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As of 2025, Highline Beta argues that the Validate Phase is the critical checkpoint where promising venture concepts must prove themselves through structured real-world experiments before committing to MVP development.
The Validate Phase consists of six key activities: refining concepts into high-fidelity prototypes, testing desirability through qualitative and quantitative methods, building business models with realistic assumptions, assessing technical feasibility, developing go-to-market hypotheses, and preparing signal-backed pitches. Highline Beta evaluates concepts against six criteria including willingness to use, early adopter clarity, market saturation, revenue potential, feasibility, and business case strength. Most corporate ventures skip proper validation and burn six months of budget learning what could have been validated in weeks, making this phase essential for failing smart rather than slow.
The six activities are: refining the concept into clickable prototypes and pricing mockups, conducting desirability testing through interviews and ad tests to gauge willingness to pay, building business models that stress-test assumptions around revenue and customer acquisition costs, assessing technical feasibility and resource requirements for MVP development, developing go-to-market strategy hypotheses identifying early adopters and sales channels, and preparing signal-backed pitches for the go/no-go decision. These activities transform throwaway concepts into refined, tested ventures with strong business cases.
Desirability testing involves running both qualitative and quantitative experiments to measure user intent, interest, and willingness to pay for the proposed solution. This includes conducting user interviews, running targeted ad tests, securing letters of intent from potential customers, and deploying surveys to gather feedback. The key principle is that if nobody shows genuine interest or willingness to pay during this testing phase, the concept should not proceed to the build stage.
Concepts are assessed against six key criteria: willingness to use, early adopter clarity, market saturation levels, revenue potential, technical feasibility, and overall business case strength. If the signals across these criteria are strong, the concept moves to the build phase. If the signals are weak, the concept is killed to avoid wasting months of development time and budget on an unviable venture.
Most corporate ventures overestimate initial desirability signals and skip proper real-world validation, falling in love with their ideas and jumping directly into the build phase. This approach results in burning six months and significant budget learning lessons that could have been validated in just a few weeks through structured testing. The Validate Phase prevents this costly mistake by turning conviction into clarity before major resource commitments are made.
Missed last week’s edition? You can read it here.
You’ve made it through Discovery.
You’ve found a promising problem.
You’ve tested early concepts.
You’ve got some signal.
Now what?
Welcome to the Validate Phase. The part of venture building where promising becomes proven. Or at least proven enough to justify real investment.
It is:
It’s not:
As we’ve said before: validated learning is the fuel for every smart decision.
The Validate Phase is where that learning gets sharper.
Here’s how we run it at Highline Beta:
1. Refine the Concept
Take your top concept and level it up. Build landing pages. Pricing mockups. Clickable prototypes. Enough fidelity for users to react with confidence and provide meaningful feedback.
2. Desirability Testing
Run qualitative and quantitative tests to gauge intent, interest, and willingness to pay. Interviews, ad tests, securing letters of intent, surveys; often all of the above.
If nobody bites here, don’t build it.
3. Business Modelling
Start putting numbers to things. What’s the revenue model? What’s the size of the prize? Where are the cost drivers? What are anticipated conversion rates? What is the customer acquisition cost?
No five-year forecasts. Just stress-test your assumptions.
4. Feasibility Assessment
Does the technology or capabilities exist to build it? Can the solution integrate with internal systems? Is it legal and compliant? What resources are needed to build an MVP?
Better to find out now than six months into development.
5. GTM Strategy
No 50-slide decks. But you do need a hypothesis.
Who are your early adopters? Where will you find them? What’s the wedge into the market? What is the sales funnel like? What sales channels will be used? Who will sell it?
6. Pitch Prep
You’re not pitching an idea—you’re presenting a signal-backed concept. This is your go/no-go checkpoint for the MVP build.
We assess every concept against six key criteria:
If the signals are strong, we build.
If they’re not? We kill it.
That’s how you fail smart, not slow.
Most corporate ventures overestimate initial desirability signals and don’t validate the concept in the real world.
They fall in love with the idea, jump into the Build phase, and burn six months (and budget) learning what they could have validated in a few weeks.
The Validate Phase prevents that.
It turns conviction into clarity.
It proves, or disproves, whether your concept is worth investing in.
You’re not aiming for certainty. You’re aiming for confidence.
Confidence to build. Confidence to kill. Confidence to move forward with purpose.
If you want to learn more, book a session with one of our corporate innovation experts (IRL!) by reaching out at hello@highlinebeta.com.
