As you can read in the Venture agreement, proto-ventures are entities considering becoming Enspiral Ventures in the future. They are likely to be:

• Early-stage initiatives connected to people in the network, but are not yet ready to define their team, structure, or model enough to become a full-fledged venture, or

• Established external companies exploring the possibility of joining as Enspiral Ventures

Here’s the process for someone considering starting a proto-venture:

1. At least one of your people need to be Enspiral contributors (see the People agreement)

2. Find your three stewards

3. Work with your stewards to fill in the Venture Introduction template​

4. Your stewards will start a Loomio thread to introduce the proto-venture to the network

You’re expected to keep the network updated with progress. As a bare minimum you should meet with your stewards once per quarter and fill in the venture update form, which all the ventures use as a lightweight quarterly reporting system.

As your proto-venture matures, at some stage you’ll either want to go all-in and become a full venture, or cancel the relationship with Enspiral. Either way, the process is laid out in the Joining and Leaving sections in the Venture agreement.

Discussion & Changes

Enspiral contributors are welcome to use this Loomio thread to discuss proto-ventures and propose changes to this guide.

​Gamelab​

• Education business that helps students learn STEM topics by building games

• Finishing up a big push on gamefroot.com development and launching paid product

• Contact Person: Dan Milward

• Stewards: Joshua Vial, Kate Beecroft, Rohan Wakefield

​Enspiral Labs​

• Enspiral Labs helps networks, organisations and individuals work in open, participatory and collaborative ways.

• Contact Person: Joshua Vial

• Stewards: Ants Cabraal, Susan Basterfield, Kate Beecroft, Joshua Vial

​Ability Mate​

• AbilityMate is an open-source community inventing products for an inclusive society.

• We are focusing on creating 3D Printed Orthotics for children with physical disabilities

• Contact person: Melanie “The Overachiever” Tran - melt@abilitymate.com​

• Stewards: Rose Lu, Sam Rye, Joshua Vial