Creating Clear Pathways: Lessons from Venture Capital for Creatives.

I’ve spent the last 13 years in the music industry and when I moved into the world of ‘startup’ four years ago one of the many beautiful things that hit me was how structured the pathways were from idea to ipo. 

At any moment along your journey as a founder, you more or less know what you need to show to move into the next stage and how to communicate where you’re at to potential team members, advisors and investors.

The stages of pre-seed, seed, series A, and beyond—have become the foundation on which the unearth is built.  These foundations have created a structure that brings predictability and stability to an otherwise uncertain journey.  It allows founders and investors to align on the company’s development.  Without these milestones, it would be difficult for companies to attract resources and maintain focus as they grow.

I guess it's no real different to the life for many athletes who play in 'leagues' but when we look at the life of artists or musicians, we couldn't see anything more different.  They often lack a structured pathway that guides them through their development, making it harder to sustain momentum and access critical resources at the right moments.

Imagine if creatives had their own “pre-seed” stage—an early phase where they gather initial support to explore and refine their craft, much like how startups build their first product. Later stages, akin to series A or B, could involve securing more significant support for scaling up—whether through record labels, sponsorships, or gallery exhibitions. These defined stages would provide a clearer sense of progression, making the journey less about luck and more about strategic growth.

By borrowing from the venture capital model, we could offer creatives a clearer sense of direction—an opportunity to build sustainable careers with the same focus and support that startup founders enjoy. With clearer pathways, these fields could better attract investment, mentorship, and development, creating a more predictable road to success.

So let's give these stages working titles:

Undiscovered 

Emerging

Established

Mainstream

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Over the coming months I'm going to be chatting with artists, musicians, athletes and founders to better understand if/how these stages could help frame a new way for artists to be building careers and how at each stage the use of technology could play a vital role.  If you'd like to share your story as an artists, musicians, athletes or founder drop me a line, I'd love to have a chat.