Stage 02 · Venture Builder
Evaluate
Validate the opportunity before you build the business.
We test whether an opportunity solves a genuine problem and assess its market potential.
- We shortlist ideas where technology or regulation can drive positive market disruption.
- We evaluate each idea against competitive landscape and market sizing analysis.
- We examine market size, competition and growth potential to identify the strongest opportunity.
Reading for this stage
Articles on evaluate
Build Stories
Inside a GCV Labs build: how a company actually gets created
What the seven stages look like in practice, told through Intelligence Fusion, n-gage.io, Business Finance Market, Valius Global and Quva.
Read the articleBuild Stories
From build to exit: what a venture builder contributes that capital alone cannot
Capital is necessary but it does not assemble a company. Intelligence Fusion shows what a venture builder contributes from idea through to acquisition.
Read the articleStrategy
Validating an opportunity before you build
Evaluation is the cheapest stage of company creation and the one most often skipped. Here is what it should actually test - and why the decision to stop is one of the most valuable outcomes it can produce.
Read the articleStrategy
How to size a market: TAM, SAM and SOM without fooling yourself
What TAM, SAM and SOM actually mean, how to calculate them bottom-up, and a worked example you can copy.
Read the articleInvesting
Assessing risk in early-stage companies: an investor's checklist
The six-lens diligence framework we use when assessing an early-stage company, and the questions under each that reliably surface the real risk.
Read the articleComing next in this stage
- Customer discovery interviews: a practical method
- Competitor analysis that changes decisions
- Choosing a business model: subscription, usage or transaction
- Pricing an early-stage B2B product
- Stage gates: deciding to proceed, pivot or stop
- Willingness to pay: how to test it honestly
- Regulatory and compliance diligence before you build
The seven stages
The knowledge framework
01
Ideate
Find opportunities worth building a company around.
02
Evaluate
Validate the opportunity before you build the business.
03
Create
Turn a validated opportunity into a company.
04
Incubate
Build something real and prove it works.
05
Launch
Take the product to market and find repeatable demand.
06
Accelerate
Build the engine that turns demand into growth.
07
Scale
Build a durable company, not just a growing one.