Intrapreneur: Definition, Examples, and Tips (2026)

An intrapreneur is an employee who develops new ideas, projects, or processes within an existing company. They use entrepreneurial skills to spot opportunities and improve how the business operates.

Kelly Ling, a leadership coach and former head of organizational effectiveness at DoorDash, describes herself as an intrapreneur. 

“My whole career has been about moving from one role to another and positioning my other experience as a unique differentiator,” she says.

For Kelly, intrapreneurship lets employees shape their roles around their strengths and their company’s needs. Here, she explains how she has applied that approach, why companies benefit from intrapreneurs, and how to become one.

What is an intrapreneur?

Intrapreneurship is one of several types of entrepreneurship. It involves developing new products or processes inside an established company.

Intrapreneurs use company resources, such as funding, data, technology, and staff expertise, to test and build their ideas. They take entrepreneurial risks inside the business without putting their own capital on the line.

What is intrapreneurship?

Intrapreneurship is the process of creating new products, services, programs, or ways of working from within a company. Employees apply an entrepreneurial mindset to problems and opportunities they encounter at work.

An intrapreneur may launch a new initiative or reshape an existing position around a business need.

A brief history of intrapreneurship

Gifford Pinchot III and Elizabeth S. Pinchot coined the term intrapreneur in 1978. They argued that decision-makers at large companies could be too far removed from the problems being solved. 

Their paper proposed giving more authority to employees who pursued results and were willing to take moderate risks. These traits resembled those of successful entrepreneurs, leading to the term “intrapreneur”—a combination of “intra,” meaning “within,” and “entrepreneur.”

Intrapreneurship today

The Pinchots’ definition speaks to the value of intrapreneurship for companies, but it also has purpose for the intrapreneurs themselves. 

For Kelly, successful intrapreneurship is about “identifying opportunities, defining a role for yourself, and pitching that to your senior leaders and sponsors to then create that role for you.”

Entrepreneur vs. intrapreneur: What’s the difference?

An entrepreneur is someone who starts and runs a new business. They secure funding, assemble resources, and take responsibility for the business’s financial results. 

An intrapreneur creates something new inside an established company using its funding, staff, and infrastructure.

The distinction blurs when an established company asks an entrepreneur to use its assets to create a new business or business line. Kelly says revenue accountability can help separate the two roles in these cases.

“So you’re entrepreneurial in creating something new, but it’s not in itself driving net new business,” she says. An intrapreneur’s work may improve the existing organization without generating revenue on its own.

Examples of intrapreneurship

Intrapreneurship often starts with a failed experiment, a recurring problem, or a company asset that could serve a new purpose. These three examples show how employees turned such openings into major products.

1. Post-it notes at 3M

In 1968, 3M scientist Spencer Silver tried to create a strong adhesive but produced one that separated easily. 

He continued sharing the discovery inside 3M, even though it had no obvious use. Fellow scientist Art Fry learned about it through an internal lab forum and applied the adhesive to paper, leading to Post-it notes.

Silver and Fry used 3M’s research network to turn an unsuccessful experiment into a product. Their work offers a reason to revisit projects that missed their original objective but produced something valuable.

2. Gmail at Google

Google engineer Paul Buchheit was frustrated by email systems that buried messages and tied access to one computer. He used that problem to create a browser-based email program with fast search. After Buchheit released an early version of Gmail to other Google employees, demand grew inside the company. Gmail launched publicly in 2004.

Buchheit found the opportunity in a problem he dealt with himself, then tested his solution with coworkers. Recurring frustrations in your own work points to products or processes worth developing.

3. PlayStation at Sony

Sony’s planned CD-ROM console with Nintendo collapsed before launch, and many employees thought the company should leave gaming. 

Project leader Ken Kutaragi disagreed. His team had been developing 3D graphics technology inside Sony, and he pitched company leaders on building an independent console. Sony approved the project, leading to the original PlayStation in 1994.

