Turn your expertise into a company, in the role that fits you.
Run the company yourself, or keep your focus on the work while we find an experienced operator to build the business around it. Either way, Forum's studio builds it with you.
We've done this 20+ times.
Forum Ventures' studio has co-founded more than 20 companies in four years. We work to help find the buyers, run validation, recruit early team members and help you go from cold start to real momentum. We're not an accelerator, and nobody pays tuition.
Sound like you?
You have technology that works, and no clear path to market.
A patent, a proprietary process, a material, a method your lab built that beats what's out there. It's proven. What's missing is the buyer, the team and the business.
You're finishing a PhD or postdoc and thinking about what's next.
You've spent years on one problem and you already know what to build. You'd rather build it than leave it in a paper.
You know where the money leaks.
You're an economist or analyst at a think tank, payer, consultancy or state agency. You can trace exactly where time and dollars disappear in a system most people can't read.
You built something that works inside your health system.
A risk model, a decision tool, a program. It works there. It should be everywhere, and you have patients to see.
You can build anything, and you know a field nobody's built for.
You're an ML or data scientist at a lab or a big company, and there's a domain you understand that still runs on spreadsheets.
You know the rulebook.
Compliance, actuarial, regulatory, supply chain, legal. You know what the buyer will sign, and why every vendor gets it wrong.
You decide how much of your life goes into this.
CEO
You want to build it and run it. You join the Foundry, our cohort program. We fund it and work next to you from the first customer call.
Chief Scientist
You're the expert at the center, whether your field is science, medicine, policy or something else, and you're the reason customers trust the product. We recruit an experienced CEO to run it. You keep your current role while we find out if it's real.
Advisor Founder
You want to see it exist with your name on it, and you're staying where you are, whether that's your lab, your practice or your firm. A few hours a month. The studio and the CEO we recruit do the building.
Not sure?
Most people aren't. Pick "just talk" and we'll work it out together.
You know something that should exist in the world. We'll help find who needs it.
- You have something real: a patent or proprietary technology, a method, a model, a tool, a pilot, a dataset.
- You've proven it works, but you're not sure how to commercialize it. That's the part we do.
- Or you know a system cold: where it breaks, why every fix so far has missed, and what it would take.
- Someone with a budget would pay to make that problem go away.
- Any field. Right now we're spending a lot of time in health, waste and recycling, materials and manufacturing, water and food, insurance, and the rules that make regulated industries hard.
- It doesn't have to be software.
From your work to a company.
- 1
Share your work.
Two minutes. A link, or a short paragraph on what you know. No deck, no CV.
- 2
We read it.
Within two weeks you get an honest answer on whether there's a company in it. If not, we'll tell you why.
- 3
We talk.
Thirty minutes about the work and about you: how much time you have, and which seat fits.
- 4
We build.
If it's a go, you join the Foundry. The next cohort starts November 9. If you've picked Chief Scientist or Advisor Founder, we start recruiting the CEO alongside you.
Learn more about the Foundry →
Some of the best companies started this way.
Strong companies in health data, climate forecasting and cancer diagnostics all started with an expert who already had the thing, and a team that came together around them. That's the pattern we build.
Do I have to leave my job?+
No. Chief Scientist and Advisor Founder both work alongside your day job, whether that's a lab, a clinic or a firm. If you want to be CEO, we'll talk about timing when it's real, not on day one.
What if my university, lab, hospital or employer owns the IP?+
That's common, and it's often where the best companies start. Tell us up front and we'll help you work through licensing with your tech transfer office.
Does it have to be software?+
No. If a strong CEO could build a real business on it, we want to hear about it.
What does this cost me?+
Nothing. Not to apply, and not to talk.