The labels get used as if they were brands. They are rooms. Each one is built for a different gap. Pick the room that matches what you are missing, not the one with the nicest website.
If you already have a team, a product, and a line, you probably want a fund. If you have a team and an early product and you need a network on a clock, you probably want an accelerator. If the company does not exist yet, or exists only as a conviction you cannot staff alone, you probably want a studio.
Baus runs two of these rooms. We do not pretend the third is a costume we wear.
The three rooms
A venture studio forms companies. Idea, product, early talent, first customers. More of the founding work, more of the equity, longer involvement. Best when the gap is the company itself.
An accelerator runs a cohort. Fixed weeks, a small standard check, mentors, a demo day. You keep most of the cap table and most of the building. Best when the gap is signal and introductions.
A fund writes a check into a company that already exists. Capital, a board or a SAFE, a network if you are lucky. Best when the gap is money and a partner who will still be there after demo day.
Equity is the honest tell. Studios take the most because they do the most. Accelerators take a thin, standard slice. Funds take a priced or SAFE slice for capital, not for sitting in the repo.
A quick read
You are pre-team or pre-product, and you want operators in the work. Studio.
You have a team and a prototype, and you want a brand, a cohort, and a path to the next round. Accelerator. YC is still the default if that is the actual gap.
You have motion—users, revenue, a sharp point of view—and you need capital without a program. Fund.
You are already raising a Pre-A or a seed that looks like a company with a finance team. Neither a studio nor a pre-seed fund is your room. Go find that round.
When Baus is the wrong room
If you want a 12-week program and a demo day, go to an accelerator. We will not fake one.
If you want a passive check and no opinions, go to an angel. We will not pretend to be quiet.
If the product can stay a thin UI over a public model forever, we are the wrong thesis. If you need a plant financed, we are the wrong stage.
If you are building something that will one day look like infrastructure, and it does not look like that yet, we are in range. Studio at zero. Fund at one. Same operating system either way: find the edge, make it real, build the team, compound.
How to choose in one page
Write down the gap. Not the TAM. The gap.
If the gap is the company, talk to a studio. If the gap is a network, talk to an accelerator. If the gap is capital, talk to a fund. If you cannot name the gap, you are not ready for any of them.
If the gap is ours, send the sharpest version of what you believe. What is true that the market has not priced. What you have made real. What you need next.