Kutaragi combined work from an abandoned partnership with Sony’s existing technology and executive sponsorship. Cancelled projects can leave behind research or technical assets worth pitching again.

Roles of intrapreneurs

Kelly says you’ll very seldom find a job description that’s called intrapreneur, but there are certain roles that use the same skill set. Most of these are internal roles designed to make an organization more effective, including:

• Chief of staff
• Culture, engagement, and employee experience
• Founder
• Organizational development and effectiveness
• Corporate social responsibility
• Special projects

Chief of staff

The chief of staff is one of those broader roles that covers a wide range of business needs and functions.

“At any company, there are lots of standard job descriptions, and then there are a lot of squishy, undefined needs,” Kelly says. 

A chief of staff works closely with a company’s CEO to drive business goals, getting an inside look at many different aspects of the business. The role also involves extensive networking within the company, connecting the right people and departments at the right time.

Culture, engagement, and employee experience

These roles revolve around improving corporate culture and ensuring employees have the tools to thrive within the organization. To do this, you need to work with individuals from different departments to understand their needs.

Part of these roles may also include identifying areas for improvement and finding innovative solutions.

Founder

Founders aren’t just entrepreneurs who come up with a business idea on their own, get funding, and start their own business from the ground up. Sometimes established companies bring on a new founder to use the company’s resources to create a new venture or start a new product line.

In this sense, a founder is an intrapreneur within an existing company. Unlike other intrapreneurial roles, their success is often directly tied to revenue goals. Since they’ve likely previously started their own business, they’re uniquely suited to the role of intrapreneur.

Organizational development and effectiveness

Organizational development and effectiveness roles focus on solving problems, driving change, and designing effective systems. These roles involve identifying ineffective systems, designing new processes and resources, and implementing them.

Corporate social responsibility

The social corporate responsibility (SCR) department is in charge of holding a company accountable to its values and promoting a sustainable business model. It’s not just about philanthropy and conserving resources. SCR keeps a business on track to meet its long-term, big-picture goals.

Special projects

Special projects can mean almost anything, but they’re inherently intrapreneurial in that there’s a need within the company that an existing role, team, or department can’t solve.

You may be brought on for a short-term contract, have a small team or work solo, and collaborate with people from different departments to achieve your role.

Benefits of intrapreneurship

Businesses and employees alike can benefit from a culture that supports intrapreneurship. Some advantages of intrapreneurship include:

• Diverse perspectives
• Flexibility
• Innovation

Diverse perspectives

Kelly says colleagues throughout the company come to her to “tease out ideas.” Through those conversations, she learns how the same issue appears in different departments. That knowledge improves her recommendations.

The CIPD Good Work Index 2025 found that 76% of employees whose managers were good at seeking staff views said they suggested innovative improvements. The figure fell to 51% among employees whose managers were poor at seeking their views.

Flexibility

For intrapreneurs, creating your own role provides an opportunity to bring together various skills and interests. You often have the flexibility to work with different departments on many projects.

The same CIPD study found that 78% of employees with a lot of influence over their tasks said they suggested innovative improvements. Only 39% of employees with no influence said the same. Greater task control was also associated with better reported performance and mental health.

Innovation

Innovation is one reason entrepreneurship is important. Intrapreneurs pursue new ideas from inside established companies.

PwC’s 2026 Global CEO Survey found that 42% of CEOs said their companies had started competing in new sectors during the previous five years. Companies earning more revenue from new sectors were also more profitable and more confident about growth.

Intrapreneurship gives companies a way to pursue that growth internally by developing employee-led ideas into new revenue streams.

Employee engagement and retention

Giving employees room to lead projects and act on their ideas can make their work more meaningful. It can also give ambitious employees reason to stay when they want a new challenge. 

Gallup’s 2026 State of the Global Workplace report found that only 20% of the global workforce felt engaged at work in 2025, the lowest level since 2020. Gallup estimates that low engagement cost the world economy about $10 trillion in lost productivity.

