I’m an industrial designer with over 10 years experience bringing products to market, establishing manufacturing and supply chains and scaling them. If you wanted a chat I’d be happy to take a look at where you’re at and see if I can give you a steer?

Happy to jump on a Google meet and chat for an hour.

But then how are they gonna see my rad pinwheel slide transitions if I save it as a PDF???

Thank you for taking the time to write that all out. I love it, it’s such a fresh way to approach it and validate without sinking too much time or cost into it.

In terms of IP, do you get people involved to sign an NDA or do you care less about any IP generated than the value that the exercise creates?

If you can share your template I’d definitely appreciate it!

try to spin something up in a weekend, hackathon-style.

I love this idea! Do you have a list of what you’d target to accomplish over a weekend?

What does validation look like to you?

Are you 26 and bored or 26 and solely driven towards solving a problem?

Even your phrasing of the question answers this. A “start up” is not the thing that you’re making you’re making a business that needs to solve a problem completely enough that people are willing to pay for it.

If you’ve only ever worked in large corporations I don’t think you realise how reliant you are on a massive network of other people and resources. You might hear this and think “oh but I had to convince my manager to do X/y/z” and that’s great but in a start up you’re literally it. You’re sales, legal, marketing, supply chain management, QA, real estate agent, HR, engineer, logistics manager, and more.

If you’re thinking of starting a business doing your job, you’re talking about a creating a service providing business which is more the territory of a contractor initially. If you are thinking of starting a data analytics business start out trying to get contract work and you’ll rapidly learn how hard it is out there.

I’d personally recommend that you look into other aspects of your life to find what you’re looking for. Work is work, there is so much more to a happy life than work. Google ikigai. It’s a useful tool to think about how other aspects of your life are influencing your happiness.

You’re amongst the highest earners in the world at 26. Try and build a well rounded life with that privilege. £200k liquid by 30, could well be several million by 40 if you simply invested it instead. Stick it in an index fund and retire at 40 before AI completely envelopes your industry. You’ve already won the lottery buddy.