Identifying Dig Sites & Providing a Repeatable Framework for Opportunity Area Exploration for 1848 Ventures

At a Glance

Client: 1848 Ventures, the corporate venture studio of Westfield Insurance

Opportunity: Identify “dig sites” (opportunity areas that are in need of innovation and new solutions) within the commercial real estate (CRE) industry that 1848 Ventures can ultimately build companies in.

Solution: Identified 15 dig sites and created scorecards for the top 5. These scorecards analyzed:

• Existing problems and current solutions
• How relevant each dig site was for 1848’s target market
• How well key solutions would fit within the product profile they were aiming to build
• Market trends, including factors that would facilitate or impede the adoption of solutions in the spaces
• The potential impact and value AI could bring to potential solutions for each dig site

Roadmap & Results:

1. Developed a high-level understanding of the CRE market, including past trends and anticipated future directions
2. Conducted secondary research into trends & companies, along with primary research with industry subject matter experts (SMEs) in order to better understand the market. This converted into a list of 15 opportunity areas, or “dig sites”, that represented pain points currently experienced in the industry
3. Built out dig site scorecards for the top 5 prioritized dig sites, taking into consideration a variety of factors that were important to 1848 Ventures
4. Cataloged the process we went through so that it would be systematized and repeatable for 1848 in future markets of interest

Who is 1848 Ventures?

1848 Ventures is a corporate venture studio established by Westfield Insurance. Despite being backed by Westfield, 1848 Ventures is an independent entity that is focused on building new SaaS businesses in a variety of markets, focusing on SMB customers. They place a high priority on data and AI solutions.

Problem

1848 Ventures recognized the need to be more systematic in their pursuit of new venture opportunities, backed by research. The corporate venture studio hired Highline Beta to help identify and evaluate new dig sites for future venturing in the commercial real estate industry (given its relevance to Westfield Insurance).

They were also looking for help developing and structuring a repeatable exploration process for early dig sites that could be used by other 1848 Ventures team members going forward.

Why Highline Beta?

1848 Ventures recognized the need to be more systematic in their pursuit of new venture opportunities, backed by research. The corporate venture studio hired Highline Beta to help identify and evaluate new dig sites for future venturing in the commercial real estate industry (given its relevance to Westfield Insurance).

They were also looking for help developing and structuring a repeatable exploration process for early dig sites that could be used by other 1848 Ventures team members going forward.

The Explore Process

Highline Beta spent 2 months exploring the CRE industry and landed on 15 distinct dig sites, including 5 fully built out dig site scorecards, that present the potential for new ventures to be built. During this project, our goal was to cast a wide net over the CRE industry, prioritizing breadth more than depth. We focused our attention across the CRE value chain and spoke with a variety of SMEs working in different aspects of CRE. After understanding market trends and speaking to experts about what they were observing and problems they were facing day-to-day, we created a list of dig sites that we then prioritized as a team to land on the 5 that we built into the scorecards.

Results

Throughout the course of the project, we identified key market trends and insights, provided information about new and established companies in the industry, as well as new entrants and up-and-coming areas of innovation. We spoke to a variety of SMEs across different roles and areas of CRE. Finally, we evaluated the identified dig sites based on their potential to lead to new ventures.

Throughout the project, we made sure to catalog the process so that we could hand it over to 1848 Ventures in a way that would be easily repeatable in other markets.

Going forward, 1848 intends to pursue many of the dig sites identified in their own version of a Discovery process to determine which provide the most promising opportunities for building new ventures.

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