Corporate innovation teams are excellent at proving something can work. The gap is what happens next — when the pilot needs a P&L owner, a budget line, and a business unit that actually wants it. I’ve led three corporate spin-outs through exactly that transition, and I work the same problem from the startup side every week.
Pilots rarely fail on the technology. They stall in the handover between the innovation team that ran it and the business unit that has to fund it. That handover has to be designed before the pilot starts — not negotiated after it succeeds.
Procurement, security review, integration, legal, a nine-month buying cycle. Most startups have never seen any of it and quietly stall out. I translate in both directions — because I have sat on both sides of that table.
Singapore proves it. Indonesia, Malaysia and India scale it. Sequencing that wrong costs a year and most of the internal goodwill you started with.
What has actually been proven, what has not, and what a business unit would need to see before it takes the P&L. Usually a shorter list than the pilot deck suggests.
Budget owner, success criteria and handover terms agreed before the next pilot starts. This is the single intervention that shows up in almost every pilot I have seen survive.
Whether it scales inside the company or spins out, the test is the same: someone outside the innovation budget paying for it. I stay in the work until that happens.
18+ years as a venture builder, operator, and founder across 11 markets. Co-built and scaled ventures from validation through exit — as a founder, operator, and venture builder directly in the work. Worked directly with 100+ entrepreneurs and innovation teams across APAC.
Today, he works independently with founders and through programs like National GRIP, BLOCK71, Plug and Play, and ATUM Ventures.