1. The Catalyst
A business identifies an opportunity adjacent to their core business (or their industry is amidst disruption). Either way, they are faced with the question of how to respond in a smart, fast, cost effective way.
2. The Spin-Up
A spin-up involves setting up a short-term independent, cross-functional team. Their purpose is to validate the potential opportunity, risk and feasibility of a new venture or product in an extremely rapid way.
3. The Roadmap
The spin-up will soon hit the decision milestone: shut down with lessons learned, fold back in to the core business, or invest further with the ultimate objective to spin-off as a completely independent venture.
Spin-ups work best as small, collaborative and independent teams. Members are drawn from your key employees who bring industry insight and expertise, and Early Days team members who lead, facilitate and execute the overall project.
New ventures require a range of emergent skills: product strategy, user research, design/UX, rapid prototyping, software development and data science.
The team needs to work in a highly collaborative and responsive way. This requires the team to be co-located, communicate constantly and use proven agile work practices.
The core challenge of spin-ups is how to rigorously validate customer problems and solutions. The Lean Startup movement provides the framework and tools for this precise purpose.
The magic of the spin-up is in the spirit of possibility, freedom and entrepreneurism unleashed when a small group of people come together to make something new.
HOW WE OPERATE
Client IP
We work with a range of companies keen to develop spin-ups in which they retain 100% of the IP. This operates as a classic fee-for-service model based on a bespoke project plan.
The spin-up involves designing and assembling a hybrid team (typically 4-8 people) of your key employees alongside our specialist capabilities.
The team might work together anywhere from 3 weeks to 6 months and beyond.
In-House
We develop our very own spin-ups. We apply our same methodology, approach and founder spirit to opportunities that we identify ourselves.
This keeps us sharp and ensures we retain that unique feeling of being in the trenches.
Joint Venture
We also work on a joint venture basis with partners. This can occur when a client wants to extend the relationship after a Client IP project, or if a suitable partner wants to invest in an Early Days In-House spin-up.