Playbook
Choose Business Model
Decide how this venture makes money, and prove the math holds.
Model the economics
Unit economics and contribution margin
A correct per-transaction contribution-margin calculator, verified on held-out cases.
Opens laterCustomer lifetime value (simple and discounted)
The customer lifetime in years, the simple LTV, and the discount-adjusted LTV you can put against CAC.
Opens laterNet revenue retention with leaky-bucket flag
A correct NRR computation (net of expansion) with a leaky-bucket verdict and a benchmark comparison.
50 creditsNet Promoter Score
A correct NPS from raw 0-10 responses, with the promoter/passive/detractor breakdown.
50 creditsSaaS magic number
Your SaaS magic number (annualized new revenue over prior-quarter sales-and-marketing spend) with an efficiency band telling you whether to scale acquisition.
Opens laterWeighted sales forecast from the pipeline
A weighted, discount-adjusted forecast: each deal weighted by its stage probability and rolled up by month.
Opens laterBreak-even sales change for a price change
You get the minimum percent (and unit) sales-volume change at which a proposed price change leaves total profit contribution unchanged.
50 creditsBreak-even point and margin of safety
A founder learns the exact unit and revenue break-even point so they can judge whether the required sales volume is achievable before fixed costs are recovered.
50 creditsViral coefficient and loop-driven user growth
A founder learns their viral K-factor and the cumulative users a seed cohort generates across viral cycles, so they can judge whether the product can grow on the viral engine alone.
Opens laterWeekly growth-target schedule
A pure function that, given a starting metric value, a weekly growth rate, and a number of weeks, returns the compounded target for each week and the final value, mirroring the YC forward-looking growth graph practice.
50 credits
Watch runway and survival
Cash-flow watch register
A structured cash-flow watch register listing the cash metrics to track (cash balance, net burn, runway months, revenue), each with a current value, an alert threshold, a direction, and an accountable owner, so cash flow is monitored obsessively rather than discovered too late.
50 creditsRunway-to-profitability monthly projection
A structured monthly financial projection (a table of months with cash, revenue, expenses, net) that is arithmetically self-consistent, covers the required horizon, and explicitly marks the profitability crossover month, so the team and investors see the trajectory rather than a single number.
50 creditsDefault alive or default dead
A pure function that, given current cash, monthly expenses, monthly revenue, and monthly revenue growth rate, returns whether the company reaches profitability before cash runs out (default alive) or not (default dead), the crossover month, and the lowest cash point.
50 creditsBurn-rate danger level
A pure function that converts monthly burn and cash on hand into months of runway and a danger classification using runway-month thresholds, per Altman's rule that burn is only scary when runway is short.
50 creditsFatal pinch diagnosis
A pure function that classifies a startup against Paul Graham's fatal-pinch definition: default-dead AND slow growth AND not enough time, returning the overall verdict and which of the three conditions are true.
50 creditsFounder personal runway and go-full-time verdict
A bootstrapping founder learns how many months of personal runway they have and whether it clears the book's full-time-go thresholds, so they can decide whether to quit their job now or stay part-time.
50 creditsPlan-B survival plan
A structured survival-plan document that names the fundraise (Plan A) assumption, the dated switch trigger, the specific cost-cut and revenue actions of Plan B, and the resulting runway, so the team has a written fallback instead of vague optimism.
50 credits
Set your pricing
Economic value to the customer and viable price range (EVE)
You get the total economic value to the customer (EVE) and the viable price range (ceiling and floor) for one product in one customer segment, built up from a next-best-alternative reference price and a set of signed monetary value-driver deltas.
50 creditsVan Westendorp acceptable price range
I enter each respondent's four price answers and get back the deterministic Van Westendorp points (PMC, PME, OPP, IPP) on the observed price grid, so I have a defensible acceptable-price band.
50 creditsAdd-on price as percent-of-base with floor and cap
I give a base ACV, a percentage, a floor and a cap, and get an add-on price that scales with customer size while always staying inside my floor and cap.
