Inside Microsoft’s Secret to Scaling New Ideas W/ Taylor Black

About this episode

Alec Harrison interviews Taylor Black about the process of scaling new ideas within Microsoft and the challenges of innovation in a large enterprise.

What does it really take to turn bold ideas into real impact inside one of the world’s largest technology companies? In this episode of Engineering in the Loop , Alec Harrison sits down with Taylor Black , Director of AI & Venture Ecosystems in the Office of the CTO at Microsoft , to unpack how internal incubators actually work — and why most innovation efforts fail before they ever ship. Taylor leads Microsoft’s internal incubation studio , where early-stage, high-risk ideas are tested, validated, and scaled into products capable of generating hundreds of millions — and eventually billions — in revenue . Unlike traditional startups, these ventures must meet Microsoft-scale expectations while navigating enterprise constraints, long buying cycles, and strategic alignment across product groups. In this conversation, we cover: What makes an idea “Microsoft-sized” (and why most aren’t) How internal incubators de-risk innovation before product teams invest Why $1B in revenue within five years is the bar — not the exception The biggest mistakes founders make when starting companies When not to take venture capital (and why most founders do it too early) How AI agents will reshape…

People in this episode

Host: Alec Harrison

Guest: Taylor Black

Topics covered

• innovation
• internal incubators
• Microsoft
• AI
• venture capital
• product development

Keywords

• Microsoft
• innovation
• internal incubators
• AI
• venture capital
• product scaling
• entrepreneurship
• revenue generation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Microsoft, Office of the CTO, AI & Venture Ecosystems