About,
OFICIOSVARIOS, (OV,) is a design-driven company builder based in Medellín, CO. We focus on creating new ventures in market niches where our integral design & management expertise can lead us to developing unique, sustainable businesses for the long term.
The Company Builder Model,
A company builder (also known as startup studio or venture builder) is a studio-like organization that aims to systematically generate new venture ideas and develop the best of them as independent companies. All of this is done through a common pool of human, creative & capital resources.
We are different from venture capital investors and incubators: we're operators who go beyond capital investment and mentoring to take on much more active roles in shaping all sides of a company – things like brand, product, team & business model.
Unlike creative studios or agencies, we don't sell our design expertise as services to clients but focus on the development of our own ventures. We do however partner on joint-ventures with other companies who aim for design-driven leadership in their fields. If you have an idea along these lines, drop us a note.
Examples & resources,
– Idealab
– Betaworks
– The Creative Capital Model
– Basics of Startup Studios
– Evolution of Startup Studios
Principles,
Care,
We seek projects where we can generate both relevance and returns. We choose less ventures so we can go deeper, longer. We never delegate understanding.
Dare,
We bet on ourselves and our ideas. We believe that being founders & operators makes us better as designers. We love the long-term process of building companies, with both the risks and rewards it entails.
Share,
We play well with others & collaborate often. We create models that generate benefits for many rather than a few. We hope to encourage fellow designers to pursue independence & entrepreneurship.
Process,
Our process comprises the paralell development of the three core areas: strategy, product & identity. We like to think of our work as the creation and optimization of design systems: we're focused on achieving the best overall performance while maintaining a coherence between the parts and the whole.
Our story,
OFICIOSVARIOS was started by Daniel Gutiérrez in 2009 as a label for personal projects. From 2011 to 2015 it operated as a design consultancy, leading projects in digital & physical environments. Elisa Echeverri joined in 2016 and we've been evolving towards the company builder model ever since.