DAVID J. BLAND
Assurance Partner / Reality-Based Innovation
David J. Bland is the co-author of Testing Business Ideas and founder of Precoil. He helps executives make assured decisions—Commit, Correct, or Cut—before committing millions, using a proven system of Reality-Based Innovation and innovation risk management.
As an independent arbiter of reality, David works with leadership teams to surface hidden risks in growth strategies and issue evidence-based verdicts in weeks. His work has protected companies from wasting millions on bets that won’t scale—and created millions more by proving which ideas drive growth.
Before founding Precoil, David spent 11 years in startups—one success, two failures—that revealed a consistent pattern: companies ignored customer problems and built what they thought was right. That experience shaped his approach. For the past decade, he has guided Fortune 500 leaders in embedding business model testing and reality-based gates into their funding decisions, ensuring capital is allocated with evidence, not opinions.
Today, David partners with executives worldwide as a keynote speaker, corporate innovation advisor, and growth strategy partner—delivering assurance for bold strategies, protecting capital, reducing risk, and scaling what works.
PROBLEM SOLVER
David J. Bland has a three-step process:
1
Extract Assumptions
Surface the desirability, viability, and feasibility assumptions behind your idea.
2
Map Assumptions
Prioritize what matters most—focusing on the areas with the highest risk and least evidence.
3
Test Assumptions
Run targeted experiments on the riskiest assumptions and feed the results back into smarter decisions.
THE BOOK – TESTING BUSINESS IDEAS
A Guide to Efficient Testing of Business Models
Most new products fail, but Testing Business Ideas shows leaders how to flip those odds. Building on Alex Osterwalder’s Business Model Generation, this practical guide equips teams with proven techniques to validate ideas quickly and decisively.
By making assumptions explicit and testing them with evidence, the book helps organizations reduce risk, avoid wasted investment, and increase the likelihood of scalable success. It extends the Business Model Canvas and Value Proposition Canvas with Assumptions Mapping and a library of lean, real-world experiments that turn bold strategies into reality-tested decisions.
Testing Business Ideas delivers a practical, visual guide for turning bold strategies into evidence-based decisions.
Reduce wasted time, money, and resources by exposing weak ideas early.
Close the gap between high-level strategy and hands-on validation.
Surface and test critical assumptions using tools like the Business Model and Value Proposition Canvases.
This manual helps leaders replace intuition with facts—embedding an experimental mindset and building a repeatable process for making confident, scalable growth decisions.
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WORK WITH DAVID
Steps Leaders Can Take
Don’t wait until years of wasted investment to say, “I wish we had brought David in sooner.” Too many companies spend millions building products nobody wants—only to realize too late that the bets were never grounded in evidence.
David J. Bland helps executives prevent that cycle. Not every idea will succeed, but every test delivers clarity: Commit, Correct, or Cut. Instead of relying on intuition, he brings quantitative and qualitative evidence leaders can defend. The result? Smarter capital allocation, faster decisions, and the confidence to scale what works.
“It was over the holiday break when I decided to launch my own firm. My first project was a retail experimentation initiative for a large company, which I ran straight through Christmas. That early engagement validated the need for reality-based decision-making, and soon after I signed another client, and then another. Fast forward to today, and I have a track record with some of the world’s biggest companies, helping their leaders test bold ideas against reality.”
David J. Bland
David has been helping organizations test and scale bold ideas since 2010, working with agencies, startups, and Fortune 500 executives alike. Along the way, he realized the need for an independent standard—and founded Precoil to provide it.
He is the bestselling author of Testing Business Ideas, a sought-after keynote speaker at global conferences, and a trusted partner to executives who need evidence-based decisions before committing millions.
What Clients Say About Us
David integrates proven strategy and innovation tools with your team’s expertise to deliver results. Drawing from lean startup, design thinking, agile, and business model innovation, he adapts the approach to fit your context. The outcome is both practical and engaging—your team learns by doing while moving closer to its goals.
"David is our journey partner for fast-learning and de-risking. He helps us keep innovation and sustainability priorities interwoven to find new value and growth.”
Alexa Dembek - DuPont
“David’s advising helped us apply lean startup to our new mobility products and services, by rapidly testing them in the market.”
Vinuth Rai
TOYOTAWhat Clients Say About Us
David blends proven innovation frameworks with your team’s expertise to deliver results. By tailoring methods like lean startup, design thinking, and business model innovation to your context, he creates an engaging, hands-on experience where teams learn while making real progress toward their goals.
