lecturing on the product development process, Wallaert sits down and looks at companies’ road maps, he says.
“We pick these leaders because we see their potential and skill; we’re intelligently using our resources,” says Wallaert. “We want to see a much greater percentage of companies succeed.”
In exchange, Churnless takes a percentage of equity in the startups it incubates—more than traditional incubator programs, but still a minority stake, the duo says. “We’re helping them grow their business, like an institutional founder,” says Karnani.
Churnless, which has 20 employees of its own, is currently incubating three companies, focused on changing how people save, eat, and learn. PiggyMojo is developing a platform that helps people collaborate with a spouse to meet their long-term savings goals. Flavorize is looking to do what Pandora did with music, but with meals. Users will be able to get recommendations on restaurants and dishes based on meals they’ve already had and liked. And LearnKitchen is creating tools for helping adults learn and retain knowledge from activities such as reading blogs.
Churnless doesn’t have any outside investors. It uses its capital from the consulting service to fund the incubated companies, and to work on GetRaised. My question: how do they balance the different arms of the business?
“It’s like our approach to being an incubator: flexible,” Wallaert says. “In good companies, you go where you’re needed.”
