Key takeaways
- Stop decisions are strategic, not failures. Smart shutdowns protect credibility, resources, and portfolio focus.
- Base exits on evidence, not politics. Use milestones, clear criteria, and clean market validation to guide decisions.
- Combine data with customer voice. Pair metrics with real user enthusiasm to make cases undeniable.
- Keep validation lean. Low-cost, fast tests reduce sunk-cost pressure and make timely stops easier.
- Manage people and process. Set expectations early, use problem-first mindsets, and use language that aligns teams.
Knowing when to kill a corporate venture can be just as important as knowing how to start one. Why? Because smart kills protect credibility, preserve resources, and keep teams motivated, while poor ones burn resources, waste momentum, and put your entire program at risk.
This is something Nancy Yaklich, Head of Innovation at Caterpillar and Bundl Venture Club member, knows from experience. Across her roles at Caterpillar, Cargill, Best Buy, UnitedHealthcare, and GE, she has mastered the art of the “kill call”, knowing when to make it, how to protect value, and how to guide the process while keeping leadership support strong and teams engaged.
Drawing on over 15 years of experience scaling corporate ventures inside Fortune 500 enterprises, she shares seven key lessons to help corporate innovators kill initiatives with discipline, preserve credibility, and create conditions for future success.
Lesson 1. Use the right words: Why “Stop” or “Pause” beats “Kill”
In corporate innovation, language often shapes how leadership processes tough decisions. Nancy Yaklich has seen firsthand how the wrong words can derail alignment.
“If you’ve done this in certain corporations, you know the word kill is so final. Executives have a real hard time killing things, particularly if its their idea or pet project.”
That’s why she advises reframing the conversation. Instead of saying a venture is being killed, call it “stopped” or “paused”. The distinction matters because a “stop” or “pause” acknowledges market realities without shutting the door on future opportunities.
Lesson 2. Know a bad stop from a good one
Not all venture stops are created equal. The best are data-driven and preserve value for the future. The worst are political, abrupt, and waste hard-earned momentum. Nancy Yaklich has seen both.
When Yaklich’s team developed solar-powered trailers for job sites, customer demand was instant. One client called it “the best Christmas present ever” and ordered a thousand units. However, a new SVP came in who wasn't interested in championing the project, and the trailers were shelved. For Yaklich, it was a textbook bad stop: politics overriding clear evidence.
In contrast, a good stop recognises when the market isn’t ready. When Yaklich’s team tested a new service model, the economics were challenging due to higher equipment costs and substantial infrastructure investments. Instead of forcing it forward, they documented the conditions that would justify a restart later when conditions would be more favourable.
Lesson 3. Build milestone-driven governance
Stopping ventures should never come as a surprise. The best innovation programs set clear milestones up front so teams know exactly what success looks like, when to pivot, and when to stop.
Nancy Yacklich has seen this work across very different environments:
- At Best Buy: Retail data created six-week checkpoints for go/no-go decisions.
- At Caterpillar: Shadow brand testing validated demand in just two weeks.
This milestone-driven approach gives teams structure without being rigid. Instead of open-ended projects that drift into “just keep growing” mode, ventures operate with clear decision points and evidence-based checkpoints.
Lesson 4. Validate with both data and emotion
Numbers are critical, but they don’t always tell the whole story. In corporate innovation, emotional proof can often tip the scales where financial models fall short.
Yaklich finds that the most persuasive pitches combined hard data with authentic customer voices. In other words, market validation is strongest when executives can see and hear customers express their enthusiasm directly.
“There’s nothing like hitting play on a video and having a potential customer say, ‘This is the greatest thing since sliced bread.’ When you have those two together, it’s a superpower.”
This blend of statistical validation and emotional resonance makes it harder for decision-makers to dismiss opportunities as “just market research.” It creates irrefutable evidence that the problem is real and the solution has traction.
Lesson 5. Keep early validation cheap
Big budgets can create false confidence. When too much money is invested in validation, teams feel pressure to continue even if the market indicates it's time to stop.
Yaklich learned to cap early validation costs, often at less than $150,000. Instead of heavy R&D spend, her teams use “scrappy” methods to test customer interest, including:
- LinkedIn outreach
- Quick prototypes
- Shadow brands
This lean validation approach makes it easier to stop ventures that weren’t gaining traction, without wasting resources or demoralising teams.
Lesson 6. Manage the human side of stopping
Stopping ventures is an emotional process. Managed poorly, it can drain morale and undermine trust in the entire innovation program. Yaklich emphasises the importance of clear governance and expectations from day one.
Teams should know the milestones, decision criteria, and potential outcomes before they start. That way, a stop isn’t a shock but part of an agreed process. Equally important is cultivating the right mindset. According to Yaklich:
“You want to have the passion for the problem that the customer has, not so much the solution.”
This problem-first mindset makes it easier to let go of specific projects without losing the bigger sense of purpose. Yacklich goes on to explain:
“The best founders know when things aren’t working and are willing to stop. It’s a hard decision, but better to make it yourself than let someone else make it for you.”
Lesson 7. Use shadow brands for pure validation
Customer feedback can be distorted when a venture is tied to a big corporate brand. Some people say yes because of the logo, others say no because they assume the solution doesn’t fit. Either way, the data is biased.
Yaklich overcame this challenge by using shadow brand testing, which involves creating neutral, temporary brands to test concepts in the market without corporate baggage.
This approach proved especially powerful at Caterpillar when her team validated demand for their solar-powered trailers in just two weeks using a shadow brand. It proved to be faster, cheaper, and cleaner than traditional development methods. As described by Yaklich:
“Shadow brands avoid politics and brand bias. They’re an equaliser, because every project gets tested on the same terms.”
By stripping away internal politics and customer preconceptions, shadow brands reveal whether the market truly cares about the problem you’re solving.
Final thoughts
Yaklich’s insights make one thing clear: knowing when and how to stop is one of the most valuable skills a corporate innovator can build. Smart stops help you protect resources, maintain credibility, and set the stage for future wins. The best programs know how to stop strategically, learn from the process, and restart when the time is right.
A big thanks to Nancy Yacklich for sharing her insights with us and the BVC community. For more Bundl Venture Club insights, be sure to sign up for our next roundtable. Hope to see you there!
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