Julie Collins presenting
Commercialization Strategy · Customer Discovery

De-risking innovation.
Defining opportunity.

Two decades working with SBIR-funded teams. One focus: turning assumptions into evidence.

We work with technically-led ventures and the programs that fund and support them. We give teams the structure and coaching to do their own customer discovery — de-risking innovation and defining market opportunity.

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SBIR experience
20+ years building structured methodology for deep tech commercialization
Programs & institutions
NSF · NIH · DOE · 15+ universities and accelerators
Teams supported
2,500+ technically-led ventures and projects across 40+ national cohorts
Who we work with

Accelerators and programs
that want their teams to do
real discovery.

Institutions hire us to run cohorts, coach facilitators, and embed structured customer discovery into their programs. The teams do the work. We give them the framework, the tools, and the coaching to do it well.

90%
of startups fail — most cite building something nobody wanted
42%
of failed ventures trace back to no real market need
20+
interviews needed before patterns reliably emerge
3×
higher success rate for teams who validate before they build
Our Approach

How we work

A structured, evidence-based process — from raw idea to confident opportunity definition.

01
Frame the Opportunity

Teams learn to translate their technology into the language of the people who matter — jobs-to-be-done, not features. No pitching. No solution-first thinking. We coach them through it.

02
Go into the Field

Teams conduct their own interviews with practitioners. We equip them with the structure, questions, and discipline to have conversations that generate real signal — not confirmation of what they already believe.

03
Synthesize and Define

Teams surface patterns across their interviews and define the opportunity in evidence-based terms. We facilitate the synthesis — they own the conclusion.

What we offer

Built for teams who need to move with evidence, not instinct.

Whether you're a research team with a new technology, a startup finding product-market fit, or an enterprise team validating a new direction — we have a path for you.

Cohort Programs

We run innovation cohorts end-to-end — framing, field work, synthesis — for accelerators and programs whose teams need to validate their opportunities before they build.

Institutional Coaching

We work with accelerators and universities to embed structured customer discovery into their own programs — training staff, building curriculum, and leaving you with the capability to run it yourselves.

Tools & Frameworks

Purpose-built tools that accelerate the process — from opportunity framing through interview logging to hypothesis tracking. Structure that turns conversations into evidence.

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Our philosophy

Evidence before investment. Always.

No pitching in discovery

The moment a team describes their solution, the interview is over. Good discovery means asking about the other person's world — their workflows, their workarounds, their frustrations. We train teams to hold this discipline even when it's uncomfortable.

Patterns, not anecdotes

One compelling story is not a market. We push teams to find the same signal across enough conversations that it stops feeling like coincidence — and help them resist the temptation to build on the first exciting thing they hear.

Hypotheses are meant to break

A hypothesis that survives every interview wasn't tested hard enough. We help teams construct real assumptions, run them through real conversations, and update their thinking — not defend what they already believe.

Ready to find out what the market actually needs?

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