The Pilot to Paid Programme
12-week cohort programme | Investment: £10,000 +VAT
Avoid the pilot trap
88% of pilots never convert to production or paid contracts. They stay at proof of concept for too long and don’t become a full-scale product.
Pilots should show willingness to pay, value creation, and the risks that block scaling and adoption, not just technical feasibility.
What is Pilot to Paid?
Our 12-week, structured programme combines 1-2-1 workshops and coaching, as well as weekly group training to support your pilot increase its chances of converting to paid. Our focus is to help turn your pilots into revenue-generating contracts and prove your solution can scale.
Sitting between an accelerator and a consultancy, we will “teach you to fish”, showing you how to design pilots that inform commercial decisions, rather than running open-ended proofs of concept.
Evaluation is driven by both quantitative and qualitative data, mapped directly to conversion and procurement decisions. So, if you’re pre-launch, we’ll define key metrics during planning. Or we will help you design the most valuable measurements for anything in flight. Importantly, we’ll show you how to turn data into clear go/no-go/renegotiate decisions beyond the pilot phase.
Pilots have lots of moving parts. We’ll be looking at what makes a company a good fit, establishing willingness to pay and how your product aligns with their operations and procurement processes, making them, or a similar business, a long-term customer with repeatable commercial terms.
You’ll need to set aside 1-2 days a week for this programme over 12 weeks. We will work in a small cohort (max. 4) so we can focus on you.
Who’s it for?
Founders with planned or active pilots
You have pilots running or planned, but struggle to work out how to evaluate them and get insights on commercial viability. You need to understand why prospects test your solution but don't commit to commercial deployment or contracts.
Hardware and deep tech companies
Your solution requires physical deployment, system integration, or lengthy testing cycles. You're proving technical performance but need to demonstrate commercial viability and operational scalability without bespoke delivery every time.
B2B founders seeking investment
Investors are asking for proof beyond pilot activity. You need validated conversion metrics, unit economics, and evidence that your solution delivers ROI and converts under real procurement constraints in real-world conditions, not just controlled tests.
On the programme, you'll benefit from:
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Move beyond vanity metrics. Measure adoption rates, usage patterns, reliability, and operational fit. Understand what's working, what's broken, and which pilots are worth pursuing versus abandoning.
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Test willingness-to-pay with pilot companies and new prospects. Validate pricing against competitive alternatives, map funding sources and procurement processes, and prove cost-competitiveness at scale. Plus, whether it integrates into existing workflows and infrastructure, if customers will change their processes/behaviour, if the economics make sense outside of the first non-lab scale and if anything could block rollout, such as the supply chain.
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Interview ecosystem and organisational stakeholders (e.g. system integrators, implementation partners) to validate dependencies, requirements, and resources needed for commercial deployment.
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Prove to investors, boards and grant funding assessors that your pilots demonstrate commercial traction, not just technical feasibility. Generate the evidence needed for Series A/B raises and larger grant applications.
The 12-Week Journey
Weeks 1: Pilot Performance Assessment
In a workshop, we’ll evaluate your planned and active pilots and put together a plan to collect data to measure aspects such as human-computer interaction, adoption, usage patterns, and ROI. If renegotiation is needed, you’ll have the tools to recalibrate expectations and timelines.
Weeks 2-3: Evaluation Framework Design and Set-Up
With group training and coaching, together we’ll build a tailored framework designed for you to measure key metrics such as technical, economic, operational, and commercial dimensions. Plus, get your pilot set up from a technical aspect (e.g. adding in heatmaps) to booking in interviews.
Data collection across conversations with key stakeholders such as users and CFO/buyers, analysing technology data and external sources, to inform decisions on aspects such as pricing strategy, sales cycles, commercial/procurement processes, adoption requirements and potential commercial terms.
Weeks 4-9: Data Collection
Evaluate the pilot across multiple points from operational to financial readiness. Design a conversion pathway for viable opportunities with clear next steps toward paid deployment.
Weeks 10-11: Synthesis for Decision-Making
Synthesise findings into 12-month execution plan: pilots to paid customers and contracts. Define product priorities based on commercial value, partnership activation sequence, and investment requirements for commercial scale.
Week 12: Pilot-to-Paid Decision + Roadmap
Format
1-2-1 workshops at key milestones
Weekly 1-hour group training sessions
Weekly 1-2-1 coaching
Self-directed pilot evaluation and stakeholder interviews
Peer learning cohort of up to 4 founders
Eligibility Criteria
Have planned or active pilots/ closed beta deployments
You're testing your solution in real-world conditions with organisations.
Seeking conversion clarity
Whether pilots are stalling or progressing, you want systematic validation to understand what drives conversion and which opportunities are worth pursuing or abandoning, before they drain time and credibility.
