The Market Creators' Lab is an annual membership program that brings together a community of market creators to understand and navigate the Market Creator's Dilemma. 

Over 12 months, you’ll hear from experts, connect with peers, and have a front row seat as two market creating ventures are developed. 

The 2025 Market Creators' Lab is hosted by Cornell University. 

A collaboration between:

The Market Creators' Lab is brought to you by experts in market creation, trusted by the world's top institutions:

Professional Investors | Senior Executives & Corporate Innovation Teams | Investor-Sponsored Startups | Venture Studios | Angel Investors  

Does your work involve commercialising or investing in new-to-world products and technologies?

Are you interested in finding business solutions to hard-to-solve societal problems?

Do you want to bring an existing product or service to a new geography with a fundamentally different operating environment?

Have you identified a group of customers with a need that’s not being met, or met profitably?

Are you struggling to scale your disruptive innovation?

The common thread in all failed market creation efforts  

When innovators design businesses for new markets using best practice for existing markets, they unwittingly trap themselves in core business concepts with a narrow or completely foreclosed path to profitability. 

By defining product ideas based on what customers want and need—a fundamental principle of effective product design—venture builders import a market barrier into their core business concepts. A market barrier is a systemic flaw in the DNA of a core business concept that drives up the cost of the product beyond the value it generates for customers. 

A market barrier initially presents as a key activity that keeps unit costs persistently high. But when businesses  attempt to lower these costs by changing that activity, 

another part of the business model—one that was previously functioning well—suddenly becomes problematic. Costs rise again, and the cycle repeats, creating an unwinnable game of Whac-A-Mole. 

The only way to get rid of a market barrier is by re-engineering the entire business concept. It's for that reason that market creators face a unique innovation challenge. 

The Market Creator's Dilemma is insidious and widely misunderstood. It's why we see success rates in market creation of less than 1%, and why talented entrepreneurs and sophisticated corporate venture teams spending years experimenting relentlessly without ever reaching sustained profitability.  

Director, IVE Program at Cornell and Founder of venture design firm Half-Solved 

Erik has spent his career working at the intersection of market creation and research. He has guided over forty new corporate ventures and startups, in industries from financial services to FMCG. Drawing on this experience, Erik founded the practice of Integrative Venture Engineering, a novel market creation methodology that reduces the time, risk and cost to build a profitable new market venture. He holds a PhD in Strategy from Cornell, and has been published in leading journals including Harvard Business Review and Sloan Management Review.

CEO of venture design firm Half-Solved

Patrick is a seasoned innovation leader with 20+ years of experience in product, business, and engineering roles at Facebook, Automattic, Rockwell and mission-driven startups. As a 0-to-1 venture leader, he has created multi-million dollar revenue impact, led corporate innovation and research efforts, and was the co-founder of the Hoop Fund and head of product for eParachute, driving impact across a range of industries.

Market Creators' Lab Advisory Board 

CEO Tiny Studio, part of buy-and-hold acquirer Tiny.com

Head of EMEA Sustainability Solutions and GTM, Amazon

CEO, Gold Coast Advisors - Family Office and Merchant Bank

Director of the Center for Sustainable Enterprise, Cornell University

Market Creators' Lab Team 

Founder, Buddy Health; MCL Fellow at Cornell

Founder, calmlyresolve.com; MCL Fellow at Cornell

Venture Architect

Venture Architect

Outstanding questions? 

Contact us at:

hello@marketcreatorslab.com  

The Market Creators' Lab is a collaboration between Cornell University's Centre for Sustainable Global Enterprise, the International Council on Systems Engineering, and the venture design firm Half-Solved