What does it take to build a truly independent, high-growth startup inside a 150-year-old financial giant and then spin it out?
In this episode of Beyond the Core, Ben and Marcus sit down with Sharon Rodriguez, CEO of HighPeak Al.
Sharon shares how she's building a nimble venture within the constraints of a legacy organization, and how she’s setting it up for long-term independence.
From day-one infrastructure decisions, to managing governance and incentives, to building a playbook that’s now influencing Prudential’s broader innovation efforts, Sharon offers a rare, transparent look into what it really takes to turn a corporate venture into a standalone success.We cover:
⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 – Intro: Building ventures inside legacy orgs
01:00 – The origin of HighPeak: AI, data, and adjacent opportunity
03:30 – Why Sharon took the job: Backing, challenge, and belief
06:00 – The “tax” of corporate venture: Compliance, slowness, and trade-offs
08:30 – Building a 5-person elite team with startup DNA
10:00 – Fractional talent vs full-time hires in a regulated environment
12:00 – Incentives without equity and the plan to spin out
14:00 – Structuring for spin-out: LLC vs C-Corp, IP, and investor readiness
17:30 – Building independent infra to stay nimble and credible
19:00 – Governance, budget autonomy, and internal alignment
22:00 – From longevity to retirement insights: broadening the product vision
24:30 – Communicating enterprise value inside the mothership
26:00 – Applying Series A/B benchmarks to a corporate venture
28:00 – Playing the long game: Expanding the market vs just selling Prudential30:00 – Why this was always about adjacencies
32:00 – Innovation vs stagnation: Why corporates need to build ventures
34:30 – Challenging the status quo inside large orgs
36:00 – The origin (and evolution) of the HighPeak playbook
39:00 – Why static playbooks can’t keep up
40:30 – What’s next: potential for multiple products or spin-in ideas
42:00 – Sharon’s advice: Start with a blank sheet of paper
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