ABOUT
ABOUT DAVID J. BLAND
Author • Advisor • Independent Arbiter of Reality
David J. Bland operates at the intersection of strategy, innovation, and capital allocation.
After more than a decade in startups—one success and two failures—David saw a clear pattern: companies often ignored customer reality and built what they thought was right. That realization shaped his work. Today, he helps executives avoid the same costly mistakes by delivering assured decisions—Commit, Correct, or Cut—before spending millions.
Global brands and industry leaders turn to David when they need to protect capital, unlock new growth, or reimagine existing strengths. From Silicon Valley accelerators to Fortune 500 boardrooms, he guides leadership teams through uncertainty with evidence they can defend.
Unlike hyper-specialists, David brings a rare cross-functional perspective. In his startup years he worked as a designer, developer, manager, tester, and sales engineer—experience that enables him to connect across functions and surface risk from every angle. Combined with his structured EMT process, this breadth makes him a trusted partner for leaders who want reality—not opinions—behind their boldest strategies.
Commit, Correct, or Cut
Executives bring in David J. Bland when they need to know if an idea is worth investing in. Leaders share their goals and growth bets, and over the next six to twelve weeks David applies his EMT process to surface hidden risks. By extracting and mapping assumptions across desirability, viability, and feasibility, he pressure-tests each bet and delivers an evidence-based verdict executives can defend.
Desirability
What risks exist around customer demand? Which jobs, pains, or gains truly matter? What must be true for this idea to create real value for the customer?
Viability
What are the financial risks? What will it cost to create and deliver this? Will customers pay enough for it—and can the business sustain or scale on those terms?
Feasibility
Can it be executed as planned? Do you have the people, capabilities, and partners to deliver? What regulatory, legal, or operational risks could block it—beyond just the technology?
Experiments are run weekly—sometimes more—to generate the evidence needed to answer the million-dollar question: should we invest in this or not? By the end of a 12-week process, leadership has the clarity to make a sound decision:
Commit with confidence
Correct and adjust direction
Cut and preserve capital
To get there, David helps teams create an Assumptions Map, highlighting what matters most and where evidence is weakest. He surfaces the riskiest assumptions—the ones that, if ignored, could sink the idea—and designs targeted tests to address them. Drawing on a library of 40+ proven experiments (detailed in his book Testing Business Ideas), he turns uncertainty into insights leaders can act on.
The process doesn’t just validate a single idea—it equips organizations with a repeatable way to pressure-test future bets, protecting capital while accelerating what works.
Recently, a former employee I coached years ago reached out and said, “I never gave you your flowers.” He had taken what I taught him, launched his own startup, and secured funding. Moments like that aren’t uncommon—people often reconnect years later to say they’re still applying the lessons from our time together. For me, that’s the most rewarding part of this work: seeing ideas take root and grow long after the initial engagement.
David J. Bland
DECISION MAKER
REALITY IS MY SUPERPOWER
David’s process is built on a decade of refinement, centered on asking the right questions and surfacing hidden risks. His strength lies in extracting what leaders are most concerned about, framing those risks clearly, and guiding teams through evidence-based experiments to address them. Complex issues are broken down into simple, actionable steps—often visualized through his design background—so organizations can move quickly from uncertainty to clarity.
David is the first to emphasize that he isn’t a domain expert who tells companies what to do. Instead, he identifies the riskiest assumptions, designs ways to test them, and delivers evidence leaders can act on. His unique value comes from experience in both startups and large enterprises—giving him the credibility to cut through resistance and the perspective to know when a solution that worked in one context won’t fit another.
We’ll map out your risks, design targeted experiments to reduce them, and generate the evidence you need to make a clear investment decision—Proceed, Mend, or Kill. I’ve lived through the pain of wasting years at startups building things nobody wanted, and my goal is to help you avoid the same. You’ll learn the process, make faster decisions, and likely save significant time, energy, and capital along the way.” – David J. Bland
David J. Bland
David J. Bland's Three-Step Process
1
Extracting assumptions
Desirability assumptions, viability assumptions, feasibility assumptions for the idea that you have.
2
Mapping assumptions
Map those assumptions and then focus on the things that are most important, where you have the least amount of evidence.
3
Test assumptions
Experimentation is critical in order to address the riskiest assumptions and then feed that back into the process.
David created and facilitates a process designed to surface the risks that matter most in bold strategies. He asks the questions that cut through assumptions: Who is the target customer? What problem are they really solving? How do they reach them? What is the true value proposition?
He then pushes deeper into viability and feasibility: How much could you charge—and what must you charge to be profitable? What are the real costs of delivering this value? Do you have the right team, partners, and capabilities? What regulatory or governance risks could block you? Can this be executed at scale?
By unpacking a company’s unique challenges—its structure, goals, and hidden risks—David simplifies the complex. He connects the dots across strategy, customers, operations, and finance, so leadership teams can act with clarity and confidence.
