Choose the right market, build the right product, and put R&D and funding behind what will grow.
Apply to work with usSapienne works across the deep tech innovation ecosystem, from national labs to startup accelerators to corporate R&D.
Years before Sapienne, Tanya was leading an R&D program at Ball Aerospace. The brief was simple: build a LiDAR. Before design started, she asked who wanted it, how they would use it, why they would buy it from the company, and what they would pay.
Those answers never came. The team built it anyway. The technology worked as intended. Despite all that, there was roughly one unit sold in five years.
That experience shaped Sapienne’s approach today: market questions belong inside technical strategy from the start. What customers need, value, and will adopt should keep informing the product and R&D work as it develops.
Every Sapienne engagement starts with a critical business choice: which market to pursue, what your product needs, where R&D should go, what founders need to show investors, or what a tech ecosystem should fund next.
The goal is a direction your team can explain, act on, and keep testing.
Define exactly what must be decided, by when, and what success looks like—so every interview and analysis answers a question leadership can actually use.
Separate proven facts from assumptions about demand, price, adoption, product requirements, and market fit. Then focus first on the assumptions that could overturn the plan.
Interview the people closest to the buying, using, funding, or operating decision—not whoever is easiest to reach—so the answers reflect real constraints and priorities.
Compare repeated needs, willingness to pay, adoption barriers, technical requirements, and disagreements. Those patterns show where demand is strongest and where the current plan breaks.
Turn the findings into action: which market to pursue, what to build, where R&D goes, what gets funded, and what still needs testing before execution.
An early course correction can save a product cycle, qualification program, or R&D milestone. It also gives the stronger opportunity more time to reach customers, funding, or the next stage of development.
Sapienne helps you choose stronger markets, build products around repeated demand, turn R&D into commercial advantage, and direct funding or program resources where they can create outsized outcomes.
Use repeated customer needs to shape the core product, requirements, and value proposition around problems customers are willing to solve and pay for.
Compare demand, adoption barriers, product changes, and buying conditions so sales, product, and R&D can concentrate on the opportunity most likely to convert.
Find where established suppliers leave needs unmet, then shape your product and market entry around advantages customers actually care about.
Prioritize capabilities that improve adoption, performance, cost, or customer value so technical investment strengthens the product and the business at the same time.
Show boards, investors, funders, or leadership why a market, product, R&D program, or initiative deserves the next allocation of resources.
Use repeated founder or stakeholder needs to strengthen programs, infrastructure, and partnerships while avoiding support the ecosystem already has.
You have several credible markets or applications. Compare demand, adoption barriers, product fit, and buying conditions so one market becomes the clear first priority.
What’s Included
You have chosen a market. Find the needs customers share, what they will pay for, and what the core product must deliver to create repeatable demand.
What’s Included
You already have customers, products, or an R&D function. Tanya stays close to leadership as market signals change product priorities, expansion plans, and where the next investment goes.
What’s Included
You need a clear view of what the ecosystem is missing and what already exists. Sapienne turns stakeholder needs and capability gaps into priorities for funding, infrastructure, programs, and partnerships.
What’s Included
Unlike the coached company engagements, Sapienne runs this work end to end and brings your leadership team the findings and roadmap.
Apply for Ecosystem DiscoveryFor accelerators, incubators, and startup programs
Sapienne can plug into your program through focused workshops, company-specific coaching, or support across multiple points in the cohort. The work fits your curriculum and calendar, helping founders turn customer conversations into clearer market, product, and funding priorities.
In one Luminate cohort, all 12 CEOs asked for more time with Tanya. The program is now bringing her back year after year.
What’s Included
Useful when you need broad strategy across functions. Sapienne goes deeper on technical markets, product strategy, R&D priorities, and the customer or stakeholder input behind them and can spot trends and make connections that generalists miss.
Your team knows the technology, roadmap, and internal constraints. Sapienne adds outside perspective, sharper questions, and help interpreting what comes back before your team takes the direction forward.
Useful for market sizing or macro data collection. Sapienne focuses the work on a specific business question and carries the findings through to product, R&D, funding, or program priorities.
Useful once the market and customer are clear and you need demand, pipeline, or sales execution. Sapienne works earlier, while the market, product requirements, or strategic priority are still taking shape.
You leave with the direction, the reasoning behind it, and a clear view of what still needs testing. In company and R&D work, your team also learns how to keep gathering and interpreting customer input after Sapienne leaves.
Depending on the engagement, that may mean a market to pursue, a product roadmap grounded in repeated customer needs, clearer R&D priorities, stronger cohort milestones, or an ecosystem roadmap leadership can use—so the next move starts from stronger ground.
Before raising $28M with Stout Street Capital, the Colorado Quantum Incubator facility decision started with 25 structured interviews conducted by Tanya as an independent third party.
Read the $28M case studyAll engagements are fixed-fee and scoped in writing before work begins. Sapienne does not bill hourly or take equity.
We scope the work around your team’s capacity. Company engagements usually require interviews and regular debriefs; ecosystem studies shift most of the research workload to Sapienne. Before kickoff, you know who needs to be involved, how much time is required, and where Tanya takes the lead.
No. We review what already exists first. If your interviews, reports, or customer data already answer part of the question, we use them. New work is added only where important gaps remain, so you get more value from work your team has already done.
Often, yes. We start with the date leadership needs an answer and design a scope that can credibly support it. That may mean narrowing the question, prioritizing the highest-risk assumptions, or separating what must be resolved now from what can follow later.
Disagreement is often useful. It can reveal distinct customer groups, incompatible requirements, or competing stakeholder priorities. Sapienne separates those patterns so leadership can choose one direction, segment the opportunity, or identify exactly what needs further investigation.
The goal is enough consistency to know whether the direction should change. We look for repeated patterns, meaningful exceptions, and remaining unknowns, then make clear what is ready to act on and what still needs testing.
Sensitive work can begin under NDA. Interviews and analysis are designed around the business question, so technical details are shared only when they are necessary to get a useful answer. That makes the work practical for confidential R&D environments and technically sensitive markets.
You do not need to choose the engagement yourself. Share the market, product, R&D, cohort, or ecosystem question on the table, along with what you already know and when you need an answer. The 30-minute intake call is where we work out whether Sapienne fits and what the scope should be.