Venture studio · Founder-led

In an AI world, invest in real businesses.

Software and AI are commoditising everything that lives on a screen. The durable value is moving to companies grounded in trust, taste and physical presence. Turn Five builds and backs exactly those.

3
ventures in build
Real
businesses, not software bets
SEIS
and priced rounds, by stage
In short

A studio for the businesses AI can't replace.

When software is abundant and cheap, scarcity moves to what it can't copy.

Turn Five creates and scales founder-led companies in markets where trust, taste and physical presence still win. We build the company first, run it through the early years, and only hand a founder the wheel once the business is real.

Every venture runs the same disciplined deal and the same shared services, so what we learn building one compounds straight into the next.

Where we play
  • TrustMarkets where a relationship closes the deal, not a funnel.
  • TasteBrand and product judgement that can't be commoditised.
  • PresencePhysical, local or live, where being there is the moat.
Portfolio

Current opportunities.

Back the next one, or bring us the next one.

The thesis

In an AI world, the durable value is in real businesses.

Why the companies software cannot flatten are the ones worth building, and worth backing.

The cheapest path to scale has always been software, and for two decades most capital and talent have chased it. AI accelerates that trend hard. The marginal cost of anything that lives purely on a screen is heading toward zero, and so is its defensibility. What one team can build, another can now copy in a weekend.

That changes where value sits. When software is abundant and cheap, scarcity moves to the things it cannot replicate: a trusted relationship, genuine taste, a brand people actively choose, a physical presence in a real place. These are slow to build and slow to copy, which is exactly why they hold their value.

These real-life businesses have been unfashionable with venture capital precisely because they do not fit the pure-software playbook. They need operators, not just code, and they grow at the pace of trust. We think that has left them mispriced, and that the mispricing is the opportunity.

Turn Five exists to build them. We pick markets where a strong operator and a sharp brand beat another piece of code, and we give each company the studio infrastructure most seed-stage founders never get. Then we run the same disciplined deal and shared services across the portfolio, so every venture we build makes the next one easier.

The shift, in three lines
  • Software is abundantAI drives the cost and the moat of pure digital toward zero.
  • Scarcity movesValue shifts to trust, taste and presence, which AI can't copy.
  • The mispricingVenture has avoided these businesses, so they're underbacked.
Where we play

Trust, taste, presence.

01

Trust

Markets where the deal is closed by a relationship, a reputation and a track record, not by a funnel. The kind of credibility that takes years to earn and cannot be generated.

02

Taste

Product and brand judgement that resists commoditisation. When the difference between good and great is human, the businesses with taste keep their pricing power.

03

Presence

Physical, local or live experiences where being there is the moat. You cannot download a venue, a truck on a great pitch, or a room full of people.

If that's how you see the next decade, let's talk.

The model

Build, share, scale.

How a studio turns one company's hard-won lessons into the next company's head start.

01

Build

We start companies, we do not just fund them. The studio runs each venture through its early years, so a founder joins a business that already works, not a blank page.

02

Share

Finance, brand, production and growth sit at studio level and are shared across every venture. What we learn building one company is shared straight into the next.

03

Scale

Once a venture's model works, the studio's shared muscle and capital let it grow faster than a standalone could, with aligned equity keeping everyone pulling the same direction.

Shared services

What every venture gets on day one.

Brand
Identity, web and content built in-house
Finance
Models, cap tables and SEIS administration
Studio
Production and media via Vertical Drop
Growth
Distribution, partnerships and launch

See how the model plays out across the portfolio.

The deal

One discipline, two structures.

A small, consistent set of terms applied to every venture, scaled to the stage of the round.

The principle

Everyone meaningful, everyone aligned.

The studio builds the company and carries the early risk. The founder runs it and earns a meaningful stake. Investors take the share that justifies their cheque. The exact split depends on the size of the round.

Early-stage

SEIS

For new ventures at the start of their build. A small SEIS round on standard terms, with Advance Assurance sought per company so investors get the relief.

  • Round£250k SEIS
  • Post-money£1.0m
  • Share price£1.00
  • Split (studio / SEIS / founder)51 / 25 / 24
  • ReliefSEIS, 50% income tax

Priced seed

Larger round

For a venture ready to raise more on proven economics. A priced round where the studio takes a smaller, founder-led position and investors get the stake a larger cheque needs. Worked through below.

