δiscovery Lab™ for Ventures
Your board asked how many ventures have validated demand. If the answer was embarrassing, here's why.
Four Questions Worth Asking
What Changes
When validation actually works
Evidence-based gates
Go/kill decisions grounded in validated demand, not the quality of the pitch deck. Capital follows evidence.
Portfolio clarity
Compare ventures apples-to-apples on evidence quality, not narrative quality. You see who has real traction.
Earlier kills
Zombie ventures die on evidence, not politics. Clean kills protect capital and credibility.
Capability that stays
Your teams learn to validate by doing it. Next year's cohort doesn't need another consulting engagement.
Board confidence
Reporting backed by auditable evidence trails. The board trusts that innovation capital is governed, not gambled.
What The Board Sees At The Next Gate Review
Every venture either has customer evidence or it doesn't
VALIDATION SCORECARD
Each venture gets an OPEN score (did prospective customers reveal real problems and needs?) and a READY score (can they act?). Scored across multiple dimensions with narrative explanation. Not just a traffic light, but why.
EVIDENCE TRAIL
Specific customer statements mapped to specific testable assumptions, with source attribution and strength ratings. This is the artifact that goes into the gate pack. Not a pitch summary, but auditable evidence of customer demand.
PORTFOLIO COMPARISON
Compare evidence quality across ventures. Same framework, same rubric. See which ventures have real traction and which have a good story. Kill decisions survive board scrutiny because they're grounded in data, not politics.
PROGRESS BETWEEN GATES
Track validation progress between reviews. Scores trend over time. You see whether a venture is building evidence or just having meetings. No more waiting for the next gate to discover nothing changed.
How It Works For Your Ventures
Five stages. Every venture. Every validation conversation.
Works With Whatever You Already Use
You Might Be Thinking
Common Questions
What does the gate review artifact actually look like?
Each venture gets a scorecard with OPEN and READY scores broken into dimensions, narrative explanation per dimension, and a full evidence trail: specific customer statements mapped to specific testable assumptions, with source attribution and strength ratings. This goes into the gate pack as auditable evidence of customer demand. Not a pitch summary.
How does this help us kill ventures earlier?
When evidence is structured and comparable, the absence of evidence becomes visible. A venture with 8 conversations and no validated demand assumptions is a clear signal. The kill decision is grounded in data, not politics. The board accepts it because the evidence trail is auditable.
Can we compare evidence quality across the portfolio?
Yes. Same framework, same rubric, comparable scores. You see which ventures are building real evidence and which are having meetings. Capital allocation decisions become evidence-based, not narrative-based.
Does this replace our Lean Startup training?
No. Lean Startup provides the philosophy. δiscovery Lab provides the execution system. Your teams learn to validate by doing it with structured support, not by reading about it. The two are complementary.
What happens when the consultants leave?
That's the point. With δiscovery Lab, the validation capability stays. The system, the rubrics, the evidence accumulation. Your teams build the skill by doing it. Next year's cohort starts from a higher baseline, not from scratch.
What does a validation cycle actually look like?
Before the meeting, the venture team defines what needs to be validated. Testable assumptions about customer demand. The platform generates structured preparation. After the meeting, they upload the transcript and the platform evaluates what was actually discovered. Evidence accumulates across conversations, so each meeting builds on the last.
How does the evaluation work?
The platform evaluates every conversation on two axes. OPEN measures whether the customer revealed their real situation. READY measures whether they can act. You get scores, breakdowns, and specific coaching recommendations. Based on rigorous AI evaluation against structured rubrics. Not a sentiment score.
What counts as evidence?
Not a quote in a pitch deck. Not "the customer seemed interested." Evidence is a validated customer statement mapped to a specific testable assumption, with a source, a strength rating, and a proof weight. The distinction is the difference between a gate decision you can defend and one you can't.
Do we need to change our existing process?
No. δiscovery Lab works within whatever stage-gate or validation process you already use. Your framework stays. Your gates stay. The quality of evidence at each gate gets better.
Can one venture use it, or does it need a portfolio deployment?
Both. A single venture team can start immediately. Portfolio deployment adds comparable scoring across ventures, programme-level visibility, and consistent validation standards. Most organisations start with one cohort, prove the impact, then expand.
How long does it take to get started?
A single venture team can start today. Programme onboarding typically takes one focused session. Your first real validation conversation goes through the platform within the first week. No lengthy implementation.
Where does our data go?
Your data stays yours. Hosted on EU infrastructure. Conversation transcripts and evaluation data are not used to train AI models. Access controlled per user, per venture, and per programme.
What does it cost?
Individual venture access is available immediately. Programme and portfolio pricing depends on cohort size and scope. Talk to us about your situation.
δiscovery Lab™ helps venture teams understand what customers actually need.
Before you commit capital to assumptions.