Characteristics of intrapreneurs

Successful intrapreneurs notice overlooked problems, propose solutions, and convince other people to act. They build relationships across the company and accept the chance that a project may fail. Many of these are also traits of successful entrepreneurs.

“You’re driving culture change, you’re setting up new programs, you’re influencing, you’re meeting people, you’re identifying gaps throughout the organization, and then you’re finding ways to solve them,” Kelly says.

Here are a few traits to consider:

• Confidence
• Decision-making
• Identifying gaps
• Influence
• Networking
• Problem-solving
• Risk-taking

Confidence

You need a certain amount of confidence to pitch new ideas to senior leaders, especially if your ideas involve changing established systems. Confidence is a skill aspiring intrapreneurs build with the help of an empowering manager or mentor.

Decision-making 

Intrapreneurs are often called upon to make decisions and lead the way forward. They’re comfortable gathering information from diverse perspectives to make an informed decision, and once they’re ready to make that decision, they make it clear what the plan is.

Identifying gaps

Intrapreneurs have a knack for identifying problems that others might overlook. They find gaps within an organization (like redundant approval chains or unmet customer needs) and confidently share what they identify.

Influence

Intrapreneurs use their influence to drive change. “People know that when this person’s in the room, they’re going to have really good ideas,” Kelly says.

People need to hear your ideas before you can implement them, so successful intrapreneurs build up a reputation for getting things done.

Networking

Networking usually means talking to people from outside organizations. As an intrapreneur, “it’s about talking to people that are maybe outside of your daily scope,” Kelly says.

Intrapreneurs feel comfortable reaching out to people outside their immediate team and know how to build strong relationships with them.

Problem-solving

Intrapreneurs investigate the cause of a problem before proposing a solution. They then test the idea on a limited scale.

New projects may have little time or funding. Resourceful employees use existing tools and seek specific expertise from colleagues. Evidence from a small pilot can justify a larger budget.

Risk-taking

Entrepreneurial risk includes the possibility that an idea will fail. Intrapreneurs accept that uncertainty when they propose a new project. They can test the idea on a limited scale before seeking wider adoption.

Fear of failure deters two in five adults from starting a business, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s 2025/2026 Global Report. If you’re risk-averse, intrapreneurship may be stressful because it often involves trying new things without knowing whether your ideas will succeed.

Tips for intrapreneurs and how to become an intrapreneur

Taking on an intrapreneurial role requires confidence, determination, and patience for the process. Here are a few tips to help intrapreneurs take on this new role. 

Test out the culture

Kelly advises testing a company's corporate culture when interviewing or networking if you’re interested in taking on an intrapreneurial role.

“If you’re at an organization where folks say, ‘Stay in your lane,’ they’re probably not gonna be super excited about your change-driving,” Kelly says.

Ask if senior leaders trust employees to do what they need to do to achieve results or if there’s a strict hierarchy.

“The less hierarchy, the flatter the organization, the more folks talk about ownership and driving things end to end. Those are all positive signs that there's an appetite for someone to come in and drive change,” Kelly says.

Get your foot in the door with another role

You probably won’t find an opening for an intrapreneur on LinkedIn or Indeed. That doesn’t mean you can’t carve out an intrapreneurial role for yourself at a business whose core values include innovation.

“These roles aren’t generally posted because they’re created by internal applicants,” Kelly explains. “Sometimes you have to get your foot in the door with a more specific role that does have a job description and that you know you have the skills for.”

Build your influence

Once you’ve got your foot in the door, start building your influence and finding sponsors by doing an excellent job in the role you were hired for.

“Make your manager’s life as easy as possible, and then build your influence circle around there,” Kelly advises. Once you’ve earned your manager’s trust, you can start requesting side projects that involve collaborating with people in different departments.

“Usually after a year or two, the opportunities become clear and present themselves to you,” Kelly says.

Practice intrapreneurship in your current role

Choose one recurring problem you can observe and record how often it happens, as well as how much it costs. Propose a small test that your team can run with existing resources, then share the results with your manager.