. Not just advising on it, but joining sales conversations, implementing tools together, building motions, and more.
"When I was building my own company, I had several advisors that provided unparalleled value. However, what I truly needed was someone who had been through it themselves and was able to put in the time and do the work alongside me. That's what drove me to Forum, and it's what I try to give every founder I work with." — Kevin Corliss, Managing Director, Forum Ventures
This approach is deeply felt by the founders in Forum’s portfolio: "Kevin and the Forum team don’t just open doors, but they help you build what's behind them and then walk you through them together." - Apurva Luty, CEO and Founder of Optimly
Forum has intentionally stayed small relative to our portfolio size, growing slowly and deliberately so that the depth of support doesn't get diluted as the portfolio scales. Every Managing Director we bring on is a past founder, so they are able to move the needle for portfolio companies based on real life experience.
To execute co-building at this level, Forum has built three structural advantages:
First, our Managing Directors are serial founders and operators who have raised capital and sold to Fortune 500 companies. They work with founders every week to ship product, land clients, and prepare for fundraising.
Second, Forum maintains an industry council of Fortune 500 customers and a network of 3,000+ investors, giving portfolio companies consistent access to revenue and financing opportunities.
Third, we've structured two distinct co-building tracks based on stage:
Venture Studio Co-Building is for founders at the earliest stage - when they’re just starting off, sometimes pre-idea. Forum co-founds the company, provides a full-stack team to build the product, runs go-to-market directly, and executes sales outbound to land client contracts. Then, we quarter back their fundraise.
Accelerator Co-Building is for founders who are leading their company but need a deeply involved operational partner. Forum's MDs act as fractional co-founders and available around the clock for strategy, decision making, and honest advice.
Results Across 450+ Companies
As of Q4 2025, Forum's co-building model has been applied across 450+ portfolio companies. Outcomes include:
- Unicorn valuations — Fireflies.ai reached $1B
- Series A rounds of $20M+ — VendorPM, Routefusion, Salsa, and Blooming Health
- Backing from top-tier firms including a16z, Menlo Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, 8VC, and Afore Capital
- Early revenue milestones reached during the program itself — including $200K ARR before demo day
"Forum provided us with key customer introductions that led to over $200K of revenue. Two months after demo day, we had grown to $850K ARR and closed our seed round." — Sean Thorne, Founder & CEO, People Data Labs
Why This Model Wins
There's a clear incentive structure here that the industry undervalues. Deep founder support doesn't just improve outcomes for portfolio companies. It compounds into better fund reputation, stronger deal flow, and the ability to attract the caliber of founders who build category-defining companies.
The most competitive VCs aren't winning because they have the most capital. They win because founders want to work with them. Co-building is how Forum earns that.
About Forum Ventures
Forum Ventures is a founder-first B2B AI accelerator, venture studio, and pre-seed fund. We invest $100K+ into founders starting at the pre-revenue and idea stage. With 450+ portfolio companies, our accelerator is known for having the best portfolio support in North America.
FAQs
What is Forum Ventures? Forum Ventures is a founder-first B2B AI accelerator, venture studio, and pre-seed fund. As of Q4 2025, Forum manages $125M in AUM and has invested in 450+ companies, making it one of the most active early-stage investors in North America.
What makes Forum Ventures different from a traditional VC? Traditional venture capital is built around a power-law model — deploy broadly, accept most companies will fail, and wait for an outlier. Forum's model is built around co-building: actively working alongside founders to validate markets, run sales outbound, introduce first customers, and build product together. Forum functions as a fractional co-founder, not a passive capital provider.
What is co-building? Co-building is Forum's operating philosophy. Rather than advising from a distance, Forum's Managing Directors — all past founders themselves — join sales conversations, implement tools, build go-to-market motions, guide through the fundraising process, and work with founders every week. It's the difference between having an investor on your cap table and having a partner in the trenches.
What are the two co-building tracks at Forum? Forum offers two distinct tracks based on stage. The Venture Studio is for founders at the earliest stage — sometimes pre-idea — where Forum co-founds the company, builds the product, and runs go-to-market directly. The Accelerator is for founders already leading their company who need a deeply involved operational partner. Forum's MDs act as fractional co-founders, available around the clock for strategy, customer introductions, and fundraising support.
What stage does Forum invest at? Forum invests at the pre-seed stage, including pre-revenue and idea stage companies. The fund deploys $100K+ per investment for founders joining its accelerator and $250k for founders joining its venture studio.
What results has Forum's co-building model produced? As of Q4 2025, Forum's model has been applied across 450+ portfolio companies. Outcomes include a $1B unicorn valuation (Fireflies.ai), multiple $20M+ Series A rounds, backing from firms including a16z, Menlo Ventures, and Bessemer Venture Partners, and founders reaching $200K ARR before demo day. Forum has a 65% 3-year average fund-through rate.
Why does Forum only hire Managing Directors who are past founders? Because the advice that moves founders forward is advice earned firsthand. Forum has intentionally stayed small and grown slowly so that the depth of support doesn't get diluted as the portfolio scales — and every MD brings real operator experience, not just pattern recognition from the investor side.
What is the Forum Ventures network? Forum maintains an industry council of Fortune 500 customers and a network of 3,000+ investors, giving portfolio companies consistent access to revenue opportunities and financing connections throughout their time in the program.
.svg)
.avif)
