Incubating New Products Inside Mature Companies

Garrett Lord's approach to building a new business within an established company centers on creating a completely separate entity with its own identity, pace, and culture. When Handshake recognized the opportunity to leverage their network of academic experts for AI data labeling, they didn't just add a new product line—they built an entirely new company inside their existing one.

The core of Lord's philosophy is that zero-to-one innovation requires complete separation from the established business. "I just really believe it's separate and everything," he explains. When launching Handshake AI, he created separate engineering, design, operations, and finance teams. Team members had "one job and one job only" - making the new venture successful. This separation extended to physical space (working in a different part of the office), different meeting cadences, and even different compensation structures tied to the new business's success.

Lord emphasizes that founder-level commitment is essential. Rather than delegating the new business to someone else, he dedicated 80% of his time to it while his executive team ran the core business. He personally recruited top talent from the main company, being transparent that joining meant accepting a fundamentally different work environment—one with late nights, weekend work, and a much faster pace.

The new business operated with a distinct culture built around urgency and ownership. Lord instituted a "leave nothing to chance" philosophy, constantly reminding the team of the unique market opportunity they faced: "There will never be a time like this. I've never seen anything like it. I doubt I'll ever feel anything like this in business again where there's unlimited demand." This created a mindset where team members would "get on a plane to go talk to a customer, make the late night push, check the data six times over again."

For leaders and teams navigating similar transitions, the implications are clear: attempting to build disruptive new products within existing operational structures will likely fail. Innovation requires dedicated resources, different expectations, and a willingness to create a fundamentally different working environment. The approach also requires being extremely selective about who joins the new venture—prioritizing entrepreneurial mindsets comfortable with ambiguity over those who prefer stability.

While many companies talk about innovation, Lord's approach shows that true disruption requires the courage to essentially build a new company from scratch, even if it operates under the same corporate umbrella. This means accepting different metrics, different working styles, and different expectations—creating space for the intensity required to capitalize on rare market opportunities.