Trey Bowles and Ryan Brown’s new enterprise rests on one guiding truth: The next frontier of American innovation runs straight through Texas.
That has become a familiar refrain heard across the world, very much turning the rest of the country Kermit green — at least to those who haven’t moved here already. The business climate in Texas simply aligns with ambition, particularly for those bold few who aspire to step out on the ledge to start their own business.
There is plenty of room for new beginnings in North Texas. From the east and the west, from the north and the south, the builders, dreamers, and doers are gathering with designs on exporting their innovations to the world. They are betting big on North Texas pasture.
1845 Venture Studio is Bowles and Brown’s new startup foundry. It is part incubator and part investor. The “1845” is a nod to Texas’ fertile ground — the year the fledgling republic came into faithful union, with one notable incident of infidelity, with the United States.
The duo is unapologetically bullish on the 28th state, specifically the ecosystem of the entire North Texas region — Fort Worth and Dallas and everything in between.
“Everything that a founder needs to be successful exists here,” Bowles says. “We truly believe that over the next 10 years, all roads lead to Texas.”
The timing for 1845’s launch is striking-while-the-iron-is-hot-type stuff, says Bowles, because of a surge in corporate relocations and executives to DFW, as well as local capital and talent pools maturing. In addition, there is a national interest in secondary innovation markets beyond Silicon Valley and Austin.
Theirs is a different approach to starting companies.
1845 Venture Studio was formed through a partnership with Eagle Venture Lab and its founder, Wade Myers, a veteran of the venture studio model. Myers has built and backed businesses across the globe.
The idea of the studio as a true “co-founder” rather than just a passive investor is a central theme. Both Bowles and Brown painted a picture of a collaboration that involves 1845 working shoulder to shoulder with founders in building the companies.
1845 Venture Studio partners directly with founders, stepping in as a true co-founder. They join startups at the earliest possible stages — even when an idea might still be on a whiteboard. From there, 1845 Studio provides not only capital but also a team, infrastructure, and hands-on strategic guidance to transform raw ideas into scalable businesses.
1845 helps refine products, develop brand narratives, design go-to-market strategies, recruit talent, and manage back-office operations. When the company reaches stability and traction, the studio spins it out as a standalone business. 1845 continues to support it through board participation and follow-on capital.
The studio’s focus lies in consumer-centric solutions to real-world problems, with ventures spanning several high-growth sectors: fintech and embedded finance, health and wellness, advanced mobility and transportation, energy and electrification, and agriculture and food systems.
The approach stands in contrast to traditional venture capital or accelerator models, which typically invest after launch or offer limited mentorship. 1845 Studio, by contrast, is fully immersed in the early, high-risk stage.
“Companies fail not because a founder doesn’t have a good solution or product that’s needed,” Bowles says. “They fail because typically that founder doesn’t have experience building a company, and it’s the 25 other things that you have to do that get their heads spinning around in circles.”
Bowles and Brown both know Fort Worth well. Bowles served as executive director of TechStars Fort Worth. Brown most recently served as CEO of TechFW, a nonprofit startup incubator and accelerator that has supported over 200 companies since its founding in 1998.
Bowles says he has built more than 25 companies and worked with over 10,000 startups in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Brown has 25 years’ experience as an entrepreneur, executive, and investor.
“Ryan and I have built [between them] tens and tens and tens of companies, and so we’re going to come in and do that with and for the companies so that he or she, as a founder, can focus on product-market fit, selling to the right customer, and growing.”
One of the studio’s biggest selling points for founders is equity retention. Traditional venture capital rounds can leave founders with less than 10% ownership by the time of an IPO. Those are numbers the 1845 team calls unsustainable.
“You look at Uber — the founder owned about 8% of the company at IPO. Airbnb was right around 10%,” Brown says. “If it’s done correctly within a studio, you can see founders retaining close to 30% of their company. That’s a huge difference.”
Because the studio funds companies in milestone-based tranches and keeps costs lower, exits in the $50 million to $100 million range can produce strong returns without requiring billion-dollar valuations.
“We’re not chasing unicorns,” Bowles says. “We’re focused on [hitting] doubles and triples that make everybody a lot of money and help build the ecosystem in North Texas.”