We've all seen it: a brilliant, innovative product that seems destined for success, only to quietly fail. The hard truth is that innovation by itself is not a business model. Many founders fall into the trap of building a great product without building a great business around it.

Neil Cheong, Co-Founder of the venture studio and advisory firm GUIDE, joins us to diagnose the fundamental risks every startup faces. He breaks down the four core risks, Market, Product, Capital, and Execution, and introduces the VANGUARD framework, a structured system for mitigating them.

We discuss:

• The three levels of innovation (product, business model, and operational).

• The four core business risks that can kill any startup.

• How to separate market "noise" (vanity metrics) from real signals (sales).

• The danger of over-engineering a product the market doesn't actually want.

• An introduction to the VANGUARD framework for mitigating venture risks.

  For early-stage founders, innovators, and VCs, this is a deep dive into the fundamental risks of building a business and a practical framework for navigating them successfully.