V1 Venture Studio · Methodology

How We Work

We built our search process from scratch for AI capability acquisition — not adapted from a generalist M&A model. Every phase is designed to surface what bankers miss and deliver what corp dev teams actually need to move a decision forward.

The Approach

Operator-led. Network-sourced.
Structured to close.

We operate on the retained executive search model — applied to AI capability acquisition for the first time. An engagement begins with defining the capability gap precisely, not the tool or vendor. It ends with an acquisition-ready shortlist, full diligence support, and close. The retainer funds the search work: you pay for rigor, not just outcomes.

"The difference between V1 and a banker is not access to deals — it's willingness to go where bankers can't. Pre-revenue AI teams with proven technology won't walk into a banker's office. They answer when someone from their world calls."

The Five Phases

From capability gap
to acquisition-ready shortlist.

Phase 01
Week 1
Capability Brief

Define the Capability

We start with a structured stakeholder session to capture the business problem, not the technology solution. Most clients know they need "AI for claims" or "AI for route optimization" — we help them define what would actually need to be true about the acquisition for it to be considered a success.

  • Capability thesis and business case documentation
  • Integration requirements and constraints
  • Must-have / nice-to-have / no-go decision matrix
  • Internal approval alignment (who needs to say yes, and when)
  • Build-vs-buy-vs-partner pre-analysis
Phase 02
Weeks 2–3
Market Map + Longlist

Map the Full Market

Our research team conducts a systematic scan across the full target universe — not just VC-backed companies in CrunchBase. We cover pre-revenue teams, academic spin-outs, bootstrapped builders, and companies that have raised but haven't yet been marketed for sale.

  • Primary and secondary research across 500+ tracked AI companies
  • Direct founder network outreach for non-public sourcing
  • Adjacent category mapping (solving related problems in different markets)
  • Competitive acquisition intelligence (who else is searching in this space)
  • Preliminary ownership and IP review flags
Phase 03
Weeks 3–5
Shortlist Memo

Qualify the Targets

Most searches begin with 60–90 companies in the universe. Our qualification process applies four independent filters before anything reaches the client. This is where most of the work happens — and why clients receive a shortlist of 5–8 genuinely viable options rather than a raw list of 40.

  • Technical: Model quality, architecture defensibility, inference cost analysis
  • IP: Ownership chain, employment agreements, data provenance and rights
  • Team: Founding team depth, key-person risk, retention probability at close
  • Commercial: Adoption signals, reference accounts, integration readiness
Phase 04
Weeks 5–7
Engagement Log

Engage the Targets

We reach shortlisted companies through our network — warm introductions where possible, direct outreach where not. Our founding partner leads every management conversation, maintaining relationship continuity and ensuring that seller motivations are assessed alongside the technical profile.

  • Warm founder outreach through V1's direct network
  • Seller motivation assessment and exit readiness evaluation
  • Management briefing preparation and meeting facilitation
  • Shortlist scoring and comparative ranking
  • Negotiation positioning and walk-away framework
Phase 05
Week 7 →
LOI → Close

Support Through Close

Our involvement doesn't end at shortlist delivery. We support clients through every stage of transaction execution — providing deal structure recommendations, diligence coordination, and integration planning that makes the close faster and smoother for both sides.

  • Deal structure recommendation: acquisition, acqui-hire, asset purchase, or license
  • LOI drafting support and negotiation framing
  • Diligence request list and document room organization
  • Seller management during diligence (keeping deals alive)
  • Day-1 to Day-90 integration brief
What Clients Receive

Every engagement produces
a defined set of deliverables.

Even if no transaction closes, clients retain a complete strategic asset — one that can be presented to a board, used to justify a future build program, or returned to when timing changes.

Deliverable Format Phase Your Value
Capability Brief Document, 10–15 pages Phase 1 Board-ready alignment on exactly what you're looking for and why
Market Map Visual + written report Phase 2 Complete picture of who exists in your target space
Qualified Longlist Structured database (20+) Phase 2 Full universe with initial scoring — reusable for future searches
Shortlist Memo Document, 5–8 targets Phase 3 Scored, risk-flagged, presentation-ready for internal review
Engagement Log Ongoing tracking doc Phase 4 Full record of all target conversations, status, and seller signals
LOI Support Package Drafts + negotiation notes Phase 5 Deal structure recommendation + LOI drafts + diligence checklist
Integration Brief Document, Day 1–90 plan Phase 5 Integration framing to accelerate post-close deployment
Buy/Build/Partner Memo 1-page recommendation All Delivered if no acquisition-ready target exists in the market
Search Types

Four transaction structures —
we advise on all of them.

The right deal structure depends on the target's stage, the seller's motivation, and the buyer's integration capacity. We evaluate all four options for every shortlisted target.

Structure 01

Full Control Acquisition

Purchase of 100% equity in an AI company or technical team. Provides complete technology ownership, IP assignment, and the fastest path to integration. Requires the most internal legal and financial process.

Best for: Teams of 5–25 with proprietary models, clean IP ownership, and integration-ready architecture. Typical range: $2M–$20M all-in.
Structure 02

Acqui-Hire + IP Assignment

Employment agreements for the core technical team, combined with an IP assignment agreement that transfers all relevant technology to the acquirer. Often cleaner than a full acquisition at the earliest stages.

