Start Holdings LLC Officially Launches Start.vc to Build AI-Native Enterprise Software Companies
Start Holdings LLC has formally announced the launch of Start.vc, a venture studio dedicated to building and scaling companies across artificial intelligence, SaaS, infrastructure software, and next-generation enterprise systems. With operational hubs in New York City and Barcelona, the firm is structured to ideate, validate, and launch high-impact software ventures designed specifically for an AI-first economy. Start.vc positions itself not merely as an investment vehicle but as a company-building platform engineered to redefine how enterprise systems are conceived, architected, and deployed in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. The studio’s mission centers on developing foundational technologies that modern enterprises rely upon, ensuring that new ventures are built with scalability, resilience, and applied AI integration from inception rather than as an afterthought.
A Venture Studio Built for Speed, Scale, and Execution
Unlike traditional venture capital firms that primarily supply funding, Start.vc operates as a comprehensive incubation engine engineered for velocity and disciplined execution. Each venture incubated within the studio gains access to pooled capital resources, centralized operational support, and a shared backbone of engineering and product design infrastructure. This integrated support model significantly reduces the operational and financial risk typically associated with the first 18 months of a startup’s lifecycle, a period widely recognized as the most fragile stage of company formation. By consolidating shared services and institutional expertise, Start enables founders and product teams to focus on rapid iteration, customer validation, and market penetration without being constrained by fragmented operational setups. The studio expects to introduce its first incubated company in early 2026, with a structured rollout of additional ventures planned through 2026 and 2027 as part of a multi-year pipeline strategy.
Targeting Structural Inefficiencies in Enterprise Markets
Start.vc concentrates on sectors characterized by structural inefficiencies, entrenched incumbents, and limited innovation cycles. Many enterprise software categories continue to be dominated by legacy providers whose high-cost solutions deliver incremental improvements rather than transformative value. Start aims to disrupt these markets by embedding applied AI directly into product architecture, enabling automation, intelligence, and operational cost efficiencies that legacy vendors struggle to replicate. By leveraging product-led growth strategies and scalable cloud-native infrastructure, the studio intends to pass structural cost advantages directly to enterprise customers. This approach not only enhances value delivery but also redefines pricing and performance expectations across traditionally stagnant software verticals. The company’s philosophy emphasizes that enterprise software should be simple, powerful, and economically rational, aligning innovation with measurable business outcomes rather than feature accumulation.
Founders With Deep Infrastructure Expertise
Start is founded by Aaron Fisher and Max Rodrigo, entrepreneurs widely recognized for their leadership roles in co-founding and engineering EVPassport, one of North America’s fastest-growing EV charging infrastructure companies. At EVPassport, Fisher and Rodrigo applied modern software design principles to physical infrastructure networks, introducing interoperability, seamless user experience, and enterprise-grade reliability to transportation electrification systems. Their experience in bridging software and physical infrastructure informed their broader understanding of how large-scale systems must be architected to sustain growth, resilience, and cross-platform compatibility. In late 2023, Northleaf Capital Partners acquired a controlling stake in EVPassport while committing $200 million in growth capital to accelerate the company’s expansion. This milestone validated the founders’ ability to build scalable, high-value infrastructure technology platforms and provided both strategic insight and financial foundation for the creation of Start.vc.
Lessons From a $200 Million Infrastructure Exit
The $200 million capital commitment associated with EVPassport’s acquisition represents more than a financial milestone; it reflects a blueprint for disciplined execution, product-market fit alignment, and scalable systems engineering. Fisher and Rodrigo’s experience navigating rapid growth, enterprise sales cycles, infrastructure deployment, and capital strategy informs the operational DNA of Start. Rather than approaching venture building from a purely financial lens, the founders bring firsthand experience in solving the technical and organizational challenges that surface at scale. Their perspective emphasizes long-term architectural thinking, recognizing that foundational technology decisions made during the earliest stages of a company’s lifecycle have compounding effects on performance, reliability, and adaptability years later.
