Molson Hart

There's an interesting parallel showing how ill-equipped incumbents can be to deal with uncertainty: seed stage VCs now widely recognize it as ridiculous to ask entrepreneurs for revenue projections — but it's still a best practice for managers unlocking funding inside big cos

That forces the intrapreneur to play a double game. First, they give its pound of flesh to the beast: the slide deck, the biz plan, the revenue projections, the demonstrations of synergy with the core biz, etc… Then, they actually get to work and foray into the unknown

Eg the Xbox first unlocked funding by promising to build on top of Windows — and since game consoles need to boot in <5s, they'd bring that innovation to Windows too. This alone was worth the investment for MS. Ofc it didn't turn out this way, but too late to withdraw by then :)

(Also the concept of intrapreneur is mostly misleading imo — intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs are subject neither to the same selection effects, constraints, or incentives)

Is there any research or Sv adage about backing intrapreneurs? It seems to me that they’d likely to be successful entrepreneurs if they wanted to.

Not to my knowledge, but I'd love to read it if you find any. A good book that touches upon the game intrapreneurs must play is How Breakthroughs Happen

Added to my wish list. What I’m thinking is that, unless there is a visionary executive driving the change, an intrapreneur not only must have a wealth creating innovation but also needs the sales and people skills to evangelize his company into developing it.

100%, the executive sponsor is key. Also the more decentralized the co, the easier their task, as there are more people around who own P&Ls and can give a chunk of their budget