The idea of a startup studio, a hybrid between a VC fund and a coworking space and an accelerator, is becoming more and more popular. Today, yet another ‘startup studio’ is being announced by founders Nitin Pachisia and Manan Mehta, and they’re calling it the Unshackled Fund.
The duo has put together $3.5 million in funding, as well as 50 of some of the most influential angel investors, VCs and entrepreneurs to provide the most resourceful environment possible to create a company.
Unshackled will bring on 20 to 25 promising entrepreneurs with ideas, provide a steady paycheck and health benefits, and connect the entrepreneurs with the right advisors in the fund to get to a seed round. Unshackled will even help foreign entrepreneurs handle issues with being in the U.S., like sponsoring a work visa or green card.
This is important because many immigrants must raise a lot of money to create their own company, or otherwise depend on a major tech company to sponsor them, at which point they’re tied to the corporation.
It’s more of a hands-on approach to early stage seed funding, and traditional early stage VCs seem amped about the opportunity. Unshackled investors include First Round Capital, 500 Startups, Structure Capital, Brad Feld, and TechStars, as well as the minds behind companies like Salesforce, Uber, Palantir, Yahoo, AngelList, Twitter, Zynga, Warby Parker, MakerBot, and plenty more.
Along with a salary and health care, Unshackled will also be helping their entrepreneurs with legal counsel, financial planning, design, PR and marketing.
You can apply to be a part of Unshackled here.
