NCT Ventures CASE STUDY

ABOUT NCT Ventures

NCT Ventures is a venture capital firm founded by serial entrepreneurs. They are passionate about people and believe that an idea is only as good as the entrepreneur tasked with turning that idea into a great business. Over the last 26+ years, NCT has helped build many successful companies and are always excited about sharing their experiences, methods, and time with entrepreneurs through hands-on operational support.

What They Needed To Solve

THE CHALLENGE

They wanted to be able to invest more of their fund to accelerate business growth and not rebuild similar technology across their portfolio. You could say they were looking for a way to reduce the risk, cost, and time-to-market for existing and new portfolio companies in order to drive better exits.

Overhead required for internal development resources that were not needed full-time.

Long lead time required to evaluate technology partners.

Poorly executed technology projects leading to wasted money with no results.

Loss of institutional knowledge associated with technology due to turnover.

Rapid speed-to-market to gain validation.

Reduced investment required for technology. (and still get rock solid code!)

Technology partner(s) that could understand business objectives and make pragmatic decisions related to technology.

Ensure that their portfolio companies were positioned for success now and into the future.

What QStart Labs Provided

THE SOLUTION

QStart Labs provided a proven process designed to reduce the typical cost, risk, and time to launch for companies with an internet or mobile-driven business model.

A team that has launched over 50 companies. (As of 2014)

"Pay for performance" business model to ensure aligned interests with their portfolio companies.

Pragmatic approach to development based on a deep understanding of startup phases of growth.

Rapid speed-to-market with 100% ownership of code generated. (No cloudy technical due diligence items)

The Results Are In

The Results Were Amazing!

2+ Exits

More than 2 companies have successful exits due to QStart Labs involvement reducing risk, technology cost, and accelerating speed to market.

$40mil Valuatio

In 2016, One of their portfolio companies, that QStart has been responsible for technology and C-level advising, received a $43 million valuation and growing.

40+ New Opportu

QStart Labs has been a source or new deal flow for NCT Ventures and continues to surface opportunities that meet their investing criteria and lower their risk.

What NCT Ventures Has To Say About Our Partnership

"NCT Ventures has been investing in technology companies for the past 15 years, and we have been frustrated by the fact that we find ourselves funding recreations of core technologies we have funded in the past. QStart Labs is the first technology company that actually aligns their interest to us as investors. Their business model allows NCT to increase speed-to-market and enhance our ROI. We particularly like that QStart Labs is incentivized to help make our portfolio companies successful and that we incur costs only when development is needed vs. carrying internal overhead."

- Rich Langdale, Managing Partner, NCT Ventures