Openness to strategic decisions
You're prepared to abandon pilots that won't convert and focus resources on opportunities with genuine commercial potential, even if that means difficult conversations.
Access to pilot users and decision-makers
You can reach the people using your solution in pilots, plus the internal buyers who would authorise full commercial deployment.
Time commitment
You can dedicate 1-2 days per week for 12 weeks to interviews, analysis, and programme activities.
How to Apply
Four-Step Process:
Join the Waitlist
Let us know you are interested via our waitlist. Cohorts will be announced during February/March 2026, and we will invite you to complete an application.
Complete the Application
Complete a short form outlining your innovation, stage, and motivation for joining.
Discovery Call
If shortlisted, we'll invite you to a 30-minute conversation to explore your goals and confirm programme fit and availability.
Cohort Placement
Successful applicants receive a formal offer and are placed in the next available cohort.
Programme Start
Begin your 12-week validation journey with your cohort.
Our Track Record
So, why us?
Dr Chloe Sharp, the founder of Sharp Insight, has written the book about the topic of validation across discovery to experimentation: “Make Products That Matter” and has worked with 100s of businesses across the product development phase, from idea to launch to existing products.
Chloe has designed this programme as she speaks with early-stage founders regularly, and this is a big problem.
She has…
Secured grant funding across multiple competitions such as Innovate UK and DfID, personally securing over £10m and leading teams that have secured 10s of millions.
Academic experience and commercial experience, meaning she knows that theory has its place, but it’s all about the execution and getting results.
Been there and done that as an entrepreneur. She’s grown businesses from the ground up, that have turned over £100,000 in their first year of trading.
Worked with leading accelerators in the creative technology, deep tech and climate/sustainability industries, including Amazon Sustainability Accelerator, Science Creates, CoSTAR, Undaunted, Natwest and Carbon13.
Worked with founders who went on to raise investment from funds such as SFC Capital, Octopus Ventures, SJM and Live Nation.
A passion for social capital, an underrated aspect of founder and business success. Our validation approach integrates social capital theory with customer discovery. We teach founders the importance of relationships and how to systematically build bonding capital (deep sector relationships), bridging capital (cross-sector connections), and linking capital (access to power and resources).
A qualification in mentoring and coaching at the executive level at ILM7 level (master’s) and has coached on multiple programmes such as Help to Grow, TechUp and Women in Innovation (Innovate UK).
Frequently Asked Questions
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We’re planning for Spring and Autumn cohorts. Dates will be available on the course page but please join our waitlist and mailing list so we can alert you as soon as dates are announced.
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First, join the waitlist to find out when the courses are running. You will then need to complete an application form which will take about 10-15 minutes. If you are selected we’ll let you know and set up a 30-minute interview to understand more about how we can help.
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Our Market Validation and GTM/Distribution programmes have six places each, our Pilot to Paid has four places, with up to two Founders/Directors per company taking part.
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That's a successful outcome. Better to discover this in 12 weeks and under £10K than after 18 months and £200k. We'll help you identify pivot opportunities based on what you learned. Many successful companies started as pivots from validated insights.
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Wherever possible cohorts will be built of businesses with shared problems or sectors, however working with people from different sectors can be useful to see different viewpoints.
We specialise in digital technologies across multiple sectors: carbon management, ESG software, climate data, renewable energy systems, sustainable supply chain tech, materials science with digital components, biotech with software platforms, AI/ML applications for sustainability, IoT for climate/energy. We focus on software-first or software-enabled solutions.
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We run a number of Masterclasses, online courses and Chloe’s book “Make Products that Matter” are all available.
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No. You need at least a planned pilot to benefit from the course, but if you are running one or more pilots, we can help you evaluate anything in flight and improve commercial viability.
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It’s still worth doing the programme, you’re going to learn a lot from the failure and how a good pilot works. We’re flexible and we want to see you succeed, so we’ll sort things out on a case by case basis.
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Plan for 1-2 days per week: weekly group training (1 hour), bi-weekly coaching (30 mins), and self-directed fieldwork (interviews, analysis, synthesis). The heaviest weeks are during customer discovery. Most founders do interviews during evenings or weekends.
Not got time for this? Explore our Consultancy services where we do the heavy lifting for you.
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Perfect. We'll review what you've learned, identify gaps, and build on existing insights. Most founders have talked to a number of people informally, we’ll help you increase that significantly, with structure and techniques that reveals patterns you can't see from small samples.
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No. Early prototype, concept, or detailed product vision is sufficient. The programme helps you validate before committing to full development. If you've already built an MVP, our "Solution Validation & Distribution" programme is a better fit.
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If you complete Week 1 and feel the programme isn't the right fit, we'll refund 80% of your fee (minus the cost of Week 1 training and materials). No questions asked. After Week 2, the fee is non-refundable as we've committed resources to your cohort.