Thanks to Rotman’s Problem Hunt competition, I found a new asset class called Venture Studio.

Problem Hunt (hosted by REVCA and FutureSight) was the answer to my forever question: I want to build a venture but I don’t know what business to make. The competition forces us to focus on the unnoticed, underserved problems that exist in the market. It brought to light my solution-first mindset that keeps ideating on different products I want without any certainty on market demand. The FutureSight process allows us to understand and define the problem we’re solving using design thinking and customer discovery, so we’re not shooting in the dark.

Intrigued by this novel methodology, I learned about Venture Studio. In simple terms, Venture Studio is a VC that builds its own businesses. It’s an ‘institutional co-founder’ which validates ideas, builds startups, and invests their first capital. It guides founders (like me) through a systematized venture-building process and connects us with complementary advantages and capabilities. This model interests me greatly because this is the kind of support I’d love to have as a founder!

FutureSight stands out to me because it’s a startup building other startups. As a future founder, I’m passionate about early-stage ventures. I find the chance to collaborate with my team and build things from the ground up to be highly insightful. It’s not glorious and very scrappy (as venture building truly is), but it’s very rewarding to create something worthwhile from 0 to 1.

FutureSight has helped me discover how my unique experience as an entrepreneur well-versed in Finance creates value. My years as an auditor have helped me find gaps in our ventures and processes, bring critical risks to attention, and formulate action items to mitigate them. Similarly, I’ve learned a lot from my team and their respective unique advantages, from sales, business development, and investor relations. I’m consistently awed by our robust team of complementary skill sets and views that can push each other toward our mission.

FutureSight also enables me to learn from experienced, values-driven leaders. We have Growth Sessions where we discuss and share stories on leadership topics such as Radical Candor, Immunity to Change, and Transcendent Leadership. These conversations deeply explore our personal values and how we lead, which we then translate to our actions. I deeply believe in our culture of enhancing personal and leadership growth to push forward professional and company growth, because the whole system only grows when the individual thinkers do.

It’s been more than 1 year since I’ve been at FutureSight. It’s been a great learning experience to be in a budding asset class and an early-stage company. Reflecting back, I’ve learned a lot about building ventures, using my unique advantage, and leading with values. These are all very valuable skills that I will continue refining and applying throughout my career.