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Turn Venture Studio Curiosity Into Action
The Venture Studio Forum brings institutional knowledge from the world's largest venture studio network directly to your stage. With 1,500+ member studios across 6 continents and research partnerships with leading academic institutions, VSF delivers keynotes grounded in exclusive data, global insights, and proven frameworks that help organizations understand and implement the venture studio model.
Our speakers blend exclusive research data with real-world case studies from hundreds of studios, giving audiences the clarity and confidence to take their next steps, whether that's building a studio, partnering with one, or understanding this emerging asset class.
Meet VSF's Lead Speaker
Matthew Burris serves as Director of Research & Data at the Venture Studio Forum and Partner at 9point8 Collective. In these roles, he has studied over 500 venture studios globally, helped design and build 20+ studios, and is leading VSF's work to establish venture studios as a recognized institutional asset class through research partnerships with leading academic institutions.
As VSF's primary speaker, Matthew brings a unique combination of depth and accessibility. He translates complex operational data into actionable frameworks, drawing on hundreds of studio case studies to give audiences pattern recognition across industries and geographies. His approach blends VSF's institutional research with practical implementation experience. Helping corporate innovation leaders evaluate studio models, university administrators build entrepreneurship infrastructure, and economic development groups deploy studio strategies with confidence.
Audiences consistently note his ability to provide clarity on real operating costs, team structures, and timeline expectations while offering actionable next steps for their specific contexts.
Key Credentials:
  • Director, Research and Data, Venture Studio Forum (1,500+ members)
  • 500+ venture studios analyzed across global markets
  • 20+ studios designed for corporations, universities, and governments
  • Leading VSF's first comprehensive asset class research with top academic institutions
  • Partner, Head of Insights at the 9point8 Collective
Signature Keynotes & Workshops
Each keynote draws on VSF's exclusive access to venture studio operations, performance data, and leadership insights from the world's largest studio network. These talks aren't available anywhere else, they're built on research and relationships that only VSF can provide.
Build the Machine: Why Venture Studios Are the Future of Innovation
Keynote | 15-60 minutes
Most innovation efforts fail because they're structured to fail. Venture studios flip the script—purpose-building companies with operational infrastructure, repeatable processes, and compounding advantages that accelerate from zero to scale.
In this keynote, Matthew unpacks why studios are outperforming traditional models, what separates the winners from the pretenders, and how organizations can evaluate whether a studio model fits their strategic goals. Audiences leave with a clear decision framework and understanding of what it actually takes to build a studio that works.
What Audiences Gain
  • Why studios are structurally different from accelerators, incubators, and corporate venturing
  • The data behind studio performance (and where the model breaks down)
  • Insight into how universities, corporates, investors, and regions use studios to create economic value
  • A strategic view of how venture studios fit into their organization’s goals and constraints
  • Real world case studies of studios that scaled, and those that didn't
The Build Function: How Venture Studios Transform Corporate Growth
Keynote | 45-60 minutes
Corporations spend billions on innovation theater. Studios offer a different path: systematic venture creation that can scale alongside (or replace) traditional business units.
Matthew explores how forward-thinking organizations are integrating studio models into their corporate growth strategies—not as innovation labs that die on the vine, but as repeatable engines for building new businesses. Through case studies and frameworks, audiences learn how studios can drive institutional growth while avoiding the pitfalls that plague most corporate innovation efforts.
What Audiences Gain
  • Why corporate innovation labs fail and how studios are different
  • Models for integrating studios into existing corporate structures
  • The economic case for studios vs. M&A, R&D, and traditional venturing
  • Governance, incentives, and organizational design that actually work
  • Practical strategies for achieving financial sustainability and phased capability building
Studio Architecture: Building Your Venture Creation Machine
Workshop | 90 min to half day
Designing a venture studio isn't about copying what worked elsewhere. It's about building the right machine for your context, resources, and goals.
This workshop takes participants through the core components of studio design using research backed models and insights from 500+ studios worldwide and designing 20+, Matthew guides participants through defining their studio thesis, identifying their unique right to win, and aligning the structural decisions that drive repeatable company creation.
This is not theory. It's the battle-tested architecture behind studios that work.
