Audos, a New York-based startup studio, has made a bold promise. Their goal is to help start 100,000 new businesses annually by leveraging the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI). Audos Artists Henrik Werdelin and Nicholas Thorne created Audos to help entrepreneurs more successfully help others. They offer abundant resources, funding, and AI-driven tools that power through the wild startup landscape like a hot knife through butter.
The specialized approach developed by Audos uses an AI-powered agent to start personalized conversations with potential entrepreneurs. This system helps them locate the obstacles they want to tackle and the customer segment they want to serve. By understanding these fundamental aspects, Audos accelerates the process of bringing individuals in front of potential customers as swiftly as possible.
Since its launch, Audos has been instrumental in successfully launching over “low hundreds” of successful startups. Among them are diverse business concepts, including a car mechanic service, “after death logistics” services, virtual golf swing coaching, and AI nutritionist platforms. This diverse portfolio paints a picture of the studio’s potential to serve many industries and entrepreneurial concepts.
Audos offers grants of up to $25,000 in financial assistance to founding teams looking to make their entrepreneurial dreams a reality. The startup studio mentally and technologically equips their entrepreneurs with advanced, AI-powered business development tools. These tools are essential for informing their business development strategy.
From a marketing perspective, Audos’ main strategy is distribution with the help of paid social media digital advertising. This strategy is imperative to realizing the visibility and engagement potential of the startups they support. As Werdelin 12 noted, where platforms like Facebook are extremely helpful are the algorithms that make it easier and more effective to get to those specified customer groups.
“Facebook and a lot of these platforms, they are just incredible algorithms, and they’re incredible at figuring out [how to reach your customer] if you define a customer group.” – Henrik Werdelin
Audos takes a substantially different approach. Instead of taking equity in the companies it helps launch, it runs on a model that takes a 15% revenue share from the incubated startups. This adaptable deal offers an incentive alignment between both parties and gives the rapidly growing entrepreneurial ecosystem the chance to keep ownership and control with their entrepreneurs.
Audos runs with a very lean team of only five individuals, touting it as an efficient and minimalist approach to a startup’s growth. Werdelin’s dreams for Audos go well beyond a handful of entrepreneurs—he hopes to make a deeper, lasting imprint on entrepreneurship at large.
“What we’re trying to do is to figure out how you make a million companies that do a million dollars turnover. That’s a trillion dollar turnover business.” – Henrik Werdelin
Werdelin is more concerned with the financial bottom line. He says he’s committed to creating an environment where entrepreneurs can thrive. As he says, the studio’s mission is not simply to launch promising ventures. It seeks to uplift those who typically don’t have access to venture capital funding.
“We believe that there should be somebody who goes out and really helps these smaller entrepreneurs that are building something that is not venture backable.” – Henrik Werdelin
That belief in the power of entrepreneurship to promote economic development is at the heart of Audos’s philosophy. Werdelin believes that greater entrepreneurial activity will create a stronger economy.
“We believe that the world is better with more entrepreneurship.” – Henrik Werdelin
To ensure that each business idea is viable, Audos employs a systematic approach to test whether a founder’s concept has sustainable customer acquisition costs. This process helps to reduce risks for the studio and the founders themselves.