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# Why Big Software Should Franchise Its Failed Projects
- URL: https://adjacent.media/signals/why-big-software-should-franchise-its-failed-projects/
- Published: 2026-08-26T16:11:03.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-26T16:11:03.000Z
- Description: Large software companies routinely kill internal experiments not because they don’t work, but because they lack clear ownership and revenue paths within corporate bureaucracies—a waste of sunk engineering talent and user traction that could instead be spun into independent ventures with equity incen
- Author: Jonathan Greene
- Tags: #signal, theme-brand, org strategy, innovation culture, talent/retention

Source: [The Next Web](https://thenextweb.com/news/independent-project-franchising-software-innovation?ref=adjacent.media)

Large software companies routinely kill internal experiments not because they don't work, but because they lack clear ownership and revenue paths within corporate bureaucracies—a waste of sunk engineering talent and user traction that could instead be spun into independent ventures with equity incentives. Franchising failed projects as separate entities solves two problems simultaneously: it preserves innovations that have real users but don't fit the parent company's roadmap, while giving teams an ownership stake that motivates them better than internal startup programs ever could. The model works because it aligns incentives (founders keep equity), reduces corporate overhead (no more stack-ranking against billion-dollar business units), and lets the market rather than committee meetings determine which experiments survive.