Speaking
Speaking, workshops, and masterclasses.
The founder of Eleven 186 teaches from operating experience, including work on the corporate side of the table, where the decision about which outside companies got a pilot actually got made. Sessions are built for rooms that are about to do the thing being taught, not for general audiences.
The material is just what the firm does during the week: how a large buyer screens a supplier, and what a proof of concept actually has to show.
Formats
Masterclass
Two hours on one topic, with a question period long enough for the room to bring up its own situations.
Multi-session series
Several sessions across a program, sequenced so each one builds on the last. It suits a group working toward a pilot or a market entry decision.
Leadership working session
A closed session with one leadership team, built around a decision that team is currently holding. Less lecture, and more work on the problem itself.
Corporate innovation briefing
For the corporate side: how outside companies experience your screening process, where good candidates drop out, and what actually changes the yield.
Topics
What global corporates actually want in a proof of concept
The difference between a demo and a proof, and the five questions a sponsor has to answer internally before a pilot gets approved.
How multinationals screen and select startups for pilots
The process from the corporate side: the champion, the gatekeepers, the budget owner, and why stronger products lose to easier purchases.
Entering the United States market as an international company
What to establish before you commit any money: who buys, how they buy, and what to build first.
Selling to government and regulated buyers
How procurement-driven buyers evaluate vendors, and what a compliance boundary does to a roadmap.
Turning research into decisions
Working an environment where the sources disagree, and coming out with one traceable answer instead of a summary.
Build versus buy
How to decide before you spend, including the constraints that rule out buying and what building it really costs.
Diligence for operators
Structuring the evidence behind a decision so it survives review by someone who wasn't in the room.
Special situations
Problems that cross strategy, technology, capital, and regulation all at once, and how to work one that no single function owns.
Who it is for
Founders and leadership teams preparing to enter the United States market. Accelerator and program cohorts working toward a pilot, a partnership, or a first US customer. Corporate innovation and partnership teams who want to see their own process from the outside. Industry groups whose members are all up against the same buying process.
The common thread is that the room is about to act, so the sessions are built for people who'll use the material within months.
How a session gets built
- 01
A short call
You describe the room, the stage they're at, and what they have to decide next.
- 02
An outline
We send back what the session will cover and what the room should be able to do afterwards. You edit it.
- 03
A profile of the room
Sector, size, stage, and the obstacles the group is running into. It's what makes the examples land.
- 04
Examples aimed at the attendees
We rewrite the cases for the group in the room. The firm has worked across multiple verticals, so the examples don't all come from one industry.
What these are not
There's no motivational content, no general industry overview, no trend deck, and no session that ends with a room feeling encouraged but holding nothing it can use on Monday.
A room that needs an introduction to a subject is better served by a book. These sessions assume the room already knows its business and needs the part nobody outside it will say out loud.
Invite Eleven 186 to teach
Tell us who's in the room, what they're about to attempt, and when. We'll tell you whether there's a session worth running.