There's plenty of "leanwashing" going on, that's for sure. The key is to move from "pretend startup" to "real startup" - which is 100% possible inside an estab

There's plenty of "leanwashing" going on, that's for sure. The key is to move from "pretend startup" to "real startup" - which is 100% possible inside an established company if the leadership wants it to happen. But it is not easy; it requires significant changes to many of the company's systems, including HR and Finance. To know if it's likely to work ask yourself: 1. does the startup have the authority to operate autonomously or does it need endless approvals and permissions? 2. does the startup have a clear board that it is accountable to for both funding and pivot decisions? 3. is the statup cross-functional across all the functions required to build the product? 4. are the members of the startup full-time on just that one thing? 5. is the budgeting process metered (ie fixed rounds of funding) or entitlement based (ie annual appropriates with quarterly adjustments)? If you don't have good answers to all five of these questions, you're probably playing startup more than real startup.