How to Build a High-Conviction Venture Inside a $1 Trillion Enterprise, with Sharon Rodriguez, CEO of HighPeak Al

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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