Inverse Collective is a studio for AI evergreen companies — durable software businesses designed to compound for decades, not quarters.
Most of the industry builds for the hype cycle — chasing the model of the month, raising on momentum, burning toward a story.
We do the inverse. We start with a durable problem someone will still pay to solve in five years, then build the smallest profitable thing that solves it. Once it works, we install an operator and let it compound.
“We avoid hype cycles and focus on fundamentals — companies that pay for themselves and keep paying.”
Inverse Collective · Operating thesis
A venture studio builds companies in-house instead of investing in other people's. Where a fund writes a cheque and waits, a studio does the work: originating the idea or acquiring an existing product, funding it, staffing it, and running it through a standard set of playbooks that every venture inherits on day one.
The distinction that matters is accountability. Once a venture proves itself, we install a dedicated CEO — an operator — who owns the P&L and the execution outright. We keep strategy, capital, and the pattern recognition that comes from doing this across several companies at once. Nobody is a part-time founder of four things.
Most studios optimise for a fast markup and a sale. We do the inverse. Every company we build should be able to survive us walking away, which means it has to pay for itself long before anyone talks about an exit. That is a slower model, and it is the whole point.
If you're weighing whether your company fits, the four tests we apply are public, and so are the questions founders ask before pitching.
Not values on a wall. These are the filters we argue with each other about when a decision is close.
We optimize for businesses that are still here, and still paying, long after the trend that birthed them has passed.
Every venture gets a dedicated CEO who owns the P&L and the execution. We support strategy; they run the company.
A path to profitability that doesn't depend on the next raise. Capital is optional fuel, never life support.
Repeatable, boring, durable. We build the operating system once and let it compound across ventures.
Founder & CEO
Cody McLain is a repeat founder based in Austin. He built a $30M outsourcing company that ranked on the Inc. 5000. He hosts the MindHack podcast and wrote From Foster Care to Millionaire.
Cody started Inverse Collective to build calm, durable software companies that solve real problems and last.
We're small on purpose, so every conversation is with a partner — not an associate screening deal flow.
Have a durable idea or an existing codebase with real payers? Pitch it. We originate, validate, and resource the ones that fit.
Pitch a venture →Want to run a company without starting from zero? We install you as CEO of a validated venture, with systems and optional capital behind you.
Become an operator →Built something durable you're ready to step back from? We acquire profitable software businesses and give them a long, well-operated life.
Start a conversation →Founders with a working product. Operators who want to run one. We read everything ourselves.