What happens when venture capital drifts away from risk, founders, and its original purpose? In this episode of 0100 Impact Talks, Fridtjof Berge, Co-founder and Chief Business Officer at Antler, explains The Antler Way: a global, inception-stage model designed to fix what he believes was broken in venture capital—by backing founders earlier, scaling sustainably, and redefining how impact is created from day zero.
When Venture Capital Stopped Going Early
By 2017, something fundamental had changed in venture capital. As Fridtjof Verge explains, the industry had gradually moved away from its original mandate. Early venture—once known as adventure capital—had become increasingly cautious, waiting for traction, metrics, and de-risked rounds.
The result? Founders at inception—the moment of highest uncertainty and highest potential—were often left without capital or meaningful support.
Antler was founded as a deliberate response to this shift. Its thesis was simple but contrarian: if venture capital creates the most value by backing people early, then the industry needed to move earlier, not later.
The Antler Way: Founder-First from Day Zero
At the core of The Antler Way is a strict founder-first philosophy. Every major decision at Antler is stress-tested with a simple question: Would this be genuinely helpful for founders?
This mindset shaped a unique model. Rather than sourcing finished startups, Antler works with individuals at the very beginning—often before teams, products, or even clear ideas exist. Founders enter a highly competitive, structured build phase where they form teams, test ideas, pivot fast, and ultimately receive Antler’s first institutional cheque.
This approach restores venture capital’s original role: enabling ambition when risk is highest, and support matters most.
Scaling Fast—But Sustainably
Operating across 27 cities on six continents, Antler has grown rapidly—but not carelessly. Fridtjof emphasizes that speed without sustainability rarely compounds.
Antler standardized what must be consistent:
Early-stage investment processes
Founder support frameworks
Brand, culture, and internal systems
At the same time, local teams retain autonomy to adapt execution to their ecosystems—whether that means different founder outreach channels, market pacing, or capital dynamics.
The result is a global platform that scales without losing local relevance. As Fridtjof puts it, scaling fast is easy; scaling sustainably is the real challenge.
From Thousands of Applications to High-Conviction Bets
Each Antler cohort attracts between 2,000 and 5,000 applicants per city, with only around 3% accepted. The average founder is in their early 30s, typically bringing prior operating, technical, or entrepreneurial experience.
When selected founders are placed in a high-density environment with equally driven peers, something powerful happens: co-founder teams form organically, ideas evolve rapidly, and conviction is forged under pressure.
Antler then invests at inception—becoming the first institutional backer at the moment companies truly begin.
Data as a Structural Advantage
With thousands of founders passing through its programs globally, Antler has quietly built one of the richest datasets on early-stage entrepreneurship.
This data increasingly informs founder selection and investment decisions, helping identify patterns linked to follow-on funding, valuation growth, and resilience. While human judgment remains central, data now plays a growing supporting role—especially at Antler’s scale.
Over time, this may become one of the firm’s most durable competitive advantages.
Impact as a Question of What You Solve
For Antler, impact is not defined by early-stage ESG compliance. At inception, such frameworks are often impractical. Instead, impact is evaluated through a simpler lens: what problem does this company solve?
Does the solution meaningfully address environmental or societal challenges—directly or indirectly? Can its outcomes be measured as the company matures?
Around 40% of Antler’s portfolio is internally classified as impact-driven. More tellingly, Antler’s internal data shows that startups scoring higher on sustainability practices are more likely to raise follow-on rounds and do so at higher valuations.
Impact, in this model, is not philanthropy—it is a signal.
Lowering Barriers, Broadening Access
By opening access at the idea stage and operating globally, Antler reduces many of venture capital’s traditional biases—geographic, network-driven, and socio-economic.
This enables founders from less mature ecosystems to access capital, peers, and global networks that would otherwise be out of reach. In that sense, The Antler Way is not just a venture model—it is infrastructure for entrepreneurial inclusion.
Back to the Roots of Venture Capital
Eight years on, with over $1.2bn in AUM, Antler’s core conviction remains unchanged: venture capital works best when it starts early, backs people first, and compounds learning globally.
In a market that once drifted away from risk, The Antler Way represents a return to first principles—rebuilding venture capital from day zero.
Learn more about The Antler Way to scaling fast in a sustainable way in Antler’s recently published Sustainability Report 2025.