50 creditsPrice transparency decision on the market 2x2
I give market size and homogeneity (with thresholds) and get the quadrant plus the publish-on-website recommendation, matching the book's transparency 2x2.
50 creditsBill under a linear, 2-part, or 3-part tariff
I give a usage volume and a tariff schedule and get the exact amount owed, with the right block selected and overage applied only above included units.
50 creditsGig-platform fee and net-earnings comparison
For every platform I compare, I see the fee it takes and the net earnings that remain, with the highest-net platform flagged as the winner.
50 credits
Choose what to build
Weighted founder idea-selection matrix
A structured decision matrix that rates each candidate idea against weighted virtue criteria, computes the weighted score (SUMPRODUCT of weights and scores) per idea, and ranks them, so founders pick a direction on stated criteria instead of gut feel.
50 creditsProblem candidates scored on the Ikigai four-lens fit
A founder receives a structured four-lens score for each candidate problem and a shortlist of those that clear every lens, so they pick a problem to focus on rather than a buzzword.
50 creditsDiscovery-driven assumptions checklist for a new venture
A structured discovery-driven planning register: the required financial targets stated up front, then a rank-ordered assumptions checklist where every assumption has a test, a cost, and a kill/continue trigger, per Christensen's reversed four-step method.
50 creditsFoothold fit against the nonconsumption pattern
A structured foothold-fit assessment that records, for each of Christensen's four elements of the nonconsumption pattern, the buyer's claim, supporting evidence, and a pass/partial/fail mark, with an aggregate fit verdict computed by rule.
50 creditsThree-approaches-to-growth strategy spec
A structured strategy spec that captures all three of Christensen's growth approaches across the three Table 2-1 dimensions, with each cell filled and internally consistent with that approach's definition.
50 creditsJobs-vs-attributes market segmentation map
A structured circumstance-based segmentation map: a set of jobs-to-be-done, each tagged with the functional/emotional/social dimension, the circumstance, and the competing-alternatives set (which must include a nonconsumption option), explicitly contrasted against the rejected attribute-based segments.
50 creditsThreat-to-opportunity framing transition plan
A structured two-phase framing plan per Gilbert's threat-then-opportunity model: Phase 1 threat framing housed in the core to secure resources, a named handoff trigger, then Phase 2 opportunity framing in an autonomous unit with enumerated independence dimensions.
50 creditsPerformance-overshoot and basis-of-competition register
A structured overshoot register: one row per market tier recording demanded vs delivered performance, an overshoot verdict, and the predicted next basis of competition, structured by the producer from the buyer's description of the tiers and checked by STUD for internal logical consistency.
50 creditsInnovation classified by the three disruption litmus tests
A deterministic function that takes the five disruption-test answers for an innovation and returns its disruption class (new-market, low-end, both, sustaining, or not-disruptable) plus which tests it passed, exactly per Christensen's three litmus tests.
Opens laterIn-house build-vs-buy tendency scorer
A founder weighing whether to sell an AI capability as a service gets a 0-6 in-house-tendency score and a build/buy verdict per the book's exact criteria, flagging capabilities customers will just build themselves.
50 creditsAI use-case technical feasibility scorer
A non-technical founder gets a defensible 1-4 score on each of the five technical-feasibility dimensions and an average, derived purely from yes/no characterizations of the use case, with no hand-waving.
50 creditsAI idea business feasibility scores on 1-4 scales
A founder comparing AI product ideas gets a defensible 1-4 score on each business-feasibility dimension and an average, derived from concrete inputs (SOM, usage cadence, validation %, scalability), so ideas can be ranked on a like-for-like basis.
50 creditsAI model process and tool maturity bands
A team assessing whether an AI model is mature enough to sell as a service gets a process-maturity band and a tool/system-maturity band computed directly from per-phase level scores, ready to feed the AIaaS feasibility decision.
