REAL-WORLD PROOF
Pretotyping Examples
From billion-dollar startups to enterprise innovation teams — see how pretotyping validated ideas before millions were invested.
FAMOUS EXAMPLES
How Billion-Dollar Companies Started
Dropbox
YouTube Pretotype
Drew Houston created a 3-minute video demonstrating Dropbox before writing any code. The video went viral, driving 75,000 signups overnight and validating demand before building the product.
Result: 75,000 signups from a video
Zappos
Mechanical Turk
Nick Swinmurn tested if people would buy shoes online by photographing shoes at local stores and posting them online. When orders came in, he bought the shoes and shipped them manually.
Result: Validated online shoe market
Tesla Roadster
Imposter Pretotype
Elon Musk took a Lotus Elise, replaced the engine with an electric motor, and asked potential buyers to write $5,000 deposit checks. Real money validated real demand.
Result: $5,000 deposits before building
IBM Speech-to-Text
Mechanical Turk
IBM wanted to test if people would use speech-to-text. Instead of building the technology, they had a human typist in another room transcribe speech in real-time.
Result: Discovered users preferred typing
Palm Pilot
Pinocchio Pretotype
Jeff Hawkins carried a wooden block in his pocket for months, pretending it was a Palm Pilot. This helped him test form factor, usage patterns, and features before building anything.
Result: Validated device concept
Airbnb
Provincial Pretotype
Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia tested the concept by renting air mattresses in their own apartment during a conference. Three guests paying $80/night validated the core concept.
Result: $240 from first weekend
Buffer
Fake Door Pretotype
Joel Gascoigne created a landing page describing Buffer before building it. When people clicked 'Plans and Pricing', they saw a 'not ready yet' message and could leave their email.
Result: Validated demand before coding
Google Glass
YouTube Pretotype
Google released a concept video showing what Glass could do before the technology existed. The viral response (50M+ views) validated interest in the concept.
Result: 50M+ views validated interest
ENTERPRISE RESULTS
Australian Enterprise Case Studies
Real results from organisations trained by Exponentially using pretotyping methodology.
Media / Press Coverage
Australian Financial Review
An Australian Financial Review feature article exploring how companies like RACQ, REA Group, and others are using pretotyping and rapid experimentation to test products before building them.
Energy
AGL
How AGL's Experimentation Team embedded pretotyping at scale, running 1000+ tests per year and saving over $7.5 million through rapid experimentation and data-driven decision making.
Education
Australian National University
How ANU used pretotyping and rapid experimentation to improve student experience, running 45 experiments over 12 weeks and validating a chatbot that served one sixth of students.
AI Innovation
Exponentially
An experiment in using ChatGPT voice mode as an AI interviewer to run a case study interview, producing a coherent narrative in half the usual editing time.
Property Technology
PEXA
How PEXA embedded pretotyping across all areas of the organisation, running 50 pretotypes in just 9 months and making [rapid experimentation](/rapid-experimentation) central to their innovation process.
Health Insurance
HCF
How Exponentially worked with HCF through the Slingshot-facilitated Catalyst accelerator to test and validate health-technology ideas for better health outcomes.
Food & Beverage
Lion
How Lion used pretotyping and rapid experimentation through the Slingshot accelerator to embed a sustainable, repeatable culture of innovation within the organisation.
Aviation
Qantas
How Exponentially worked with Qantas through the Slingshot AVRO Accelerator to give companies the skills to incorporate rapid experimentation and pretotyping into their idea validation process.
Fuel & Convenience
Caltex Australia
How Caltex used pretotyping and rapid experimentation through the Slingshot-facilitated Spark accelerator program, achieving a 75% success rate across the cohort.
What These Examples Teach Us
Test demand before building
Every successful example collected real evidence of demand — signups, deposits, orders — before investing in development.
Actions speak louder than opinions
Nobody asked focus groups. They watched what customers actually did when presented with the concept.
Speed beats perfection
A wooden block, a simple video, manual order fulfillment — these crude pretotypes delivered insights in days, not months.
Skin in the game matters
Deposits, payments, and commitments reveal true intent. Free signups and "I'd buy that" don't.
Ready to run your own pretotyping experiment?
Start with our free AI Idea Validator or talk to us about enterprise training.