Breadboard with Joseph
A garage prototype, and no idea who to call.
“Terry and his team did the work I could not. Every week we moved the company forward instead of in circles.”
I am Terry Chapman. Start Up Partners is a venture studio. My team of ten C-suite operators does the real work alongside you, from formation and branding to the build, fundraising and first revenue, so your idea actually becomes a company.
Terry Chapman
Founder & CEO, Start Up Partners
I am not a fund and I am not a consultant who hands you a slide deck and disappears. Start Up Partners is a venture studio. My team and I take a real operating role in your company and do the work with you.
When a founder comes to me, we figure out what the company actually needs next, then we go do it. Formation and legal. Branding and the website. Fiscal management and compliance. Customer discovery, software, fundraising and go to market. About ten seasoned operators covering every C-suite seat.
I have helped found and scale companies in medical imaging and radiology, data analytics, mobile marketplaces and medical devices. Start Up Partners is a grant recipient of Innovate Alabama. It usually starts with a coffee. We take on the founders we believe we can help, then we stay in the work with them, from concept to company.
Selected for the Innovate Alabama Talent Pilot Program. A venture studio based in Birmingham, Alabama, building the next wave of STEM companies across the state.
15
Startups supported
$1.2M+
Raised by our founders
10
C-suite operators
2024
Founded in Birmingham, AL
We do not hand you a plan and walk away. We step in and build the company with you. Here is what that actually looks like, in their words.
Breadboard with Joseph
“Terry and his team did the work I could not. Every week we moved the company forward instead of in circles.”
Arah with Ebony Miller
“His team picked up everything I could not carry alone. It moved fast, and it moved in the right direction.”
Twenty steps, grouped in four stages. My team runs each one with you, in the order that keeps your runway alive. We call it Concept to Company.
Confirm there is a real problem and a viable solution before we build anything.
Put the legal, financial and structural building blocks in place.
Create the product and the identity that will represent it.
Take the product to market, generate revenue and plan for scale.
Most founders rush the paperwork and skip the five decisions that actually matter. Here is the short list we walk every founder through before formation.
Read the noteLaunches feel productive. They rarely are. The first ten almost always come from the conversations you are avoiding, and from doing the unglamorous work.
Read the noteAdvice is cheap and everywhere. What founders actually need is a team that will sit down and do the work with them. That is the whole job, and it is the reason we built a studio instead of a consultancy.
Read the noteFounders freeze because they try to see the whole staircase. You only ever need the next step, and the right people to take it with.
Read the noteFirst contact is a real conversation, a coffee or a phone call. Tell me what you are building and I will tell you how we can help. No forms into a void, no chatbot, just me reading every word.
terry@sup.ventures
A real person reads every word. Usually Terry, usually same day. No bots, no void.