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What We Learned Spinning Out a Project (From Hive to Sentient Futures)
6 min readJan 20
TL;DR: Last year, we spun out Sentient Futures (previously incubated within Hive under the name AI for Animals). The process was ultimately successful and gave both teams more clarity and autonomy, but it took significantly more time and operational effort than we anticipated.
Acknowledgements: Many thanks to Kevin Xia and Constance Li for providing valuable feedback and additions to this post.
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Sentient Futures began as a programme within Hive (initially under the name AI for Animals), and we spun it out as an independent legal entity about 1.5 years later as its focus became more distinct.
A few people have asked about this experience, so I decided to write it up, especially because I found surprisingly few practical resources on the topic. We’re sharing what worked for us (and what we underestimated) in case it helps others reduce friction and confusion during a spinout. This isn’t a universal playbook, and every spinout is different, but I hope it’s a useful reference.
Who this post is for:
This is mainly aimed at leaders of small organisations, incubators, and fiscal sponsors who are considering whether (and how) to separate a growing programme into an independent entity. It’s most relevant for sponsors where fiscal sponsorship is a supporting function rather than a core programme or primary area of focus.
A note on “stages” of separation
One helpful way to think about a spinout is as a series of separations rather than a single moment. In our experience, the process often moves through stages:
Only once you’re confident the separation is real and you’re ready to commit does it usually make sense to pursue full legal independence (e.g., applying for 501(c)(3) status, for US-based nonprofits). At that point, it’s important to plan for higher operating costs, since the new entity becomes responsible for its own governance and compliance (bookkeeping, compliance, board, insurance, etc.), and to ensure it has dedicated funds to cover that runway. If the project's team isn't sure if incorporating is the right step for them, but they can't stay within the current entity, they can consider finding another fiscal sponsor (see some common fiscal sponsors in the movement here).
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One of our biggest takeaways is to start the process as soon as it becomes clear the project’s focus is meaningfully different from the parent org. For us, once the spinout was officially complete (Sentient Futures became fully independent), Hive found it much easier to stay focused on its core mission. Delaying increases the “debt” of shared systems: as a project grows, separation becomes harder, slower, and more expensive. If you are already debating whether it’s time, it probably is. There are exceptions, but if the project is clearly diverging in mission and stakeholder expectations, earlier separation is usually cheaper and cleaner.Â
If I had to name the hardest part, it was simply deciding and having the conversation. The spinout itself is mostly a project plan once you’re committed, but reaching commitment can take longer than expected because it’s emotionally loaded: you’re balancing responsibility, attachment, brand clarity, and how it will land with stakeholders.
What helped us was pressure-testing the two main paths with people who’d seen both outcomes: spinouts and long-term fiscal sponsorship. We initially leaned toward keeping Sentient Futures as a programme under Hive long-term, but we consistently heard from experienced operations professionals that for a small charity, long-term fiscal sponsorship can become heavier than expected. It’s operationally heavy, hard to govern cleanly, and can create persistent ambiguity around ownership, accountability, and strategy. The longer the program stays part of your charity, the harder it becomes to spin out.
That made the trade-off much clearer. For the conversation itself, it helped to anchor on shared intent (“we want both Hive and the spinout to thrive”), state the decision plainly, and then move quickly into practical next steps with a timeline so it felt like a confident transition plan rather than an open-ended debate.
After the call, we created a shared transition plan document and an Asana project with tasks, owners, and deadlines, which helped us stay organised.Â
We also benefited a lot from having operations professionals supporting both Hive and Sentient Futures throughout the process, and we’d strongly recommend that where possible (see this list of operations professionals in animal advocacy the movement).Â
From making the decision to the spinout being fully official, our process took ~9 months. I don’t think it needs to take that long. We intentionally moved at a pace that gave Sentient Futures plenty of time to set things up without making the transition stressful for anyone. In many cases, I think you could do this in ~3–5 months, especially if the new entity already has (or quickly obtains) its nonprofit status and can move faster on banking, tools, and contracts.
If you have the luxury to choose when to spin out, it may make sense to start operational incorporation at the beginning of the year, then you will have one fewer year of paperwork to submit (at least in the US).
Even if your team understands the split, the community (and funders) often lag behind. We encountered several instances of “blurriness,” and it mattered more than we expected.
We learned that small tweaks go a long way in reinforcing separate identities:
Operational separation was time-consuming, especially for the Sentient Futures team. Our default approach was to separate all accounts unless a resource could be replicated easily without a meaningful downside.
Key hurdles included:
We’ve maintained ongoing mentorship and a few shared channels so the new team can still learn from Hive’s processes during the transition. Constance (ED of Sentient Futures) remains a Hive board member, and she’s still part of channels where there’s overlap and mutual learning. If you have the Premium (and above) Slack space subscription, you can set up Slack Connect to enable all members to chat from their own Slack spaces without having to switch.
If you have capacity, we recommend creating an “Alumni Channel” where the new org can ask questions of your operations or leadership teams, at least until their own ops function is fully up and running.
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Thank you for taking the time to write this up. This kind of post is incredibly valuable, and people should feel encouraged to share their operational experiences. Wishing both Hive and Sentient Futures to thrive!