Hey, Slavo here 👋 

What if I told you there was a way to try a “demo” version of entrepreneurship? No risk involved, only a time investment required.

The approach presented in this issue is based on my experience from founding SKODA Auto Digilab in 2017, which essentially gave me the opportunity to explore entrepreneurship before I left to start my own companies.

Hooked? Continue reading.

If one minute is all you have, feel free to scroll down to the TL;DR summary. Topics for today:

• Intrapreneurship, not a side hustle

• Search for a problem worth solving

• Pitch, deliver & document

• Transition options

• TL;DR Playbook for Entrepreneurship at Your Employer's Expense

• GPT prompt to get you started

Intrapreneurship, huh? It’s not a side hustle

If you are serious about leaving your job and starting a business but not yet ready to jump ship, you have two options. The first one is to start a side hustle, a project you work on over the weekend to acquire new skills, make money, and earn something.

If this scares you, there is another less risky way: meet “intrapreneurship.”

Need another pitch? It goes something like this: “Identify a problem in your company worth solving, propose a solution and action plan to your superiors, and execute it. You gain new skills related to entrepreneurship and some credibility for the future. If you fail, well, your employer bears the cost.”

Employers value intrapreneurs. They are the driving force behind value creation, change, and execution in companies. As you can see in the graph above, which I pulled from Google Trends, terms related to intrapreneurship are on a steadily growing trend. So, how do you start?

Search for a problem worth solving

If you hear a “problem,” understand “problem = opportunity.” There are tons of problems in companies. The key is to find one that you can turn into your learning project. Before you settle on a project to pitch, there are points to consider regarding how easy it will be to get it approved.

Things to consider:

• Solving this problem will bring my company more revenue/profit

• It solves a problem of my superior

• It opens up a new line of business

• I can launch it in 3-6 months

• It generates significant savings in time/money

• It is related to the core business of the company

• It’s focused on non revenue generating aspects of the business

• It’s only a nice to have new thing

If your opportunity consists of traits higher on the list above, you are more likely to get the activity approved. For example, if you identify a new market where you can launch a simple digital product and generate new revenue within six months, you score maximum points. Conversely, if you solve a parking problem for some of your colleagues, you address a low-value issue in the eyes of your company.

Pitch, deliver & document

Each of these topics could fill an entire issue of this newsletter. I will delve into these subjects in the future, but here is a primer for now:

Let’s keep the ultimate aim of this exercise at the forefront of our minds. We need to seize the opportunity, do the work, learn new skills along the way, and establish credibility (optional, depending on the business you want to start).

• Pitch: This is where you learn the basics of pitching for a budget (investment). Identify the budget holder, get a deck together and “win” your “investment”

• Deliver: Here you actually do the work. Action plan, product specs, vendors, stakeholder alignment, procurement, business plan. All these skills will be crucial for you, try to learn as much as possible since someone else is paying for it.

• Document: After you’ve done the work, reflect on the process. Would you make money if this was your real business? Has it gone according to the plan? Document the process and the achievements. If you wanted to start a consultancy in real life, these projects could be your case studies.

Transition options

Let’s move forward 6 months, you’ve delivered value, learned new skills and have the “proof”. Now you essentially have 3 options how to move ahead:

1. Build a portfolio, meaning find another problem to solve in your company to add to your “project portfolio” to boost future credibility or learn another skill.

2. Start a side hustle, meaning start something small on your own, which you will do on the weekend and might become your transition out of a regular 9-5.

3. Become a founder, meaning handing in your resignation letter and becoming exactly that, a founder.

Whichever option you choose as a next step, always think a few steps ahead and consider the reasons for selecting that particular pathway. Think in terms of experience, skill, credibility, and money.

To summarize intrapreneurship, is it “real” entrepreneurship? No. Is it a way to acquire some skills/experience/credibility that you will need further down your way? Absolutely YES.

TL;DR Playbook for Entrepreneurship at Your Employer's Expense

1. Check if your organization talks about “innovation & new things”

2. Identify innovation budget holders

3. Find a problem worth solving. It’s either a money saver or money maker. Calculate how big the problem/opportunity is and what it can bring to your company

4. If you have more ideas, select one where you can see results in 3-6 months

5. Pitch your boss and/or innovation budget holder

6. If response is positive, follow up with an action plan & budget request

7. Deliver & collect credibility and evaluate skills you’ve acquired

8. Choose one of the following:

   1. Do another intrapreneurship project for your “portfolio”

   2. Start a side hustle

   3. Leave & jump into entrepreneurship

Ready to start? I’ve created a small conversation started prompt for you, so you can have an honest conversation with you intrapreneurship buddy:

Ready to dive in? Shoot me a DM or reply with the details of your project. I'm excited to be your accountability partner!

That's it for this week. Keep building!

Catch you next Sunday!

- Slavo