This is a past issue of the Dawn Newsletter. Each edition delivers an insight, a question, and an opportunity - drawn from real-time strategy work inside family businesses. The opportunity expires with each send, but we share selected issues here so you can get a taste. Want the next one in your inbox? Subscribe below or to the right.

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Let’s say you want to innovate inside a family business. You could hire a consultant. You could launch a workshop. You could create a “transformation committee” (with PowerPoint). Or - and this is my personal favorite - you could do nothing, but talk about it, a lot. This, apparently, is innovation. 

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Unless you’re a venture builder. Then you build stuff. But what is a venture builder? I get this question constantly. It usually comes right after, “What exactly do you do?” and before, “Is that like consulting?” Good question. Yes. No. Kind of.

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Insight

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A venture builder is basically a startup that builds other startups - except sometimes for clients, except not like an agency, and with more spreadsheets. Most venture builders spin out new businesses for corporates. They have innovation budgets, internal sponsors, and risk appetite (at least until next quarter’s earnings). They move fast. Sometimes they even ship things. 

But they don't typically do this for family businesses. Why? Oh. So many reasons.

[ Exhibit A ]

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The governance model includes at least one cousin, one dad, and someone who is technically retired but still signs off on strategy.

[ Exhibit B ]

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They prefer large budgets and low risk. Corporates change CEOs and strategies constantly. For better or worse, this makes it easier to sell them the same service in different stages of their cycles or spin-out a successful venture from the core company.

[ Exhibit C ]

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They don't want to and cannot afford to fail - not because of capital, but because of reputation. “The name is on the building.” This makes things harder for venture builders.

And this is why most venture builders avoid family businesses. Too slow. Too emotional. Too complex. Can’t take equity. No clear exit. But here’s what I've seen: The ideas are better. They’re grounded. Profitable. Real distribution. Real customers. Actual revenue. And the need? It’s not theoretical.

I come from legacy businesses - Turkish family firms in import and real estate, Swiss SMEs in wholesale. Some thrived. Others slowly vanished. Not because they were bad businesses, but because no one asked: What’s next? Not soon enough, anyway. That’s what stuck with me. Legacy doesn’t protect itself. It gets rebuilt - or it fades.

So when I work with successors now, I don’t just see businesses at risk. I see second chances to build what the first generation never got to. And what these businesses lack isn’t potential. It’s a container and a sparring partner. A structure and competency where new ideas can breathe. Be tested. Owned. Grown. Without dragging 40 years of habits into the room. 

If you’re still wondering what a venture builder actually does... It’s a mix of offer design, marketing and sales, and technical MVP execution. In a corporate - or family business context - that means:

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• Scanning the market and shaping new value propositions
• Designing minimum viable products - sometimes digital, sometimes not
• Testing pricing, messaging, and conversion
• Setting up the sales infrastructure and customer journey
• Building the workflows, teams, or systems to support scale

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It’s everything you’d need to get a new business model off the ground - done with you, not to you. A good venture builder acts like a co-founder with structure and a deadline.

One of my clients had been debating a new business model for years. Committees. Three hires. Dozens of PowerPoints that told the same story. But nothing launched. I came in, asked a lot of uncomfortable questions, scoped a customer insight test, and started selling. Found the right client segment. Built a real offer. Got actual paying customers. In months.

What changed? Nothing - except everything. We didn’t just tweak the idea. We gave it air. Ownership. Distance. A path to act. Turns out, people are pretty good at innovation when they’re allowed to ship. Because innovation and venture building aren't just about ideas. It’s about giving them the structure to live. To grow. To turn into revenue. Or a company. 

And family businesses? They don’t need more consultants. They need containers. They need momentum. They need someone to help them build the next thing - without burning down the old one.

Question

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So what’s the one idea in your business that’s been “interesting” - and still hasn’t launched?

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Opportunity

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This specific opportunity has passed. If you want to build smarter innovation strategies - and actually turn them into real venture projects - subscribe to the newsletter and stay in the loop. The next one might be exactly what you need.