Best for: 2–8 person pre-revenue teams where the technology and the team are inseparable. Lower transaction cost; higher retention management complexity.
Structure 03

Asset Purchase

Purchase of specific AI technology assets — models, code, datasets, patents — without hiring the full team. Clean, fast to document, and avoids employment-related complexity. IP ownership is immediately clear.

Best for: Acquirers who need the technology more than the team; companies with discrete, documented AI assets that can function independently of their creators.
Structure 04

Exclusive License + Partnership

Lock up exclusive rights in your vertical or geography while the company continues operating. Prevents competitors from accessing the capability without requiring an immediate acquisition. Typically converts to a full acquisition within 18–24 months.

Best for: Founders who aren't ready to sell; acquirers who want to test integration before committing; markets with regulatory complexity around full acquisitions.
How V1 Compares

V1 vs. the alternatives.

Dimension V1 Retained Search Traditional M&A Bank DIY Internal Search
Revenue requirement to engage ✓ None — pre-revenue included $3–5M+ ARR minimum None
Access to hidden market ✓ Network + systematic scan Banker pipeline only Public sources only
Typical time to shortlist ✓ 6–8 weeks 4–6 months 3–18 months
Fee structure Retainer + milestone + success Success-only (% of deal) Fully loaded internal cost
AI-specific technical assessment ✓ Independent technical panel — Minimal Depends on internal resources
Pre-revenue deal experience ✓ Core competency ✗ Outside their model Varies widely
Incentive alignment ✓ Paid to search, not just close Incentivized to close any deal Aligned but resource-constrained
Integration planning support ✓ Day-1 to Day-90 brief Out of scope Varies
Frequently Asked Questions

Questions we hear
from every serious buyer.

What types of AI capabilities do you search for?
V1 searches across all AI capability categories relevant to enterprise acquisition: workflow automation, NLP and document intelligence, computer vision, predictive analytics, clinical AI, industrial AI, financial services AI, AI agents, and vertical-specific AI applications. Our sourcing universe is defined by your business problem, not by our existing pipeline. If the capability is technically feasible and strategically valuable for an enterprise buyer, we can build the search for it.
What happens if no deal closes?
You retain all of the search output: the market map, the capability brief, the shortlist with our full analysis, and documented reasoning for why the search reached its current state. That output — "the right target doesn't exist yet at the right stage" or "we surfaced options and timeline shifted internally" — is genuinely valuable as a boardable asset. Many clients use it to justify a future build program, inform a partnership strategy, or restart the search when market conditions change. The retainer funds the work, not the outcome.
How is the fee structured? Can you share approximate numbers?
V1 operates on a retained search model: an engagement retainer paid on signature, a milestone fee paid on delivery of the qualified shortlist, and a success fee paid at transaction close. The retainer and milestone are non-refundable — they fund the search work. Specific amounts depend on complexity, geography, and sector, and are disclosed in the capability scoping call and the engagement mandate sheet. We don't publish a fee schedule — not because we have something to hide, but because fee conversations belong in the context of a specific mandate.
Do you work with companies that want to be acquired?
V1's primary mandate is buy-side retained search. We don't represent AI companies for sale as a general practice. In some cases, our search process surfaces companies that are not actively seeking a buyer — part of our value is bringing productive acquisition conversations to pre-revenue founders who are heads-down building rather than marketing themselves. Those conversations benefit both sides.
What makes a company "pre-revenue" and why target those?
Pre-revenue in this context means technically proven but not yet commercialized — they have a working model, clean IP, and a founding team with deep domain expertise, but haven't yet converted that into paying customers at scale. This describes a large proportion of the most strategically interesting AI companies built in the last 24–36 months. Traditional M&A advisors cannot viably represent these companies because their fee models depend on a percentage of deal value — which requires revenue to calculate. V1's retained model removes that constraint entirely, which is why we can source what others can't.
Can we run a smaller engagement before committing to a full search?
Yes. For clients who want to validate the opportunity before committing to a full retained search — or who need a phase-gated internal approval — we offer a two-week Discovery Sprint. It produces a capability brief, a market landscape map, and a buy/build/partner recommendation. The Discovery Sprint is scoped and priced separately and serves as a low-friction entry point. Most clients proceed to a full retained search after reviewing Sprint output.
Who leads the search day-to-day?
Every V1 mandate is led directly by our founding partner from scoping through close. There is no associate tier between the deal lead and the client. You have a direct phone number and a weekly status rhythm from day one. This is a deliberate model choice — the judgment required to evaluate pre-revenue AI assets and manage acquisition conversations at the same time cannot be delegated to a junior layer.
What geographies do you cover?
Our primary sourcing coverage is North America, Western Europe, and Israel — where the density of pre-revenue AI companies meeting our quality bar is highest. For mandates with a global scope, we engage our advisory network and partner resources to extend coverage into APAC and other regions. Geography is confirmed and scoped during the capability definition phase.

Ready to define your capability gap?

Start with a 30-minute scoping call. No pitch, no obligation — just clarity on whether retained search is the right path for what you need.

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The enterprise that acquires the right AI capability first wins the vertical.
V1 makes sure it's your enterprise.