Month: September 2025

• Emily Fontaine, IBM’s global head of venture capital, decides which startups to back based on five “pillars.”
• Her criteria include strategic fit and market opportunity.
• Fontaine wants to connect with 800 startups this year.

Emily Fontaine engages with VC firms, startups, and portfolio companies every day, she told Business Insider, and she knows what she wants from them.

As IBM’s global head of venture capital, Fontaine leads IBM Ventures, which partners with companies working on everything from quantum computing to artificial intelligence to cybersecurity. She said she wants to connect with 800 startups worldwide this year.

“We’ve got a really good formula for that,” Fontaine said on how she decides whether to invest. “Our mission is super clear: accelerate enterprise innovation with emerging technologies that are delivering real business value.”

Fontaine said she evaluates investments based on “five key pillars.”

Strategic fit

As the head of a corporate ventures arm, Fontaine said it’s important to back startups that align with IBM’s broader goals.

“We want to back companies with a differentiated vision that’s aligned to major trends and IBM’s long-term strategy,” she told Business Insider.

While once known as a hardware giant, IBM has recently started focusing on AI and hybrid cloud. Fontaine oversees the company’s $500 million Enterprise AI fund.

Technology and product

Fontaine’s next evaluative pillar focuses on the product itself: “Are these breakthrough solutions? Are they exceptional quantum quality? Is this technology fantastic?”

Market and competition

Beyond considering the actual technology, Fontaine said she thinks about a startup’s financial viability, like the total addressable market and “strong tailwinds,” or whether industry trends are favorable.

“Is there clear white space for leadership?” she asked, referencing a company’s ability to fill a gap in the market.

Team

Fontaine described herself as a collaborative leader. She said she goes to the office as much as possible and encourages her team members to do the same. Twice a week, she blocks out her whole team’s calendar for dedicated collaborative time.

The same focus on teamwork applies to the startups she backs, which, for one, need “high-quality founders with deep domain expertise.”

“But even more so — as we do not lead deals, we co-invest alongside top-tier VCs — you have to think about who’s on the cap table?” Fontaine said. “Is that a cap table you believe in?”

A cap table — or capitalization table — is a document that outlines investors’ equity stakes in a startup.

Financial discipline

Ambition is great, but Fontaine said she’s also focused on making sure a startup has reasonable financial goals.

“Do they have realistic milestones? Do they have scalable models?” she said.

• Business Insider has spoken with a handful of successful entrepreneurs and business owners.
• Many of them have one thing in common: Their business was born out of a problem they faced in their everyday lives.
• To launch a successful business of your own, start by thinking about solutions to daily problems.

The summer before my senior year of college, while participating in a four-week intensive entrepreneurship program, Netflix cofounder Marc Randolph came to speak to my class.

Nearly 13 years later, I still remember his advice: Build a product that solves a problem. He encouraged us to think about pain points in our own lives and how we could deliver a solution.

For my capstone project that summer, I tried to solve a problem I encountered nearly every day when I stepped onto a tennis court: After wearing out a handful of tennis balls, I’d toss them in the trash.

I never followed through on my idea of upcycling dead tennis balls — turning them into outsoles or playground surfacing — but the general advice stuck. And as I’ve written about successful entrepreneurs over the years, I’ve noticed that many of them do exactly what Randolph instructed my class to do years ago.

Take Garrett Gosselin, who became obsessed with pickleball when COVID hit and stripped him of his sommelier job. He started playing nearly every day of the week and competing in tournaments around Southern California — and he found himself cycling through a lot of paddles.

“At that time, they were all made out of fiberglass, and they all had really loud, vibrant graphics. They kind of looked like toys, and they were falling apart really fast,” Gosselin told Business Insider. “There was a need for a better paddle.”

When he decided to build his own — a sleek and durable, high-performance paddle with a carbon fiber face — he didn’t intend to start a company. He simply wanted a better option for him and his doubles partner to use in competition. It wasn’t until other people started noticing his prototype and asking where they could buy one that he ordered 500 units and set up a website.

Gosselin sold out within a week and couldn’t keep his paddle in stock for the first two years of the business. The former somm now runs CRBN full-time, manages a team of 25 employees, and has expanded to offering bags, eyewear, and apparel.

Like Gosselin, Jack Schrupp encountered a problem he decided to tackle first and foremost for himself. Schrupp, a former collegiate athlete, couldn’t find a protein powder that suited his sensitive stomach. He bought a spice grinder and a small blender, loaded up on ingredients such as oats and eggs at the co-op close to his college campus, and became a bit of a “mad scientist” in his dorm room, he told Business Insider.

While the taste of his original concoctions “left a lot to be desired,” he said, “it didn’t upset my stomach, and that’s what mattered most to me.”

After graduating and landing a teaching position at a boarding school, Schrupp continued experimenting with recipes. His tinkering evolved into Drink Wholesome, a protein powder company that resonated with so many others that he eventually quit his job to go all in on his startup. In 2024, the company did seven figures in online sales.

Lisa Harrington also turned a personal problem into a seven-figure business.

When the Massachusetts-based e-commerce entrepreneur and self-proclaimed “cat lady” went online to buy an interior cat door, “there was only one option,” she said, and it wasn’t what she was looking for. “It was the quintessential, ‘I can do this better.'”

