Lifecycle
How a Startup moves from an idea to a business that sells, one gated state at a time.
- Read as
- GuideSpec
A Startup's Lifecycle is the state it holds on the way from its first Idea to a business that compounds. A state is entered when its entry checks pass, never by hand, and every Interface reads it.
Nine states
Five states climb: Idea, Building, Live, Repeatable and Scale. Four leave the climb. Hold keeps a Startup running with no new investment, and Dormant stops its work and keeps its records.
Graduate and Sell hand the Startup to a new owner, intact. Nothing ends in deletion.
| State | Entry checks | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Idea | 2 | Building |
| Building | 5 | Live, Dormant |
| Live | 16 | Repeatable, Hold, Graduate, Sell, Dormant, Building |
| Repeatable | 11 | Scale, Hold, Graduate, Sell, Dormant |
| Scale | 4 | Hold, Graduate, Sell |
| Hold | 1 | Repeatable, Scale, Graduate, Sell, Dormant |
| Graduate | 1 | None. |
| Sell | 6 | None. |
| Dormant | 1 | Live |
Checks move a Startup
Every entry check is an assertion over the Startup's records. Its kind says how the assertion is proved.
| Kind | Proves | Example check |
|---|---|---|
registry | A record exists and resolves | Brand named |
contract | An outside system confirms it | Payouts connected |
transcript | A recorded run succeeded | Test run passed |
ui | A rendered page shows it | Site published |
metric | A Metric holds its line over a window, outside parties only | Customers stay |
A failing check whose dependencies pass becomes a Task for the Role that owns it. advance reads every check and moves the Startup the moment they all pass.
Startup.advance- API
POST /{namespace}/startups/{startup}/advance- SDK
$.Startup.advance(input)- CLI
startup-builder do Startup.advance --json '<input>'- MCP
do: $.Startup.advance(input)
Metric checks cannot be filled in. An Agent can write a Problem statement; it cannot write ten outside Customers who paid.
The outside paid Order
Every state after Live counts one fact: an outside Customer paid for an Order. A party is outside when it shares no owner, no Studio account, no Agreement and no sibling chain with the Startup.
A sibling Startup buying 40 seats, the owner's own card, and trades between Startups of one Studio are real revenue, reported apart. None of them counts toward Outside revenue, so none moves a Startup up the climb.
The climb reads that one fact at rising strength. Live can take an outside paid Order and starts the clock to the first one. Repeatable needs ten outside Customers who arrived through Plays, stay, and pay back what they cost; Scale needs them spending more a year later.
One number per state
Each climbing state names the one Metric that matters while the Startup holds it.
| State | One metric that matters | What it proves |
|---|---|---|
| Idea | Problem interviews | Outside buyers describe the problem's past cost |
| Building | Committed ICP members | Some of them commit: a deposit, a pre-order, a paid pilot |
| Live | Outside paying Customers | Strangers pay |
| Repeatable | Month-3 retention | They stay |
| Scale | Net revenue retention | They spend more |
Every number is computed from records. The Weekly review reads the state's number first; every other Metric is context.
The weekly loop
A Startup climbs one week at a time. Weekly review finds the step where most buyers leak and makes one change per path, with an undo note, recorded as a Decision.
Office hours follow. A Studio partner Agent reads the Startup's Dashboard, asks the questions for its state, and checks last week's commitments against the records.
A human Founder answers in a short session and signs the Decision. A Founder Agent answers in writing, and an answer that cites no record counts as opinion. When the number stays flat, Pivot review decides whether to change course.
Next
- Research and define: from Idea to Building on graded Evidence.
- Build and publish: from Building to Live through the launch checklist.
- Acquire and sell: the first outside paid Order, then ten.
- Deliver and accept: when the fee is earned.
- Support and retain: why Customers stay.
- Finance and improve: whether it pays, and the next change.
- Scale, hold, and transfer: what the numbers earn.
- Pivots: changing course without losing the record.
- The test and live environments: proving every Offer before a stranger pays.