We know that navigating the startup scene is hard

We pride ourselves in working with talented, no-BS idea-stage SaaS founders. We don't always tell you what you want to hear. But you can rely on us to tell you what you need to hear to move forward.

About FSK Ventures

Why we exist and how we came to be

FSK Ventures was born out of frustration personally experienced by our founders. A startup investor and advisor with a strong technical background on one side and a non-technical ex-founder on the other side. Our goal is to support talented, non-technical founders from day one, all the way to the seed round, helping them to de-risk their ventures and increase their chances of success. 

FSK Ventures consists of two parts — the MVP studio arm and the equity investment arm.

We initially work with founders through our MVP studio. The focus here is on building low-cost, high-impact MVPs. Typical engagement here lasts from two to four months and ranges anywhere between $5,000 - $25,000, depending on the individual needs of the founder and their startup.

This phase is crucial to us as it allows us and the founder to get to know each other. During this phase, we work with the founder on validating their idea, business model, initial go-to-market strategy, and overall business strategy. Once these elements are clear, we will build a functional MVP that founders can comfortably introduce to the market and start signing up their first paying customers.
Learn more about FSK Ventures MVP development >
After the founder introduces their MVPs into the market, the development work doesn’t end — quite the opposite. The feedback is (hopefully) rolling in and there is a good amount of work to be done over the upcoming months.

This is the point where many founders start to give up — the harsh reality of running a startup starts to truly set in and founders are coming to realize that they are only at the beginning of their journey. While they have some initial traction, it’s far from a smooth path and still a long way to raising that huge seed round investment. This is the situation we’re waiting to see founders in and where we ask ourselves: “Do we believe this founder has what it takes to succeed? Can we see this company being exited in a few years from now?”

If the answers are yes, we’re ready to discuss the equity investment and carry the burden of technical expenses on behalf of the founder all the way until they can raise the Seed round and hire the talents we bring to the table internally.
Read more about pre-seed SaaS startup funding >

The founding team

Ben
Ben got into the tech world as a fresh 16-year-old when he started a software development studio in the US called Buztek. This company quickly grew to 150 employees and produced software products for Fortune 500 companies and startups alike. Ben exited this company in 2017 and spent the next five years as a pro-bono advisor and investor focused on promising ideas and early-stage startup founders from around the globe.

During this time, he frequently saw great ideas failing in the seed stage due to the flawed development process. This was especially true for talented non-technical founders who joined forces with mid-to-senior level developers from corporate backgrounds.

Another big issue that Ben frequently saw was the exaggerated cost founders spent for their MVPs when working with development houses. Having owned a dev house himself in the past, he knew all the tricks dev houses used to make founders spend far more than what was in the best interest of their startup at a given stage. When his non-compete expired in 2022, he was ready to change this game. 
Andrea
Andrea has co-founded her startup in collaboration with a mid-level developer in Eastern Europe. She went through practically all the ups and downs of a startup founder, which is now a valuable experience she passes on to our early-stage companies. This startup company, once it found its ideal positioning, quickly started getting traction beyond the borders of her country and continent. But the company ran into issues when the size and volume of the clients started growing. The product started collapsing beyond the acceptable "early-stage startup hiccups" line, resulting in dropping already contracted clients and losing revenue. Soon after, the company had to shut down altogether.

Andrea joined forces with Ben and vouched never to let other non-technical, early-stage startup founders go through the same experience as she did.