Classify · Assess & Decide · Analysis & Finance
Startup growth-engine fit (viral / sticky / paid)
A founder receives a structured engine-fit assessment that pins each of the three Lean-Startup growth engines to a pass/fail gate on its driving metric and names the recommended primary engine.
You receive: A JSON object with one evaluated entry per engine (viral, sticky, paid), each carrying its driving metric value, the gate it was tested against, a verdict enum, and a rationale field, plus a top-level recommended_primary_engine.
Part of Distribution
Example
A sample of what this play produces. Your result is generated for your inputs.
- Recommended primary engine
- sticky
- Method note
- Illustrative pre-revenue scenario values; verdicts are Viable at or above each gate, Marginal from 80 percent of the gate, Not-Viable below.
Engines
- Engine
- viral
- Metric
- 0.35
- Gate
- Viable requires K >= 1.0; Marginal from 0.8 of the gate (K >= 0.8)
- Verdict
- Not-Viable
- Rationale
- STUD's plays produce private workspace deliverables, so a run rarely puts the product in front of a non-user. Illustrative K of 0.35 means each cohort shrinks before word of mouth can carry it; the viral engine cannot be the growth backbone today. Shareable artifacts (public play pages, sample deliverables) can lift K later, but that is upside, not an engine.
- Engine
- sticky
- Metric
- 0.625
- Gate
- Viable requires month-3 cohort retention >= 0.6; Marginal from 0.48
- Verdict
- Viable
- Rationale
- The living system compounds: a fact stated once flows into every later run, so switching cost grows with each deliverable that lands. In the illustrative launch scenario 25 of 40 activated buyers are retained at month 3 (0.625), clearing the 0.6 gate. Retention is the engine the product mechanism itself feeds, which is why it clears while the others depend on spend or luck.
- Engine
- paid
- Metric
- 9
- Computed ratio
- 9
- Gate
- Viable requires LTV/CAC >= 3.0; Marginal from 2.4
- Verdict
- Viable
- Rationale
- Illustrative unit economics: about $360 gross-margin LTV ($300 annual revenue per account at an 87 percent modeled gross margin over a roughly 17-month life at 6 percent monthly logo churn) against a $40 content-led blended CAC gives LTV/CAC of 9.0, well above the 3.0 gate. The ratio is strong because the channel is content and SEO, not auction spend; it holds only while CAC stays organic-led.
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Cost50 credits
ProtectionSpent when the run starts · returned only if STUD is at fault
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