# Vision URL: /code/builders/startup/vision ยท Id: `page:code/builders/startup/vision` > StartupBuilder treats a business as a program, with a definition that runs, a market that scores it, and a loop that improves it every week. [StartupBuilder](/code/builders/startup) treats a business as a program. A [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) is one definition that runs, a market scores it, and every week it ships a better version of itself. ## A business is a program Models became superhuman at math and code first, because both have four things: a formal representation, execution, a reward signal, and fast iteration. A business had none of them: its rules lived in heads, its work in inboxes, its score in a quarterly spreadsheet. StartupBuilder gives a business all four. The definition is the formal representation: [Nouns](/business/nouns/noun), [Verbs](/business/nouns/verb), [Products](/business/nouns/product), [Offers](/business/nouns/offer), [Roles](/business/nouns/role), and [Goals](/business/nouns/goal), typed and versioned. [api.sb](/code/platform/api-sb) executes it. Revenue and [Metrics](/business/nouns/metric) are the reward, and the market computes them, not a judge. Iteration is the fourth. Every edit is a [Change](/business/nouns/change), and any Change can run as an [Experiment](/business/nouns/experiment) against a [Hypothesis](/business/nouns/hypothesis). A Startup that tests one Change a week runs 52 experiments a year on its own business. ## The definition is the business One shared runtime reads every Startup's definition and runs it. No Startup owns a codebase to maintain, so no Startup drifts from what it says it is. Take a Startup that sells verified building-permit data to roofing contractors. Its definition names a `Permit` Noun, a `Permit.verify` Verb, a usage Offer at two cents a record, and a Goal of 300 paying contractors. Raising the price is one Change. The pricing [Page](/business/nouns/page), the API response, and the next [Invoice](/business/nouns/invoice) all read the new [Price](/business/nouns/price) from the same record. The operations manual and the operation are one record, so the manual cannot go stale. An [Agent](/business/nouns/agent) reading the definition sees what the business does, because the definition is what the business does. ## Start from demand A Startup starts from a [Problem](/business/nouns/problem) that a reachable buyer pays to solve. The Problem and the outcome the Startup sells describe one state of the world with opposite signs. The demand it chases and the Offer it sells share one structure. The founding Hypothesis is the root record. It names who the buyer is, what hurts, what the Startup offers, how it differs, and why now. [Site](/business/nouns/site) copy, Offers, Prices, and [Plays](/business/nouns/play) compile from it, each traced to the slot it came from. Each slot shows its strongest [Evidence](/business/nouns/evidence): behavior beats commitment, and commitment beats opinion. The first test is a reserve page. Buyers place a refundable deposit before the Product exists, and the deposits grade the Hypothesis in days. ## Systems, Agents, and Processes Every Startup splits its work three ways. [Systems](/business/nouns/system) hold durable state and run deterministic operations, with no judgment, and Agents judge at named decision points and act only through Systems. [Processes](/business/nouns/process) sequence System operations and Agent judgments toward a verifiable outcome, and hold neither state nor judgment. The boundaries are tests. Judgment inside a System is a misplaced Agent, and a Process step that keeps state is a hidden System. Because Agents propose and Processes commit through Systems after a check passes, the performer is never the checker. ## Autonomy grows, oversight stays put An Agent fills every Role by default. A [Human](/business/nouns/human) joins a Role by choice, signs where the law reserves an act to a person, and decides where an [Action](/business/nouns/action) exceeds a [Limit](/business/nouns/limit). No human sits in a path because a model falls short. Autonomy tracks what models can do and rises with each release, with no rebuild. Oversight is declared per step for a reason that does not change with capability: regulation, stakes, consumer harm. A Startup that caps refunds at $500 sends every larger refund to a person, whatever the model scores. Restraint counts as a move. Waiting for Evidence, holding cash, or pausing a failing Play is a [Decision](/business/nouns/decision), recorded with its options, its choice, and its reason. ## Variation, not validation Creating a Startup costs close to nothing, so the riskiest assumption becomes an axis of variants that the market grades. Three Startups can test one [Idea](/business/nouns/idea) on three buyers in the same week. Nothing is deleted: a Startup with no signal goes Dormant and keeps its records, Site, and domain. A [Studio](/business/nouns/studio) runs StartupBuilder across a [Portfolio](/business/nouns/portfolio). Startups are variants of Ideas and [Startup Templates](/business/nouns/startup-template), and Plays roll out by [Cohort](/business/nouns/cohort) with control arms. Winning variants flow back into Startup Template defaults, so each new Startup starts from the best version known. The bar is not a first dollar. It is profit, across many Startups, at a quality a buyer trusts. ## Next [The Startup as code](/code/builders/startup/business-as-code) describes the model every definition is written in.