Podcast episode. Listen on Substack.
A 20-minute solo episode on early financial validation and de-risking your next corporate venture.
In this episode:
- What financial validation means before anything is built
- Commitment tests that replace surveys
- The prove-it-or-kill-it gate
Why Most Should Innovation Die in Month Three not Year Three.
Most early-stage corporate innovation doesn't fail because of bad ideas. It fails because no one asks the right question early enough:
"Will anyone actually pay for this?"
In this solo episode, I unpack why most projects collapse long before they hit the market—and how to avoid wasting months (or years) chasing ideas that don't convert.
Drawing from over 200 early-stage innovation projects, I walk through the 12-week validation method we've built to pressure-test market demand before budgets get burned.
You'll learn:
- Why customer commitments (deposits, LOIs, pilots) matter more than prototypes
- How to turn assumptions into evidence
- Why you need just 12 weeks to know if you should pivot, persevere, or kill the idea
If you're still relying on decks, forecasts, and stakeholder consensus to move new ideas forward, this episode will challenge your thinking.
Because in innovation, compliments don't count.Commitments do.
Enjoyed the episode?
Drop a comment below with your biggest takeaway, and feel free to share the post with a friend or colleague who's working on an innovation project.
-Don't create unicorns,Breed blue whales.🐋
(Podcast episode, ~18:49 audio.)
Related reading: The Financial Validation Gap, Why Most Innovation Projects Should Be Killed Earlier
Prefer reading? Start with The Financial Validation Gap.
Working on this inside a large organization? Book a discovery call.