IDEO CoLab, a venture capital division of US-based design consultancy firm IDEO, has teamed up with 20 blue-chip and crypto firms to release a blockchain accelerator known as Startup Studios, as per the press release on July 11.
The collaboration includes firms such as Amazon, Fidelity, and Deloitte, and some well-known firms like crypto analytics firm Messari, Ethereum Foundation and ETH Global, Stellar Foundation, Coinbase backed-Near protocol, among the others.
Backed up by Amazon, Fidelity, and Deloitte, and some of the leading crypto industry firms, Startup studio is built to provide workshops to blockchain startups to help them to improve various skills such as product design, law, engineering, smart contract development, finance, and hiring, etc.
From today onwards, blockchain entrepreneurs and startups can apply to take part in specific acceleration programs using Startup Studio's Website, such as the managing director of the IDEO CoLab Ventures Ian Lee said in his blog post.
IDEO Collab considers that blockchain gives “users greater access, ownership, and control” over their identities and financial lives, however, it remains “highly unusable for the average person.” Almost all the aspects of the tech, starting from wallets to key management, and distribution mechanisms for custodianship are “broad open” to be improved upon, the firm said.
Apart from this, the recent advancements in the blockchain sector can help to create billion or trillion-dollar opportunities.
Here, IDEO Collab is taking significant steps in the blockchain industry, and it also improves the nature of startup incubation.
Lee stated:
“In comparison to traditional startup accelerators or incubators, IDEO CoLab’s Startup Studio unbundles the startup accelerator model into half, and full-day workshops run by IDEO and our network of partners focused on a highly specialized need – like product validation, brand design, hiring, user testing, or conflict management. That way, entrepreneurs and startups can quickly get the help they need when they need it, then go back to their home offices to keep building great companies, teams, and protocols.”
The studio programs provide an IDEO brand design workshop, an organization scaling workshop with the Electric Capital and a legal and regulatory workshop with the law firm Perkins Coie.
In February 2019, IDEO CoLab released its "Distributed Web Investing Program" declaring six investments in blockchain startups along with Messari.