A Philosophy Anchored in AI and Enterprise Integration
According to Aaron Fisher, the next decade of innovation will be shaped by companies that successfully merge artificial intelligence with both physical systems and enterprise infrastructure layers. He emphasizes that Start is intentionally designing ventures that are intuitive, technically robust, and architected for scale from day one. This forward-looking philosophy acknowledges that AI is not simply a feature layer but a core infrastructural component that must be integrated into data models, workflows, and user interfaces at the structural level. By embedding AI into foundational systems rather than retrofitting it onto legacy platforms, Start seeks to build companies capable of redefining operational standards across industries.
Engineering Discipline From Day One
Max Rodrigo underscores the importance of early architectural decisions in determining long-term outcomes, noting that structural choices made in a company’s first year often dictate its competitive position five years later. Having witnessed firsthand the engineering bottlenecks and scalability failures that can emerge in high-growth environments, Rodrigo emphasizes that Start’s model is designed to eliminate preventable technical debt. The studio prioritizes modular architecture, robust infrastructure planning, and disciplined engineering governance to ensure that new ventures are prepared for rapid scaling. This philosophy reflects a belief that sustainable growth is not accidental but engineered through deliberate system design and operational rigor.
A Full-Stack Venture Studio Model
Start operates as a full-stack venture studio, internally conceiving, validating, building, and launching companies before spinning them out as independent entities supported by dedicated leadership teams and additional capital resources. This model contrasts with traditional accelerators or incubators by maintaining deeper operational involvement throughout the early stages of company formation. Ventures are developed within a shared ecosystem that includes AI systems, cloud infrastructure frameworks, design standards, and enterprise go-to-market playbooks. By centralizing these foundational elements, Start accelerates product development cycles while maintaining consistency in technical quality and brand positioning. Once a venture achieves product-market validation and operational readiness, it transitions into a standalone company with continued strategic backing from the studio.
Shared Infrastructure as a Competitive Advantage
A defining feature of Start’s approach is its shared foundation of AI capabilities, engineering systems, design methodologies, and commercialization strategies. This collective infrastructure allows new ventures to bypass redundant setup processes and instead build upon a refined operational baseline. Shared AI frameworks enable rapid deployment of machine learning models and intelligent automation tools across multiple companies, while standardized design systems ensure cohesive user experiences tailored for enterprise customers. Enterprise go-to-market playbooks derived from real-world infrastructure scaling experiences provide structured pathways to customer acquisition, revenue generation, and partnership development. This integrated environment creates a compounding advantage in both speed and efficiency.
Global Perspective With Dual Innovation Hubs
With teams based in New York City and Barcelona, Start combines access to North American enterprise markets with European engineering talent and design expertise. This dual-hub structure supports round-the-clock development cycles, diverse talent acquisition, and cross-market insight. The geographic diversity also positions the studio to evaluate opportunities across global enterprise ecosystems, recognizing that structural inefficiencies and innovation gaps are not confined to a single region. By bridging transatlantic innovation networks, Start strengthens its capacity to build companies capable of competing in international markets from inception.
Building the Next Generation of Enterprise Platforms
Start.vc emerges at a time when enterprise software markets are undergoing profound transformation driven by AI advancements, infrastructure modernization, and shifting customer expectations. Legacy systems built for pre-AI environments are increasingly constrained by rigid architectures and escalating costs. Start’s strategy is to construct companies that are AI-native at their core, leveraging automation, predictive intelligence, and scalable cloud frameworks to deliver superior performance and lower operational expenses. By integrating applied AI with disciplined engineering practices and product-led growth strategies, Start seeks to redefine how enterprise platforms are built and scaled in the coming decade. Through its venture studio model, experienced founding team, and infrastructure-first philosophy, Start Holdings LLC positions itself to shape a new generation of enterprise software companies engineered for durability, intelligence, and global impact.
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