50 creditsProduct feature ranking (collaborative weighted scorecard)
A product team prioritizing a roadmap gets each feature's weighted value, cost normalized to the most expensive feature, absolute value, and a deterministic rank, computed exactly per the CWS formula.
50 creditsAIaaS productization decision register
A founder deciding which of their internal AI models to package and sell as AIaaS gets a defensible, rule-derived register that says Go / Go-with-notes / Stop per model and names the single best candidate to commercialize.
50 creditsAIaaS lean canvas with templated pitch
A founder productizing an AI model as a service gets a complete, structured AIaaS lean canvas plus a ready elevator pitch in the book's exact format, with no empty fields and a valid deployment mode.
50 creditsSETDA AI outcome discovery register
A product team running AI discovery gets a structured register of candidate AI outcomes, each correctly categorized (revenue / cost / risk) and mapped to a Sense/Explain/Think/Decide/Act method, with needs and requirements broken out per the SETDA framework.
50 creditsWorkflow lock-in and switching-cost register
The founder gets a structured lock-in register that documents, per top customer, the automations / integrations / team-workflows running through the product plus a switching-cost estimate and an integration-depth tier, surfacing where the product is embedded and where it needs to go deeper.
50 creditsPre-launch PMF threshold register
The founder gets a structured PMF threshold register that fixes the metrics, their pass thresholds, and the false-positive traps in advance, so the later PMF call is measured against pre-committed bars instead of post-hoc rationalization.
50 creditsMVP scope boundary contract
The founder gets a structured scope contract that locks the MVP boundary in advance, so zero-friction scope creep is gated by a written evidence test for every excluded feature rather than founder enthusiasm.
50 creditsTechnical debt remediation sequence register
The founder gets a structured remediation register that buckets each debt item into fix-before-release / parallel-with-features / acceptable-ongoing, tags its weakness type, and orders the must-fix set, turning a flat audit list into a sequenced remediation plan.
50 creditsFounder operational load and delegation register
The founder gets a structured operational-load register that classifies every routed task by delegation tier and flags the ones that stall in a founder's week-long absence, turning 'I do everything' into a triaged plan for what to systematize, delegate, or keep.
50 creditsAI coding session brief and context file
The founder gets a structured session-brief template plus a populated project-context document so each AI coding session executes against fixed architectural guardrails and logs what it changed, preventing the compounding drift the book warns about.
50 creditsFounder task routing to the right Claude surface
The founder gets a pure routing function that takes a task's structured attributes and returns the correct Claude surface, applying the book's surface-selection logic deterministically across any list of tasks.
Opens laterProportional token allocation from contribution scores
Each contributor receives a token allocation proportional to their share of the contribution scores, and the allocations add back up to the full pool.
50 credits
Raise and split equity
Startup pitch financials table
A structured financials block for a fundraising pitch containing market size, the business-model line items, and a revenue series (history and projection), with required fields present and internally consistent (SOM <= SAM <= TAM, distinct periods, currency matching your code), plus a market growth rate and LTV/CAC unit economics when you require them in the intake.
50 creditsRaise amount and implied valuation from inflection point
A single headline raise number, the implied post-money valuation range, the investor ownership range it implies, and a flag for whether the ask sits inside the track-record-appropriate band, so the founder can answer 'how much are you raising?' with one defensible figure.
50 creditsNotes-vs-priced financing decision register
A structured decision register that scores convertible-note versus priced-round across every required factor (default: cost, speed, resolution, investor protections, misalignment, confusion, control, investor preference) plus the two easy-case flags (family-and-friends, bridge to finish an in-progress round), ending in a single recommended instrument that follows the weighted tally, with a rationale per factor.
50 creditsCapital character on the growth and profit axes
A deterministic function mapping a venture's funding terms onto Christensen's two-axis capital-character model and returning whether the capital is good or bad for a new-market disruption, with the quadrant label.
