How Founders Turn Advanced Research Into Products People Trust

From Research to Real-World Deployment: What early-stage founders should get right about responsibility and risk

Shannon Harvey has spent 15+ years turning advanced research into real-world deployment, founding and leading studios and research initiatives across industry, academia and cultural institutions. Many early-stage founders treat responsibility and risk as work for later, once the product finds its market. Shannon argues the opposite and now supports founders and teams working at the edge of research and deployment, where early choices decide whether a product can be trusted at all. The conversation covers how to take research out of the lab, where risk hides in the first real deployments, and what to get right before the first customer arrives. Listeners leave knowing which responsibility and risk decisions cannot wait until after launch.

About Shannon Harvey

Shannon Harvey, podcast guest

Founder

15+ years Founding and leading studios and research initiativesApple TV+ Virtual production leadership on Silo and HijackProduction Park Established its research labReflection Labs Founder, independent governance for human-facing AI

Shannon builds ventures and innovation systems at the intersection of technology, creativity, and human experience.

Over the past 15+ years, he has founded and led studios and research initiatives, built and scaled complex technical and creative systems, and worked across industry, academia, and cultural institutions. His work focuses on translating advanced research into real-world deployment, particularly where technology shapes trust, behaviour, and lived experience.

He is currently building an early-stage venture in stealth focused on responsible human-facing technology in high-trust settings. His approach is shaped by a background in performance and embodied practice, where timing, restraint, and attunement determine whether an interaction remains safe. The work sits between applied research, venture building, and real-world delivery. Further details are available privately.

He has worked in senior roles across immersive media, real-time systems, and large-scale production environments. This includes virtual production leadership on Apple TV+ productions including Silo and Hijack with Lux Machina, early platform adoption work with disguise (d3), and research leadership at Production Park, where he established a research lab and contributed to the ERDF-funded XPLOR programme.

He supports early-stage founders and teams working at the edge of research and deployment, particularly where responsibility, risk, and operational reality matter.

He was Course Leader for the BA (Hons) Visual Production degree at Backstage Academy, now the Academy of Live Technology.

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