Studio model
Atlas Atlantic is a venture studio building practical ventures across Atlantic Canada and beyond.
Atlas Atlantic co-creates, launches, and scales mission-aligned companies with founders and partners. The studio houses ventures like LAUFT, plekk, and others, alongside Sidecurrent—the advisory practice that helps founders turn their visions into functioning systems.
What a venture studio is
A venture studio is a company that builds companies. Unlike accelerators or incubators that primarily provide funding and support to existing startups, venture studios actively create new companies from the ground up—from idea validation through product development, operations, and scaling.
This model allows Atlas Atlantic to apply consistent systems thinking, operational expertise, and strategic support across multiple ventures, while each company maintains its own identity and focus. The studio provides the infrastructure and resources needed to move quickly from concept to operation.
How Atlas Atlantic works
Explore & validate
Atlas Atlantic identifies meaningful problems and validates market opportunities through research, user insights, and systems analysis. This phase involves understanding the problem space, identifying stakeholders, and testing core assumptions before committing resources to build.
Build
The studio designs and builds the product, platform, and operational systems needed to bring the venture to life. This includes software development, user experience design, brand foundations, payment systems, automation, and the operational workflows that make the business function.
Operate
Atlas Atlantic provides hands-on operational support, helping establish workflows, processes, and sustainable operations. During this phase, the studio refines systems based on real usage, iterates on processes, and builds the operational capacity needed for independent operation.
Spin out / scale
The studio prepares the venture for independence or scale, ensuring it has the foundation to succeed long-term. This includes documenting processes, establishing leadership structures, and supporting the transition to autonomous operation or significant growth.
Who Atlas Atlantic works with
Founders
Founders with clear ideas who need help building the full system—product, platform, operations, and workflows. Atlas Atlantic works alongside you as a temporary internal builder and technical partner.
Partners
Organizations, institutions, and companies looking to collaborate on new ventures, explore innovative approaches, or leverage Atlas Atlantic's systems thinking and execution capabilities.
Investors
Investors interested in the thesis, portfolio companies, or the venture studio model. Atlas Atlantic welcomes direct conversation about how the approach creates sustainable, mission-aligned businesses.
Thesis
Atlas Atlantic operates on the belief that the most meaningful and sustainable companies emerge from deep understanding of systems, clear alignment with mission, and practical execution. The studio focuses on ventures that address real problems with human-centered solutions.
The approach combines systems thinking with hands-on operational experience. Atlas Atlantic doesn't just build products—it builds complete systems: the technology, the processes, the workflows, and the organizational structures that make companies function sustainably over the long term.
The studio is particularly interested in ventures that explore systems in motion: civic technology, community infrastructure, human-centered platforms, and businesses that serve people while maintaining financial sustainability. These ventures are grounded in Atlantic Canada but have global potential.
For investors interested in learning more about the thesis, portfolio, or approach to building ventures, Atlas Atlantic welcomes direct conversation. The studio model offers unique opportunities for early-stage engagement and hands-on value creation.
Founder
Atlas Atlantic was founded by Jesse Sharratt, a systems strategist and civic technologist with experience building, operating, and advising organizations across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.
Jesse is the Co-Founder and COO of LAUFT, where he helped grow the company from inception to a national operation and led the delivery of a large-scale Government of Canada contract from procurement through service delivery. His work has involved navigating complex environments where technology, policy, operations, and human needs intersect—often under real constraints and public scrutiny.
Alongside his work at LAUFT, Jesse has consulted independently on education, innovation, and civic initiatives, contributing to national programs, public-facing platforms, and large-scale events. Earlier in his career, he held senior roles in media, innovation, and communications, where he built new digital systems, developed revenue strategies, and redesigned organizations to operate more effectively over the long term.
Jesse began his professional life as a social studies teacher, an experience that continues to shape his approach: systems matter most when they are understandable, humane, and built with the people who rely on them in mind. He is fluently bilingual in English and French and lives in Nova Scotia, where he remains actively involved in civic and community leadership.
How We Think
Atlas Atlantic approaches problems as systems in motion. This means understanding context, flow, constraints, and responsibility—not just the immediate challenge, but the larger patterns that shape it.
The studio is intentionally small and focused. Work is collaborative, exploratory, and grounded in real-world constraints. Whether building a venture, advising a founder, or experimenting with new ideas, the approach is the same: pay close attention, understand deeply, act with clarity.
Community & Volunteer Work
Atlas Atlantic's work is informed by direct community involvement and lived civic experience, not abstract theory. Volunteer roles surface practical system failures and trade-offs, creating a feedback loop that directly informs how ventures and advisory work are designed.
LOVE Nova Scotia
Chair of the Board
Youth-serving organization focused on governance, fundraising, and strategic oversight, with emphasis on supporting frontline workers and community organizations.
Harbourview Residents' Association
Chair
Community advocacy organization engaging with municipal, provincial, and federal stakeholders on land use, safety, quality-of-life, and industrial impacts.
Canadian Parents for French – Dartmouth Chapter
President
Advocacy for access to French-language education, including parent engagement and coordination with public school systems.
World Litter Run
Founder / Active Participant
Regular trash picking and data collection. Hands-on environmental work that informs product and venture design, emphasizing direct participation over organizational leadership alone.
Community work informs product decisions, systems design, and priorities across the studio.
Frequently asked questions
How is a venture studio different from an accelerator or incubator?
Accelerators and incubators typically work with existing startups, providing funding, mentorship, and workspace. Venture studios create companies from scratch—Atlas Atlantic identifies opportunities, validates concepts, builds products, and operates the business until it's ready for independence or scale.
What types of ventures does Atlas Atlantic build?
Atlas Atlantic focuses on mission-aligned companies that address real problems with human-centered solutions. The portfolio includes civic technology, community infrastructure, marketplace platforms, and tools that help people and organizations operate more effectively. The studio is particularly interested in ventures with systems-level impact.
How does Atlas Atlantic work with founders?
Atlas Atlantic works alongside founders as a temporary internal builder and technical partner. If you have a clear idea, the studio helps you design and build the complete system—product, platform, operations—then hands it over for you to lead, market, and grow. The role is to build the system, not to run the company long-term.
Where is Atlas Atlantic based?
Atlas Atlantic is based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and works with partners across Atlantic Canada and globally. While the roots are in the Atlantic region, the studio is location-agnostic when it comes to building ventures and working with partners.
Get in Touch
Interested in learning more about Atlas Atlantic, potential collaborations, or just want to connect?
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