Sabrina Staniewska
Case Study Huge Things
Three years teaching startup founders to validate ruthlessly before they build.
What
Acceleration
Role
Start up Coach/Tutor
Participants
3–5 teams per cohort
Sector
Fintech, SaaS, Medtech
Strategic Impact
Three years coaching early-stage startups through the hardest question in product development: are you solving a problem worth solving, for a market you can actually reach?
About Huge Things
Huge Thing is a Poznań-based accelerator running its programmes at Google for Startups Campus Warsaw — every edition operates under that partnership. I joined as a tutor and consultant coach for four consecutive editions between 2016 and 2019, working with early-stage teams navigating the ambiguous space between idea and traction. Individual editions also carried corporate partners — Alior Bank was one — who contributed mentors, budgeting sessions, and sector-specific input alongside the core Google for Startups programme structure.
My remit was product-market fit — helping founders validate whether they were solving a real problem for a reachable market before burning resources on the wrong solution. This wasn't mentorship as encouragement. It was structured, evidence-based coaching on how to test assumptions, run customer development, and read the signals that tell you whether to pivot or persevere.
How it worked
The teams had milestone-based funding — they needed to demonstrate progress against specific validation criteria to unlock the next tranche. My reporting wasn't just qualitative feedback; it was an assessment of whether teams were building the evidence required to justify continued investment. This created real accountability on both sides: founders had to show, not tell, and I had to be rigorous about what constituted real validation versus optimistic interpretation.
Most teams arrive thinking they need to build faster. The real work is teaching them to validate smarter.
I ran structured coaching sessions on customer development — how to design interviews that test hypotheses rather than seek validation. How to recognize when qualitative signals indicate a real problem versus a polite conversation. How to translate research insights into product decisions without losing rigour.
The most valuable moments weren't in workshops. They were in one-on-one sessions when a founder realized their target customer didn't actually have the problem they were solving, or that the market they'd assumed existed was too fragmented to reach. Those reframes — painful, necessary — were where real product-market fit work happened.
The best coaching outcomes weren't the teams that scaled fastest. They were the ones that learned to validate ruthlessly — and saved months by not building what the market didn't need.
Where I Added Value
Explain the idea
Teaching founders how to test assumptions before building. Evidence-based decision making, not gut feeling.
Customer development methodology
Structured interview frameworks. How to ask questions that reveal truth rather than confirm what you want to hear.
Pivot or persevere decisions
Reading the signals. When to double down, when to reframe, when to walk away. The most valuable coaching conversations happened here.
Pivot or persevere decisions
Turning qualitative insights into product priorities. The gap most early-stage teams struggle with.