Principles

Seven rules hold for every Startup that StartupBuilder runs. Each one is enforced by the platform, not left to the judgment of whoever runs the Startup.

The definition is the businessCopy Anchor Link

What the definition says is what the Startup does. No side process runs outside it, no price lives in a spreadsheet, and no Role exists only in someone's head.

A newcomer, human or Agent, learns the business by reading its definition. A founder who wants the business to behave differently edits the definition through a Change, and the running Startup follows.

Types are disciplineCopy Anchor Link

A typed record cannot be vague. A Hypothesis must name the Metric and threshold that settle it, so "teachers love it" never passes as a test.

import { $ } from 'startup-builder'

await $.Hypothesis.create({
  statement: 'Roofers pay two cents a record for verified permits',
  kind: 'loop',
  metric: 'paidLookupsPerWeek',
  threshold: '10000 within four weeks',
})

An empty field is dropped or filled with a sourced value, never guessed. Structural facts, such as which acts need a license in a state, come from published registries and standards, not from a model.

Goals are testsCopy Anchor Link

A Goal is a set of assertions the platform checks continuously, not a slide. Each Key Result names a Metric, a baseline, a target, and a deadline, and reads its value from Events.

await $.Goal.create({ objective: 'Teachers rebook without being asked', horizon: 'quarter' })
await $.KeyResult.create({ baseline: 0.35, target: 0.6, deadline: '2026-12-31' }) // reads rebookingRate

A Key Result off its line raises a Decision for the Role that owns the work. No Team owns a Metric; the Processes that move it do.

Work goes to the cheapest capable workerCopy Anchor Link

Every step runs as code, a generative model, an Agent, or a Human, in that order of preference. A miss or low confidence escalates one rung, and the caller never sees which kind did the work.

The performer is never the checker. An Evaluator grading an Agent runs on a different model from the Agent, and nobody approves their own Change.

Autonomy is earned; oversight is declaredCopy Anchor Link

Autonomy grows with evidence. An Agent moves up a rung when its verdicts agree with review 95 percent of the time. It drops a rung on a regression, with no ticket filed.

Oversight does not move with capability: it is declared per step for a lasting reason, such as regulation, stakes, or harm to consumers.

A tax filing waits for a credentialed preparer however good the model becomes. A refund over its Limit waits for whoever holds that Limit.

Every change is an experimentCopy Anchor Link

Any Change to an Offer, Price, Page, message, or Play can run as variants against a Hypothesis. The winner becomes the definition, and the losing variant concludes with its Evidence.

Nothing is deleted. A concluded variant keeps its record, and a Startup with no signal goes Dormant and can return. Across a Portfolio, winners flow into Startup Template defaults, so each new Startup inherits the best version known and the business compounds.

Honest by constructionCopy Anchor Link

A Startup cannot ship a fabricated Customer, an invented Metric, a fake badge, a placeholder feature, or staff who do not exist. Social proof on its Site renders from payments and usage; with none, the section does not render.

Before a Startup is Live, proof is a target, not a claim. The lesson-booking Startup's Site says it is taking its first 50 teachers, and it shows a teacher count only once teachers have paid.

NextCopy Anchor Link

Vision explains why StartupBuilder runs a business as a program.