What Participants Gain
  • A clear venture studio thesis tailored to their context
  • A defined right to win grounded in real capabilities and assets
  • A practical understanding of the structural decisions that shape studio performance
  • Insight into alignment using the Four Customer Framework
  • A strategic perspective on how to apply studio architecture within their organization or ecosystem
  • Clarity on how high performing studios deliver repeatable, high quality companies
Studios as Engines for Regional and Institutional Growth
Keynote | 45-60 minutes
Economic development strategies haven't kept pace with how innovation actually happens today. While regions compete for startup relocations and one-off venture wins, venture studios offer a different approach: systematic infrastructure for creating and scaling companies locally.
Matthew examines how studios can serve as economic development engines—creating jobs, retaining talent, and building resilient regional economies. Drawing on examples from university-affiliated studios, regional initiatives, and public-private partnerships, he provides a framework for how policymakers and institutional leaders can leverage the studio model for lasting impact.
This talk is designed for economic development officials, university leaders, and policymakers exploring how to build innovation capacity that compounds over time.
What Audiences Gain
  • Why traditional economic development strategies struggle with innovation creation
  • How studios create institutional infrastructure that retains talent and capital locally
  • Models for university, regional, and public-sector studio initiatives
  • A practical framing for where a studio fits in a regional or institutional strategy
Why Book Through VSF
When you book a VSF speaker, you're not just getting a keynote, you're accessing the institutional knowledge of the world's largest venture studio network.
What Makes VSF Unique
Exclusive data and research
VSF is conducting the first comprehensive venture studio asset class study in partnership with leading academic institutions, giving our speakers access to performance data, operational benchmarks, and market intelligence unavailable anywhere else. Audiences gain clarity on real operating costs, capital efficiency patterns, and what actually drives studio success.
Global network insights
With 1,500+ member studios across 6 continents, VSF speakers share real-world case studies and cross-industry patterns that help audiences recognize what works, what fails, and why—across different sectors and geographies.
Actionable frameworks
Every keynote delivers practical tools for evaluation, internal buy-in, and de-risked implementation. Audiences leave with next steps tailored to their context, whether exploring partnerships or building internal capabilities.
Thought leadership platform
VSF is actively establishing venture studios as a recognized institutional asset class. Booking a VSF speaker positions your event at the forefront of this emerging category while connecting your audience to the global studio ecosystem.
Mission-driven impact
All speaking engagements directly support VSF's nonprofit mission to advance research, education, community building, and professional standards throughout the global venture studio ecosystem.
VSF's Research Foundation
Matthew leads VSF's research initiatives that provide the institutional knowledge base for all speaking content:
Venture Studio Index (VSI)
VSF's open standard and evaluation framework for venture studios that defines core data points for venture studios, including cost structures, portfolio construction models, team composition, and performance metrics that inform evidence based decision making.
Research Partnerships
Leading VSF's collaboration with top academic institutions to produce the first comprehensive venture studio asset class report, establishing empirical foundations for studios as an institutional investment category.
Global Studio Analysis
Systematic study of 500+ studios worldwide, identifying operational patterns, success factors, and market specific adaptations across corporate, university, and independent models.
Standards & Policy Development
Designing VSF's first comprehensive ecosystem survey to capture longitudinal data on studio operations, performance, and evolution as the asset class matures.
Ecosystem Survey Methodology
Designing VSF's first comprehensive ecosystem survey to capture longitudinal data on studio operations, performance, and evolution as the asset class matures.
Thought Leadership
Primary contributor to the VSF newsletter, sharing insights on studio design, ecosystem building, and the future of venture creation with thousands of practitioners and leaders.
This research infrastructure ensures VSF speakers deliver content grounded in empirical data, validated patterns, and institutional analysis rather than anecdotal observations.
Bring VSF to Your Next Event
The Venture Studio Forum delivers speaking engagements through its nonprofit entity, ensuring that every presentation directly supports the organization's mission to advance research, professional standards, and community building across the global venture studio ecosystem.
When you book a VSF speaker, you're investing in:
  • Ongoing research partnerships with leading academic institutions
  • Industry standards and best practices development
  • Community infrastructure that connects 1,500+ studios globally
Speaking fees support this mission while ensuring your audience receives the most current, data-driven insights on venture studios as an emerging asset class.
📩 Prefer email? Contact us directly at speaking@venturestudioforum.org
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Our community of +1,500 members includes venture studio operators, innovation leaders, economic development professionals, and institutional investors who are collectively shaping the future of how ventures are built.
+1,500
Global Members
Innovation leaders and venture studio operators worldwide
+650
Companies Built
By studios with Venture Studio Forum members
11
Unicorns Launched
By studios with Venture Studio Forum members
+$48B
Enterprise Value
Total value generated by Venture Studio Forum members