# Suncoast Venture Studio

> Suncoast Venture Studio is a Sarasota-based venture builder that originates, validates, funds and operates technology businesses before recruiting leaders to scale them. Its model combines an AI planning platform, embedded product and go-to-market teams, local university and investor partnerships, and a focus on SaaS/AI, fintech, advanced manufacturing and healthtech. Its first live portfolio company is RecruitTune, while ClaimTally and an industrial automation tool are listed as coming soon.

- **Founded:** 2025
- **Headquarters:** Sarasota, United States
- **Founders:** Travis Priest (Founder and CEO), Will Dolan (Founder and CRO), Paul Harder (Founder), Sean Dotson (Founder and COO)
- **Team size:** 14 employees listed on LinkedIn as of August 2026; the company profile labels the organization as 2-10 employees.
- **Products:** Venture creation, PlanFoundry, RecruitTune, ClaimTally, Project X
- **Notable:** Established a public portfolio of three ventures within roughly a year of founding., Commercially launched RecruitTune on June 8, 2026 after a market beta with more than 50 organizations., Built a regional partnership network spanning angel investors, universities, incubators, economic development and the St. Pete Innovation District.

## Products & services

- **Venture creation** — Sources opportunities, validates markets and pricing, builds MVPs, recruits founders, prepares fundraising and supports spinout to an independent company.
- **PlanFoundry** — A proprietary AI-powered venture-planning platform used to develop investor-ready business plans and support the studio's validation process.
- **RecruitTune** — A live AI-assisted hiring assessment platform that combines must-have screening, audio role scenarios and a Big Five behavioral profile to rank candidates before interviews.
- **ClaimTally** — A coming-soon home inventory and insurance-claims product that uses images and voice input to create documented replacement-cost inventories.
- **Project X** — A coming-soon industrial development tool intended to translate natural-language control intent into PLC ladder logic for major automation platforms.
- **Embedded AI consulting** — Works inside small and midsize businesses to identify operational pain points, integrate AI into workflows and potentially spin repeatable solutions into jointly owned ventures.
- **Technology transfer** — Evaluates, licenses, staffs and commercializes research or dormant intellectual property from universities, health systems, companies and public institutions.
- **The Summary** — A podcast that explains venture building and covers entrepreneurship and technology on Florida's Suncoast.

## Achievements

- Established a public portfolio of three ventures within roughly a year of founding.
- Commercially launched RecruitTune on June 8, 2026 after a market beta with more than 50 organizations.
- Built a regional partnership network spanning angel investors, universities, incubators, economic development and the St. Pete Innovation District.
- Made PlanFoundry available to entrepreneurs in the 26 West Center's GrowBiz incubator.
- Became a founding member and sponsor of Sarasota.Tech.
- Created The Summary podcast to explain venture-studio concepts and regional entrepreneurship.

## Latest updates

- **2026-08** — Suncoast supported the Sarasota County economic-development visit of aviation technology company CoachAir Aviation Intelligence.
- **2026-07** — RecruitTune added role-based permissions for admins, assessment creators and reviewers under one subscription.
- **2026-07** — Go-to-market executive Brian Serino joined Suncoast as a partner and board member.
- **2026-06** — RecruitTune completed its commercial launch after a beta involving more than 50 organizations; announced annual plans began at $99 per month.
- **2026-02** — SRQ Magazine profiled the studio's plan to build a technology ecosystem by anchoring new companies in Sarasota.
- **2025-10** — Business Observer reported on the studio's launch, leadership group and goal of creating three to four ventures annually.

## Links

- Website: https://suncoast.studio/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/suncoastvs/

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/suncoast-venture-studio
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-16