Entrepreneurs on Fire Coastline's Pivot From Self-Driving To Driver's Ed with Nigel Tunnacliffe
Dec 16, 2025
Nigel Tunnacliffe, Co-founder and CEO of Coastline Academy, shares insights from leading the nation’s largest driving school. He emphasizes a 'mission-first' approach, focusing on eradicating car crashes to guide business decisions. Nigel discusses the importance of failing fast to pivot quickly, and how opportunities often lie in seemingly mundane industries like driver education. He also highlights the role of technology in scaling operations and the significance of hiring mission-driven trainers for delivering quality education.
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Mission Anchors Decision-Making
- Building a company around a clear mission (eradicate car crashes) focused decision-making and limited distractions.
- Nigel says mission attracts people who care and stick through hard work.
Adaptive Cruise Control That Didn't Fit Market
- Nigel recounts quitting jobs to build an adaptive cruise control device and testing it with weekly customer interviews.
- Those interviews revealed low demand and let them fail fast before burning savings.
Validate Weekly With Real Customers
- Talk to at least ten potential customers weekly while building to test assumptions and disprove hypotheses.
- Use customer conversations to fail fast and pivot before depleting resources.