The first cat doors she manufactured and listed online were profitable but not a smash hit. It was when she noticed a recurring customer comment — people wanted a closable door, rather than a cat door with flaps — that things at Purrfect Portal started to take off.

The solution to her customer requests was born out of a happy hour with friends.

“Someone said, ‘What about a miniature door? A little human door with a little doorknob and a little window and a little door knocker,'” recalled Harrington. “And everyone just lost their minds, even the non-cat people. And in my gut, I knew people would love it.”

It took about two years to bring the happy hour vision to life, but when it launched in 2020, “people just lost their minds,” she said. “It catapulted to the top of the bestseller list pretty quickly. We were selling 100 units a day.”

Of course, once you identify a problem in your life, the next step is to solve it effectively — if you want to pursue the path of an entrepreneur, that is — and it takes a certain type of person to follow through.

Gosselin’s childhood friend and business partner at CRBN, Kyle Goguen, gave insight into how Gosselin thinks.

“I remember Garrett would brew his own kombucha and make his own sourdough, and he has always been this sort of inventor,” said Goguen.

When it came to bringing the pickleball paddle he wanted to life, “he didn’t have these barriers,” he added. “I think most people would be like, ‘How do I create a product?’ Instead, he was just like, ‘I’m going to go figure out how to make it better because these problems exist.'”

• Angel Studios, the company behind the surprise blockbuster “Sound of Freedom,” just went public.
• While the studio is known for its faith-based programming, its green-lighting model sets it apart.
• Angel’s leadership team shared the pitch they’re giving investors.

Angel Studios just went public and is selling investors on a business model that gives its streaming subscribers creative control.

The Utah-based studio is known for its faith-themed and “values-driven” movies and TV shows, like making the 2023’s sleeper box-office hit “Sound of Freedom” and its involvement in the “The Chosen” series based on the life of Jesus Christ.

Angel’s name isn’t only about religion. It’s also a nod to its unconventional green-lighting process. Angel’s streaming subscribers — with plans starting at $12 a month — double as “angel investors” who can vote on what future films get made.

“Our problem isn’t with what’s being made,” Angel CEO Neal Harmon said of Hollywood. “It’s with what’s not being made.”

Harmon founded the company alongside three of his eight siblings — Jeffrey, Jordan, and Daniel — and a cousin. Neal, Jeffrey, and Jordan spoke with Business Insider about what sets their studio apart, hours after Angel’s stock debuted on Thursday.

Angel went public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called Southport Acquisition Corporation. Its stock, which trades under the ticker ANGX, has been volatile since its debut, swinging between $10.35 and $20.39.

The company generated $135 million in the first half of 2025, with a net loss of $53.3 million in that span.

The brothers, who repeatedly called themselves “Idaho farm boys” during the interview, are proud to be Hollywood outsiders. They believe they’ve found a lucrative niche in what they’re making and how they’re making it.

Let there be green lights

Angel’s mission statement is to “amplify light” — a deliberately ambiguous motto that “means different things to different people,” said Jeffrey, Angel’s content chief.

Many of the 1.5 million members in the so-called Angel Guild want their faith represented, while others yearn for wholesome, family-friendly shows, Jeffrey said. Angel Guild members can vote on what projects get made, and can even give direct feedback to the production company.

By making movies that its fans have already endorsed, Angel Studios’ films tend to generate strong audience scores on sites like Rotten Tomatoes — and robust ticket sales.

Angel Studios earned an average of $34.7 million per movie released from 2023 to 2025, which is higher than any other independent studio, according to media analyst Evan Shapiro.

Industry analysts say this fan-centered approach has shown promise so far and could have staying power.

Angel “specializes in mobilizing underserved audiences” with its inexpensive, faith-centered content, said Brandon Katz of entertainment data provider Greenlight Analytics.

“It’s a very specific audience hungry for programming that appeals to their particular tastes and values,” Katz said.

KPMG media analyst Frank Albarella said that “today’s audiences are rejecting one-size-fits-all content creation in favor of platforms that turn viewers into creative collaborators.”

Pay models and ‘growing pains’

Angel is also pitching a distinct pay model for creators.

Netflix upended the entertainment business over a decade ago with a cost-plus model that paid filmmakers as if their movie was a modest hit. While this reduces risks, it also caps creatives’ upside.

“It overpays for failures and it underpays for success,” said Jordan, who’s Angel’s president. Angel’s model shares half of the profits from a title with its creator.

Angel has had some business “growing pains,” Jordan said. Two production companies that partnered with Angel have since terminated their arrangements, leading to legal fights.

Dallas Jenkins, creator of “The Chosen,” accused Angel of contract violations. Arbitrators ruled in Jenkins’ favor, officially severing his business relationship with the company. Angel has appealed the decision. Slingshot, which made the “David” animated movie based on the biblical character, terminated its deal. Angel responded with a lawsuit, which is ongoing.

“Lawsuits in the entertainment industry — it’s like pigeons in New York City,” Jordan said. “It’s just the reality of this space.”

The Harmon brothers first learned that when launching VidAngel, which removed profanity and sexual content from movies. Disney sued in response, and the subsequent ruling pushed VidAngel into bankruptcy. A few years later, the Harmons rebounded by starting Angel.

In the years since, Angel has turned heads in Hollywood through its unique relationship with its streaming subscribers.

Jeffrey said that being a publicly traded company is an extension of that mission, describing it as “the ultimate grassroots.”