Minimum Success Criteria

The Minimum Success Criteria is the one number a Startup must reach by a date to stay worth running. The Founder sets it once, beside the Founding Hypothesis.

One number and a dateCopy Anchor Link

The number is outside revenue, a Metric only outside Customers move. It is a Goal with one target and one deadline. The Studio supplies the default as a Setting, and the Founder may raise it.

Revenue from sibling Startups and from the Founder never counts. A number the Startup can pay itself proves nothing.

Three numbers, three clocksCopy Anchor Link

A Startup reads three numbers at once, each on its own clock. Only one is the Minimum Success Criteria.

The reachability checkCopy Anchor Link

Before anything is built, the number is worked backward through the Price and the conversion rates. If the volumes it needs are out of reach, the model fails on paper, at no cost.

Minimum Success Criteria   $4,000 outside revenue a month, by month 9
Price                      $79 a month
Customers needed           51
Leads needed               255     at 20% Lead to Customer
Visitors needed            5,100   at 5% Visitor to Lead

The rates open as cited benchmarks. Once enough sibling Startups share the Product Template and Motion, the Portfolio median replaces them.

Dated Key ResultsCopy Anchor Link

The check compiles into dated Key Results: the path from the first deposit to the number. Each one is a line a week can be read against.

What the number decidesCopy Anchor Link

The number gives impact a unit. The weekly test ranks each slot by how far a wrong answer would move the Startup from it.

At the end of each week, office hours reads the dated Key Results. A missed Key Result raises a Decision to persevere or pivot, and the date itself is the last one.

Write itCopy Anchor Link

The number lives in startup.ts beside the sentence, as one Metric, a value and a date.

import { Startup } from 'startup-builder'

export default Startup({
  name: 'Platecost',
  domain: 'platecost.app',
  extends: 'solo-saas',
  hypothesis: { /* the five slots */ },
  msc: { metric: 'outside-revenue', value: 4000, by: '2027-07-22' },
})

On a running Startup, every Interface writes it with MinimumSuccessCriteria.create. Rehearse first: the rehearsal runs the reachability check and writes nothing.

curl -X POST "https://api.sb/platecost.app/minimum-success-criteria?mode=try" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $STARTUP_BUILDER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"objective":"Outside customers pay enough to keep Platecost running","metric":"outside-revenue","value":4000,"by":"2027-07-22"}'

try  MinimumSuccessCriteria.create   nothing written

Target        $4,000 outside revenue a month, by 2027-07-22
Price         $79 a month                                 from: Hypothesis#switch@v1
Needs         51 Customers, 255 Leads, 5,100 Visitors
Rates         20% Lead to Customer, 5% Visitor to Lead    cited benchmarks
Verdict       reachable
Key Results   4, the first: 8 outside deposits by 2026-11-05

An unreachable number prints the volume that breaks it, such as unreachable: needs 51,000 Visitors. The run without --try writes the Goal and its dated Key Results.

To read the path against the week, ask for the record:

npx startup-builder show /minimum-success-criteria

platecost.app   $4,000 outside revenue a month, by 2027-07-22   read 2027-01-18

by           key result                        now      status
2026-11-05   8 refundable outside deposits     9        met
2027-01-22   15 outside paying Customers       13       on track
2027-04-22   30 outside paying Customers       13       open
2027-07-22   $4,000 outside revenue a month    $1,027   open

NextCopy Anchor Link

The weekly test turns the weakest slot into the week's one test.