Deutsche Telekom has this "innovation arm" called T-Labs, where they spawn startups that could have the best of both worlds: they have someone from senior leade

Deutsche Telekom has this "innovation arm" called T-Labs, where they spawn startups that could have the best of both worlds: they have someone from senior leadership on board mostly to help with the operational aspect, the executive side is free to do pretty much anything they need/want. I joined one of their companies because I thought exactly like you, that without the chaos the startup could probably be more efficient. After 3 years in 3 different projects there, I had changed my mind. Without embracing the chaotic nature of a startup, leadership gets too attached to their original plans and ends up taking longer to find product fit. Hiring was fast because they would bring consultants for anything at first, but because their pay was not tied to company growth, they only cared about milking DT cash as long as possible, and so on. Some of the people that worked there went on to create their own startups, but I am yet to see any big breakout story from T-Labs.