  • Round£1.6m
  • Post-money£4.0m
  • Share price24p
  • Split (founder / studio / investors)45 / 15 / 40
  • Investor ownership40%
Worked example

A £1.6m priced round, step by step.

/ priced seed

If the studio owns 25% pre-round and the founder owns the balance, raising £1.6m on the same economics as before (40% sold to investors) produces the following.

Pre-round cap table
Shareholder% Pre-round
Dean Mann75.00%
Turn Five Ventures25.00%
Total100.00%
Valuation
MetricValue
Pre-money valuation£2.4m
Investment£1.6m
Post-money valuation£4.0m
Investor ownership40.0%
Post-round cap table · existing holders diluted by 40%, retaining 60% collectively
Shareholder% Post-round
Dean Mann45.00%
Turn Five Ventures15.00%
Investors40.00%
Total100.00%
Worked through shares

Using 10,000,000 founder shares pre-round.

Before investment
ShareholderShares
Dean Mann7,500,000
Turn Five Ventures2,500,000
Total10,000,000
Share price  £2.4m ÷ 10,000,000 = 24p
New shares  £1.6m ÷ £0.24 = 6,666,667 shares

A much more typical venture-backed structure: the founder remains the largest shareholder at 45%, Turn Five retains a meaningful 15%, and investors receive the 40% needed to justify a £1.6m seed cheque.

After investment
ShareholderShares%
Dean Mann7,500,00045.00%
Turn Five Ventures2,500,00015.00%
Investors6,666,66740.00%
Total16,666,667100.00%

Illustrative worked example. Figures are for explanation only and are not an offer of investment or a commitment of terms. SEIS rules limit relief-qualifying rounds, so larger priced rounds like this one are structured separately from the SEIS template above.

Want the full terms for a specific venture?

Current opportunities

Current opportunities.

Four founder-led companies in build, each in a market AI can't flatten. Open one to see its fundraising brochure.

Back the next one, or bring us the next one.

About

A studio, not a fund.

We do not write cheques and wait. We build.

The Name

Why Turn Five.

The summit is visible. The climb isn't over.

On the climb up Alpe d'Huez, the road switches back through twenty-one numbered hairpin bends — bend twenty-one at the bottom, bend one at the summit. The numbers count down as you climb, so every bend is a small countdown to the top.

Bend five means something in particular to anyone who's spent a season working the mountain. It's where the local police used to leave riders who'd had one too many at the top — not driven to the station, just dropped at the bend and left to walk the rest of the way up and sober up on the climb.

It's also the first bend where the resort properly comes into view. You can see exactly where you're headed. What you can't see from there is that the steepest, longest stretch of the climb is still ahead of you — bend five just makes you feel closer than you are.

That's the point we back founders at. Product works, the destination is visible, and the hardest operational miles — hiring, systems, scaling what worked small — are still to come. Turn Five exists for that stretch specifically.

The name, in three lines
  • Bend fiveAlpe d'Huez's 21 hairpins count down as you climb; bend five is where the resort first comes into view.
  • The storyAlso where you'd be left to walk back up and sober up — under your own power, not someone else's.
  • The nameWe back founders at exactly that point: destination visible, hardest climbing still ahead.

We build the company, run it through the early years, and only hand a founder the wheel once the business is real. The studio carries the shared cost of brand, finance, production and growth, so each venture launches with infrastructure most seed companies never get.

Brand
Identity, web and content built in-house
Finance
Models, cap tables and SEIS administration
Studio
Production and media via Vertical Drop
Growth
Distribution, partnerships and launch

Two ways in: back a venture, or bring us one.

Investors

Register investor interest.

Tell us a little about you and we will share the current opportunities, the deal terms and the next round timings. No commitment, just a conversation.

This is a register of interest, not an offer of investment. SEIS investments are high risk and your capital is at risk. We will be in touch from invest@turnfiveventures.com.

Founders

I have an idea.

We back operators building in markets software can't flatten. If you have a business worth building and want a studio behind you, tell us about it.

We read everything that comes in. If it fits the thesis, we will reach out from invest@turnfiveventures.com to talk.