Design
We write the venture's DNA — the business model, the intelligence, the go-to-market — as one system.
The AI-native talent investor · Engineered in Switzerland
We build living companies.
Capital is abundant. Agents are commodities. We invest in the scarce input — the leaders — and hand each one a validated AI-native company built to grow on its own.
BORN IN LAVAUX · SWITZERLAND
ENGINEERED IN SWITZERLAND · RELEASED ON THE WORLD
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Venture-studio benchmark
53%
IRR, STUDIO-BORN
VS 21.3% CONVENTIONAL
VS 21.3% CONVENTIONAL
72%
REACH SERIES A
VS 42% OF STARTUPS
VS 42% OF STARTUPS
25 mo
TO SERIES A
VS 56 MONTHS
VS 56 MONTHS
84%
REACH SEED FUNDING
THE STANDARD WE BUILD TO
THE STANDARD WE BUILD TO
Source: Global Startup Studio Network / Enhance Ventures, "Disrupting the Venture Landscape" (2020) — a sample of fourteen studios, self-reported and never independently replicated. Industry-reported, not audited, and not Living Scale Up results. Counter-evidence we also publish: the Big Venture Studio Research (2024, 3,452 PitchBook deals) reports a venture-studio exit rate of 24% against 38% for traditional VC. Updated August 2026.
The thesis
Companies used to be built — assembled from headcount, software and hope. The next generation won't be assembled. They'll be born.
The launch film
Watch the thesis.
LAUNCH FILM · SELF-MADE00:31
FOR A CENTURY IT DESCRIBED A FOUNDER. NOW IT DESCRIBES THE COMPANY.
TEXT ALTERNATIVE — EVERY WORD ON SCREEN
The film carries a score and no speech. All of its language is on-screen titles, in this order:
“SELF-MADE.” — “For a century, it described a founder.” — “Now it describes the company.” — “Spikes fade. Roots compound.” — “BORN, NOT BUILT.” — “The first venture studio for Artificial Business Life.” — “Engineered in Switzerland — livingscaleup.com”
Visually: a black stone disc on a pale timber wall fractures; a white blossom opens through the crack; root filaments spread across the wall and out through a window onto the Lavaux terraces above Lake Geneva.
Our approach
Design. Prove. Launch. Scale.
01
02
Prove
We test hard before we build, so a venture meets the market already proven — not hoping to be.
03
Launch
It's born operational, with an elite CEO in command from day one.
04
Scale
Founder-first ownership, engineered to compound — and to reach Series A.
Born, not built
Every venture arrives alive.
Born validated
Only the ideas that survive real scrutiny ever ship. A venture reaches the market already proven.
Born agentic
Every venture is born with an intelligent operating core — the company works from the first day, not the hundredth hire.
Born to compound
Built to compound: founder-first equity, engineered to reach Series A and keep growing.
Our first venture
BuddyLeader
An AI chief-of-staff for the leaders of small trade businesses — the electricians, plumbers and builders who run the real economy. It briefs, organises and watches the numbers, so the leader can lead.
More on venturesVENTURE Nº1
Born in the studio.
Designed and proven inside Living Scale Up, then brought to market — the first proof that the studio works.
The epicenter
Engineered in Switzerland.
Released on the world.
Born in the Lavaux terraces above Lake Geneva, minutes from EPFL — where patient craft meets frontier science. AI-native, human-led, Swiss-made — built for global scale.
ETH #1
WORLDWIDE, VC-BACKED
DEEP-TECH SPIN-OFFS
WORLDWIDE, VC-BACKED
DEEP-TECH SPIN-OFFS
EPFL
TOP-TIER IN EUROPE
LAUSANNE, NEXT DOOR
TOP-TIER IN EUROPE
LAUSANNE, NEXT DOOR
1,100+
DEEP-TECH STARTUPS
ALPINE TECH CLUSTER
DEEP-TECH STARTUPS
ALPINE TECH CLUSTER
SOVEREIGN
BY DESIGN
SWISS-HOSTED VENTURE INFERENCE
BY DESIGN
SWISS-HOSTED VENTURE INFERENCE
Four doors
Choose how you enter.
01 · CEOS
Lead a venture
Run a company born intelligent — real ownership, proof before you commit your career.
Apply to lead →02 · INVESTORS
Invest
A disciplined machine, not a vision deck — engineered outcomes, EU-compliant by design.
Start a conversation →03 · CORPORATES
Partner
Co-create the venture your industry is missing — with Swiss sovereignty built in.
Design a venture →04 · BUILDERS
Join the bench
Practice the frontier — craft, agency, and equity in what you build.
Join the bench →