SolutionsFor venture studios
Run discoveryas a repeatable line.
A studio lives on the quality of its pipeline. LiteSurface gives every thesis the same research standard and the same scorecard, then takes the winner through a brand, its screens, and a working first version, so the spinout team starts from a product rather than a kickoff deck.
- One project per thesis
- Transfers carry the whole dataset
- Brand, screens, and a first app
The situation
Every thesis startsfrom a blank page.
Studios run many explorations in parallel, often with rotating teams. Without a shared method, the quality of a thesis depends on who happened to run the sprint.
Uneven rigor
One sprint produces a sourced memo, the next a mood board. Partners end up comparing presentation quality instead of opportunities.
Knowledge walks out
When an exploration pauses, its research and reasoning scatter across personal drives and are rarely recovered when the thesis returns.
Slow handoffs
Once a concept is greenlit, the build team starts by rediscovering what the research team already knew, and design starts from a blank canvas.
The workflow
A studio linefrom thesis to spinout.
Projects are the unit of ownership, which maps cleanly onto how studios already work: one thesis, one dataset, one owner at a time, from the first source to the first app.
- Step 01
Open a project per thesis
Each thesis gets its own project, strategy profile, and capability selection. Duplicate a proven setup to start the next exploration in minutes.
Capability Atlas - Step 02
Research to one standard
Every exploration builds the same kind of library: sources, atomic claims with credibility and freshness, and linked contradictions.
Evidence - Step 03
Score across the portfolio
One scorecard judges every concept, with dual evaluation, hard gates, and an evidence-gap pass when support runs thin.
Evaluation - Step 04
Validate before you staff
Experiments with kill criteria run before anyone is hired, and outcomes feed re-evaluation without rewriting the earlier record.
Validation - Step 05
Brand and design the winner
Brand Studio screens names and publishes a kit from the research. Mockup Studio designs the core flows in it, with a prototype link for customer interviews.
Brand Studio - Step 06
Build, then spin out
The Builder turns the design package and the handoff into a first working app. Transfer the project and the new venture inherits the research, the brand, the screens, and the app.
Builder
What matters most
The parts studiosbuild their line around.
- PortfolioShortlist, validate, build, or hold.Compare the strongest concept from each thesis on one scale, with confidence and disagreement shown beside the score rather than folded into it.
- ValidationTest the riskiest assumption first.Plans rank assumptions by importance, uncertainty, and cost of being wrong, so studio capital goes to the test that could end the thesis soonest.
- Design packageSpec, brand kit, and screens the Builder reads.The 26-section handoff, pinned to the concept version the partners approved, reaches the Builder with the brand kit and the confirmed screens, so the venture team starts from the same facts.
- Brand StudioName, logo, palette, and type from the research.Each spinout gets a screened name, a vector logo system, an accessible palette, and DESIGN.md guidelines, versioned so its screens and code point at the kit they used.
- BuilderAn AI agent builds the real app, live.The venture team inherits a running first version built against the confirmed screens, with a version and a diff for every change, not a slide describing one.
- ShipA pull request, a ZIP, or a live preview.Pull requests go to the venture’s own repository, and a deploy preview with its own database gives first customers something to use. Claim it and hosting moves to the venture.
One quarter, four theses, one spinout
A studio explores four theses in a quarter, each owned by a different partner, and scores them all against a single studio scorecard.
An illustrative scenario, not a customer story. Names and numbers are invented to show how the workflow behaves.
Weeks 1–3
Four projects run in parallel from a duplicated template, each with its own strategy profile and capability selection.
Weeks 4–6
Portfolio review compares the strongest concept from each thesis. One is held for targeted research after the soft evidence gate flags thin coverage.
Weeks 7–10
The leading concept runs three experiments. Two assumptions hold; one is revised, and the concept is forked with its lineage intact.
Week 11
Brand Studio names the spinout and publishes its kit. Mockup Studio designs the technician’s capture and report flows for mobile and desktop.
Week 12
The Builder builds a first version against the confirmed screens, three pilot customers get a deploy preview, and the project moves to the new venture’s workspace with everything in it.
Portfolio
Illustrative data- 81 out of 100Field service copilotStrong bandBuild
- 73 out of 100Home energy coachStrong bandValidate
- 63 out of 100Creator analyticsHold bandHold
- 57 out of 100Travel conciergeWeak bandReject
The result
Partners compare four theses on one scale, the spinout team starts from a working first version with its brand and research attached, and the paused theses keep their evidence for next time.
In the project at the end
- Four thesis projects
- Validated concept
- Brand kit
- Screens and specs
- First app version
- Deploy preview
Which plan fits
Start with Team.Change plans as you grow.
Team gives each partner a seat, shared workspaces, roles, project transfers, and deploy previews, plus the admin console for budgets and usage across every thesis.
Solo
Free
during early access
One workspace, unlimited projects, idea to app.
- 400 image credits a month
- 60 build minutes a month
- No deploy previews
TeamBest fit
Free
during early access
Shared workspaces, roles, and the admin console.
- 4,000 image credits a month
- 600 build minutes a month
- Deploy previews
Enterprise
Custom
annual agreement
Dedicated deployment, managed keys, and procurement support.
- 20,000 image credits a month
- 3,000 build minutes a month
- Deploy previews
Studios that need single-tenant deployment or custom scorecards can talk to us about Enterprise. SSO is planned.
Make every thesiscomparable from day one.
Set up one project as your studio template, duplicate it for the next thesis, and review them all on the same scorecard.
- Solo and Team are free during early access
- Explore a sample project first
- Bring your own OpenAI and Anthropic keys