Engage · the first lock

A working session, not a presentation.

PSI is sitting on portfolio decisions whose stakes have grown as the SBIR-funding cycle shifts. We do the work before a license, where commercial relevance is actually decided. We want to use this hour the way we use every important first conversation: by listening, framing the real problem together, and choosing a shared destination before anyone talks about solutions.

How this site works

On Listening, Framing, and Envisioning you are invited to select, re-rank, and edit what you see. Nothing here is fixed. The end-of-meeting memo on the Commit surface compiles only the items you affirmed or authored. What you walk out with is co-authored, not pitched.

What we don’t know yet

Whether the first wedge is DermVisio, TVisio, or a technology that didn’t come up on May 18. Whether PSI’s spin-out muscle is dormant or absent. We would rather find these out with you than guess at them.

Listening→Framing→Envisioning→Commit
Listen · the second lock

What we heard on May 18

We will move through what we heard one point at a time, in the order they shape the engagement. Affirm what lands, correct what does not, set aside what we should. Open the fuller context whenever it helps.

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What did we miss
Frame · the third lock

The real problem, named together

First, the problem statements PSI may be carrying. Re-rank them by importance. Then the harder move: five candidate cruxes, each a reframing of those problems into a single pivotal one. Only one becomes the frame we adopt.

3A

Problem statements PSI may be carrying

Reorder by importance, by dragging a row or using the arrows.

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3B

Five candidate cruxes

Each crux takes the problems above and proposes the single pivotal one, the challenge that, once solved, untangles the rest. Sort them four ways to see how the ranking shifts, then adopt one as the frame. Only one can be adopted at a time.

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Adopted frame

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If solved, what untangles

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What it doesn’t

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The one-sentence frame we agreed on

Adopting a crux preloads this field. Edit it freely. This sentence becomes the spine of the memo.
Envision · the fourth lock

A shared destination, two horizons

Select the future-state elements that describe where this should go. Some envisioning expands ambition; some manages it down. Use the toggle to set the register.

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Horizon A · engagement design

3–6 months

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Horizon B · the relationship

12–24 months

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The future state taking shape

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Near term · 3–6 months
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Long term · 12–24 months
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For which we will give up
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Nothing chosen yet. Select the elements above and the destination assembles here.

What we are not aiming for

Envisioning earns commitment partly by naming what it excludes. Edit these, or add your own.

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The trade-offs that earn it

A vision without a named cost is a wish. Complete the trade-offs we are willing to make. These flow into the memo.

If we want this, we will have to give up
Commit · the fifth lock

The memo we co-authored

This compiles, in real time, only what PSI affirmed or authored across the preceding surfaces. Edit the learning gate live. Then export.

Dark Horse Works × PSI · End-of-session memo

Working session memorandum

Date & place

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The frame we agreed on

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Adopted crux

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What we affirmed hearing
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No heard points affirmed yet. Affirm them on the Listen surface.
The future state we chose
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No future-state elements chosen yet. Choose them on the Envision surface.
Trade-offs we accept
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Next learning gate
What we will test
By when
Who owns it
Not committing to
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Examples PSI flagged as relevant
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For PSI
For Dark Horse Works
Dark Horse Works · Demand Discovery
Send me a copy of this memo
A PDF of exactly what is above, to your inbox. No commitment.
Schedule the next working session
A site visit at PSI. Daniel and David are local, and this is the real next step.
Daniel Behr’s calendar
Co-design how we realize this vision
Not a commitment to scope or cost. Together we sketch how to act on the future state above, given the crux we framed today. We send a one-page summary of what we agreed within seven days.
Co-design the next step
Off the spine · case examples

“We’ve done licenses. We’re not here to sell you on that. What we want to show you is the upstream work: identifying, qualifying, and corralling the licensee most likely to generate strong future royalty payments. That’s where we think your portfolio is actually being underserved.”

David Potter, Dark Horse Works

Eight licenses and term sheets, across sensing, microfluidics, robotics, energy, therapeutics, and clinical software. The structures range from an evaluation option to guaranteed annual minimums to royalty, fee, and equity blends. The point is less any single deal than the repeatability of the upstream work behind them.

Some of these map closer to PSI than others. Flag the ones worth a deeper dive. Those are where the conversation goes deeper, and they carry into the memo as examples PSI flagged.

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