Five ways a senior leader monetises an idea. Only one keeps your day job intact.
Most paths require you to quit your job, take equity, write a cheque, or assign your idea away with no payout. Maitro is the only one designed for senior leaders who want to ship the idea while staying in their seat.
The 100-point Investability Gate
Six dimensions. Public weights. Same scorecard every cohort. Threshold to enter the build queue is 70/100. Fast-track at 80/100.
- 24
Society engagement
Months of active membership × engagement signal. Roundtable attendance, Knowledge Hub posts, peer DMs that surfaced before the application.
- 20
Domain depth
Years of CXO-level experience inside the proposed product domain. Headline proxy: 15+ years in function, 5+ as CXO, with public thought-leadership signals (LinkedIn, conference keynotes, B-school adjuncting).
- 15
Idea originality
Not an obvious idea. Not already saturated. Defensible insight edge that comes from twenty years of pattern recognition rather than a market scan.
- 15
Market viability
TAM ≥ ₹500 cr addressable inside India alone. Clear willingness-to-pay signal — named target customers and a defensible price-point hypothesis.
- 10
Build feasibility
Buildable on our stack inside 12 weeks. No exotic infrastructure. No regulated-licence dependencies (banking / insurance / PHI) that we cannot operate.
- 16
Reference checks
Three peer CXOs vouch on character, follow-through, and intellectual honesty. Vouches are written, attributable, and verifiable on LinkedIn.
- Active employer IP-claim risk that cannot be cleared by counsel.
- Idea sits inside a domain Talpro itself competes in (conflict of interest).
- Idea requires regulated infrastructure we cannot operate (banking, insurance, healthcare PHI).
- Reference checks surface material integrity concerns.
| MAITRO | Quit & co-found | Sell to startup | Advisor / board | Internal lab | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Do you keep your day job? | Yes — by design | No, you quit | Yes | Yes | Yes (it becomes your job) |
| Who funds & builds? | Maitro + VC partners | You + co-founders + VC | The startup | The company you advise | Your employer |
| Who owns the IP? | Maitro (you sign nothing of your employer's) | You + co-founders | The startup | The company | Your employer |
| Equity taken from you? | None — avoids day-job clash | Founder equity (vests) | Sometimes a small slug | 0.1–1% advisor | None |
| What do you earn? | Royalty paid to you, quarterly | Equity (5–10 yr lockup) | Lump sum or small royalty | Cash + tiny equity | Salary (already) |
| Personal brand amplification? | 12 months managed: podcast, NASSCOM, IIM, LinkedIn | You DIY it | None | Optional | Internal only |
| Day-job IP / non-compete clash risk? | Underwritten by Maitro counsel | High — quit cleans it | Material | Variable | Low (employer owns it) |
| Operational time required from you? | ~2 hr / week | 80+ hr / week | Negotiated | 2–4 hr / month | Variable |
| Your public attribution? | Named ideator / public face | Co-founder | Often anonymous | Advisor (small print) | Internal |