RULE 1 IS A VENTURE STUDIO

The capital & team to build your dream.

We design, fund, and build B2B SaaS businesses.

We are dedicated to co-creating entrepreneur-centric companies.

Entrepreneurship is one of life’s most challenging and rewarding endeavors.

We empower you in your founder’s journey by providing the guidance and resources required to be successful.

R1 is founder focused.

Funding

90% of an entrepreneur’s time is spent chasing their next round. Free up this time to build your business with friendly funding.

Planning

Don’t make mistakes that we’ve already made! Save time and money by properly planning your business and product features.

Guidance

Put our experience to work. The entrepreneur utilizes Rule 1 expertise with expert guidance and business coaching.

Design

Cutting edge design is a must! With Rule 1, our design team brings cohesive sophistication to every application and product.

Development

Let’s face it, building quality software takes time and patience. Rule 1 has an in-house team of highly skilled developers.

Marketing

Once a product has been tested, our seasoned marketing team generates awareness and drives leads.

Sales

Our proven sales team accelerates your path to revenue by getting your product in the hands of the right customers fast.

Finance

Remove the stress and uncertainty of structuring options and a deal that enables you to wisely deploy funds.

Customer Success

Our fanatic focus on customer success maximizes revenue, limits churn, and creates raving fans.

Rule 1, a partner founders can trust.

We only succeed when our founders succeed!

LEARN OUR PROCESS

Our Partnering Process

We qualify entrepreneurs by their talent, grit, and dedication – not their idea.

Only after identifying an entrepreneur do we evaluate an idea or business.

In as little as 120 days go from an idea to paying customers.

You determine if Rule 1 and its Entrepreneur in Residence model would be a fit for you as an entrepreneur. You learn more about everything that Rule 1 has to offer.

15 days

If you agree that Rule 1 can benefit you in your entrepreneurial journey, we next identify, test, and modify your business or idea to ensure Product-Market fit.

15 days

Once a path forward is determined, we work at a blistering pace, using proven methodologies, to design and build a working prototype while identifying your first customers.

90 days

What is Rule #1?

“Rule #1: Never lose money. Rule #2: Never forget Rule #1.”

– Warren Buffet

LEARN THE R1 DIFFERENCE

How Rule 1 is Different

Not all businesses should be backed by traditional venture capital.

Rule 1 is a Venture Studio that is founder-focused and aligned with entrepreneurs.

Rule 1 partners with founders to co-create businesses that scale.

No Artificial Timelines

Traditional VCs often place artificial timelines on a business to facilitate their ROI. Rule 1 will never place unrealistic timelines on your business.

No Mandates

After partnering, we are in full alignment with the business and will never make mandates regarding expenditure, team size, or other artificial goals.

Founder-Focused

We not only want your team and business to grow, we want to be a part of that team! Rule 1 is 100% founder-focused. We want our entrepreneurs to succeed.

Proven Leadership

Success breeds success; join a proven experienced team.

VIEW OUR LEADERS

Our Leaders

Our world-class leadership team has the criteria to make your dream a reality.

Combining years of entrepreneurial experience resulting in multiple successful exits.

Proven leaders with the expertise to guide you along the path to success.

Todd Ehrlich, CEO

Founded Kill Cliff, Triserv, BAMFi, FactorCloud, Güten Beer (2018 World Beer Cup Champion). Navy SEAL, Endeavor Outliers Entrepreneur and two time Inc. 500 CEO (#103 & #121) and Vet100 (#11), Navy SEAL Foundation Ambassador.

Gary Buxton, COO

Navy F/A-18 Naval Flight Officer, McKinsey & Company consultant. U.S. Naval Academy Systems Engineer, Harvard Business School MBA.

Nick Fraunfelder, CRO

Quantum Energy Partners (multi-billion PE fund) Revenue and Operations lead at Clockwise.MD, MDClarity, and PurpleCloud Technologies. Baylor BA, Claremont MA , USC MBA.

Jay Duraisamy, CTO

Technology architecture and data science. World class senior engineering exec and developer from Fortune 500 Company. Built multiple successful data products. Indian Institute of Technology.

Stacy Sutton, CMO

Founded, scaled, and sold Big Drum digital marketing agency. Experienced marketer for tech startups. International “Search Engine Marketer of the Year” award. Berkeley Business BS, USC MA.

James Murphy, GP

Founder / Chairman of the Board of Afterburner, Inc. and Advanced Care Partners. Former Air Force F-15 pilot, 2 Inc 500 start ups, author of 7 books on Flawless Execution in business, and numerous media appearances.

Interested in applying or learning?

Regardless of where you are in your entrepreneurial journey, we’d love to hear from you. Send a message with some basic information and we’ll be in touch shortly.

[email protected]

3490 Piedmont Rd.

Suite 1350

Atlanta, GA 30305

USA

Pondering your next career move?

View our careers page.