Built Venture Design Lab
ToHold
Convenes entrepreneurs, corporations, investors and researchers to advance the science of market creation and the practice of robust venture design.
Two-Part Webinar Series · Free to Attend
Billions Burned: How Lean Startup
+ Patient Capital Set Impact Ventures Up to Fail
— and What to Do About It
Session 1 — The Problem Thursday, April 9, 2025 10:00 am – 11:15 am EST
Free · Zoom Webinar Click HERE to register
Session 2 — The Solution Thursday, April 23, 2025 10:00 am – 11:15 am EST

In the quarter century since the bottom of the pyramid concept gained widespread interest, hundreds of thousands of ventures and billions in impact investment have produced a mere handful of winners — mobile money being the most notable, and perhaps only true commercial success. It's an extraordinary failure rate, even accounting for the inherent risk of new ventures. The culprit isn't lack of effort, money, or startup ecosystems. It's how impact startups are taught to design, test, and validate.

Lean startup bakes failure into impact ventures' DNA, then traps them in long, costly, and potentially fruitless validation cycles. Patient capital acts as an enabler — propping up "zombie" ventures that will forever depend on concessionary funding to survive, let alone grow. There is a better way.

Session 1 · April 9 · The Problem
Why Lean Startup Undermines Impact Ventures
Unpacks how the lean startup approach undermines any venture's path to profitability — and why the BOP context makes it especially damaging. Includes the financial mechanics that trap ventures in permanent dependency on concessionary capital.
Session 2 · April 23 · The Solution
FIT Startup: Designing Ventures for Robustness
Introduces FIT startup — an approach rooted in systems engineering that designs ventures to be profitable at launch, even when costs run higher and demand falls shorter than anticipated. A step-change alternative for builders and investors alike.
Presenters
Erik Simanis
Erik Simanis, PhD Co-Director, Built to Hold Venture Design Lab · Cornell University

30 years experience leading and guiding over two dozen ventures across a wide range of industries, including health, financial services, education, energy and mobility. Dr. Simanis' work is published in Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, and Wall Street Journal.

Patrick Donohue
Patrick Donohue Co-Director, Built to Hold Venture Design Lab · Cornell University

Product and innovation leader with 20+ years at Facebook, Automattic, Rockwell, and mission-driven startups. A 0-to-1 venture builder, he's led both corporate innovation and startups and coaches product and engineering leaders at OpenAI, Anthropic, Gusto, and beyond.

The Built to Hold Venture Design Lab is a partnership between venture design firm Half-Solved, the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise at Cornell University, and the International Council on Systems Engineering.