50 creditsIncubator and accelerator eligibility screen
A founder receives a structured eligibility screen showing, criterion by criterion, whether the startup meets a given incubator or accelerator program's stated rules and whether it clears the overall must-have gate.
50 creditsStartup lifecycle stage exit readiness
The founder gets a structured readiness assessment that scores their startup against the named exit criteria for their current stage (Idea/MVP/Launch/Scale), surfacing which gates are met with evidence and which are blocking, so the stage-transition decision is reasoned rather than an act of faith.
50 creditsFounder equity contribution-factor ledger
A structured ledger that records, per founder, each equity-adjustment factor applied (initiator, idea, beachhead, CEO, full-time, reputation, cash), the points added, and a justification, ending in final share counts and ownership percentages, so the split is defensible line by line.
50 creditsEquity for a founder's cash contribution
The extra ownership percentage a founder earns by putting cash into the company beyond their labor, priced off the agreed pre-seed valuation, plus the resulting post-contribution ownership split, so the founders can settle IOUs before financing.
50 creditsNew-hire equity grant by hire number
A pure function that returns the equity-grant percentage for the Nth early hire by interpolating between configurable anchor grants (default 1.5% for hire #1, 0.25% for hire #20), per the YC early-hire equity rule of thumb.
50 creditsFounder vesting acceleration payout on change of control
A precise breakdown of how many founder shares vest at a change-of-control event under the grant's acceleration terms, so the founder knows their stake before signing.
50 creditsFounder share repurchase on departure
A precise vested-vs-repurchasable share split when a founder leaves before fully vesting, plus the cash the company pays under the repurchase agreement, so the cap table can be corrected.
50 creditsCofounder vs employee cash-and-equity cost
A side-by-side of cash burned and equity given for filling a role as a cofounder versus an employee over the runway window, plus the company valuation at which the cofounder's extra equity costs more than the cash saved, so the founder can decide which is economically cheaper.
Opens later83(b) election and capital-gains-clock register
A structured compliance register listing every founder with restricted stock, their 83(b) filing deadline (incorporation date + 30 days), filing status, mailing-proof reference, and a days-remaining / overdue flag, so no founder misses the irrecoverable window.
50 creditsHead-Hand-Heart talent remuneration package
An early-stage founder receives a structured offer that pairs ESOPs and tax-aware cash with explicit psychological motivators, so they can compete for talent they cannot out-pay on salary alone.
50 credits
Stay compliant
Self-employment tax and quarterly estimated payments
You get your self-employment tax for the supplied net earnings plus the four equal quarterly estimated payments, computed for the tax-year rates and thresholds you provide.
50 creditsCompliance control and evidence register
The founder gets a structured control register that maps each required control to its framework, the evidence artifact that satisfies it, its present/missing status, and an owner, so the documentation and controls needed to pass a compliance review are enumerated and tracked rather than improvised.
50 creditsStartup compliance obligation register
A founder-acting-as-CFO receives a structured register of recurring compliance obligations across corporate, tax, contract, IP, and employment law, each with a cadence and due date, so nothing lapses.
50 creditsEnterprise procurement readiness gap register
The founder gets a structured procurement-readiness register that lists each expected enterprise artifact (docs, SLAs, support infra, controls), its present/partial/missing status, and a remediation order, so the work to satisfy a procurement review is sequenced before the contract stalls on it.
50 credits
Investor-type match with conflicts flagged
A ranked shortlist of investor types fit to your stage, revenue-certainty, timeline, and control preferences, each row scored on the same comparison dimensions with its specific advantage and the one named conflict to mitigate.
50 creditsTerm-sheet founder-trap audit with renegotiation points
A clause-by-clause read of your draft term sheet that names each founder-adverse provision across every known trap family, explains its downstream effect in plain language, and proposes the specific counter to bring to the table.
50 credits
Also part of this playbook, opening soon:
- Lay out my business model
- Work out how long my money lasts