MSFT were the masters of this technique (spin off a startup, acquire it after it proves viable) for decades, but sadly they stopped.
Even internal to MS I worked on 2 teams that were 95% independent from the mothership, on one of them (Microsoft Band) we even went to IKEA and bought our own desks.
Pretty successful in regards to getting a product to market (Band 1 and 2 all up had iirc $50M in funding compared to Apple Watch's billion), but the big company politics still got us in the end.
Of course Xbox is the most famous example of MS pulling off an internal skunk works project leading to massive success.
Even internal to MS I worked on 2 teams that were 95% independent from the mothership, on one of them (Microsoft Band) we even went to IKEA and bought our own desks.
Pretty successful in regards to getting a product to market (Band 1 and 2 all up had iirc $50M in funding compared to Apple Watch's billion), but the big company politics still got us in the end.
Of course Xbox is the most famous example of MS pulling off an internal skunk works project leading to massive success.