Templates
Every Startup starts from a Startup Template that combines an operating model, Product Templates, and the Motions it sells through.
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Every Startup starts from a Startup Template: one operating model, one or more Product Templates, and the Motions its Offers sell through. Choose the three and StartupBuilder supplies the rest.
Three choices
| Choice | The question it answers | Values |
|---|---|---|
| Product Templates | What does the Startup sell, and who supplies the work? | Ten, from Dataset API to E2E managed service |
| Operating models | Who runs it? | Autonomous, Single human, Multi-human |
| Motions | Who buys, and who acts? | Eight chains, from b2b to b2a2d |
The three choices are independent. A Dataset API runs with no humans or with a founder, and sells to developers or to the coding Agents that build for them. A Startup Template names one combination that works, so a new Startup starts from a known mix instead of a blank page.
Industries are not templates. A legal-research API and a freight-rates API both start from Dataset API; the domain adds its own Nouns, Verbs, Credentials, and regulations on top.
A template is a diff
Every Startup inherits a base: a Brand, a Site, the API, MCP server, SDK, and CLI, every System, and an Agent in each default Role. A template page opens with the business it runs, then lists only what it changes against that base:
- The business: how it earns, typical Prices, the Demand Budget first revenue needs, the one Metric per state, and its seed and compounding Plays.
- Adds: the Product Templates, Systems, and rules it brings.
- Wakes: the Processes that start running.
- Staffing: the Roles that gain a seat.
- Floor: the legal floor rows that apply.
- Controls: the checks its Processes and Systems satisfy.
- Builders: the Builders that build it.
- Next: the templates that extend it.
A Startup Template can extend another. The Licensed professional network extends the Founder-led marketplace: it inherits matching, payouts, and Supplier terms, then adds Credential checks.
npm create startups "Rate Desk" -- --template autonomous-data-apiChoose by supply first
Supply decides how hard a business is to run. With digital supply, Software and Agents do the work, capacity has no ceiling, and demand is the only constraint. With human supply, every unit of work needs a recruited, credentialed person.
A human-supply template adds recruiting, Credential checks, payouts, and an App where Suppliers take work. Choose the fewest humans the work allows: run Autonomous until a step needs a signature, a Credential, or judgment the Agents have not earned.
Last, follow the buyer. The Motion sets which Interfaces lead and which demand Plays fit.
Templates learn
Every default in a template is a Hypothesis. When a variant beats the default across a Cohort of Startups, it becomes the new default. The next Startup starts from the best known version, and a Startup that overrides a default keeps its override.
The catalog
| Template | Kind | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Autonomous data API | Startup Template | An Autonomous data API runs with no humans and sells a Dataset API and Headless SaaS to developers and their Agents. |
| Autonomous agent business | Startup Template | An Autonomous agent business runs with no humans and sells Agent as a Service to businesses, people, and other Agents. |
| Agent-run services firm | Startup Template | An Agent-run services firm runs with no humans and sells warranted outcomes as Services-as-Software, with the Agent behind them for hire. |
| Managed service firm | Startup Template | A Managed service firm extends the Agent-run services firm with Humans who share Roles and an E2E managed service for businesses. |
| Solo SaaS | Startup Template | A Solo SaaS has one Human founder and Agents in every other Role, selling SaaS and its Headless SaaS to businesses and people. |
| Autonomous directory | Startup Template | An Autonomous directory runs with no humans and sells listings in a Directory to Organizations that want buyers and Agents to find them. |
| Founder-led marketplace | Startup Template | A Founder-led marketplace has one Human founder who signs for a Marketplace, while Agents recruit Suppliers and serve buyers. |
| Licensed professional network | Startup Template | A Licensed professional network extends the Founder-led marketplace into a Licensed-human marketplace that buyers and their Agents book. |
| Autonomous storefront | Startup Template | An Autonomous storefront runs with no humans and sells physical goods as a Dropship store to people and the Agents that shop for them. |
| Dataset API | Product Template | A Dataset API sells keyed lookups and queries over a Dataset to developers and Agents, metered per call. |
| Headless SaaS | Product Template | Headless SaaS sells Software with no App of its own: Customers and their Agents use it through the API, MCP server, SDK, and CLI. |
| SaaS | Product Template | SaaS adds an App for people to Headless SaaS, sold as a Subscription per seat, with onboarding to first value. |
| Directory | Product Template | A Directory sells listings: Organizations pay to appear in a searchable Dataset that buyers and their Agents browse free. |
| Marketplace | Product Template | A Marketplace matches buyers with Suppliers who deal with each other directly, and earns a take rate on every transaction it settles. |
| Licensed-human marketplace | Product Template | A Licensed-human marketplace matches buyers with credentialed professionals and adds recruiting, Credential checks, and an App where they take work. |
| Agent as a Service | Product Template | Agent as a Service sells an Agent that Customers hire into a Role or hand Tasks to through the API or MCP server. |
| Services-as-Software | Product Template | Services-as-Software sells a warranted outcome that Agents deliver end to end under an Outcome Contract, billed only once accepted. |
| E2E managed service | Product Template | An E2E managed service runs a whole business function for the Customer, with Agents doing the work and Humans in the loop. |
| Dropship store | Product Template | A Dropship store sells physical goods from a catalog while an upstream holds the stock and ships each Order, with tracking passed through. |
| Autonomous | Operating model | Autonomous is the operating model with no humans: Agents fill every Role, and one-way decisions wait out a delay window before they proceed. |
| Single human | Operating model | Single human is the operating model with one Human, a working CEO or a passive board chair, and Agents in every other Role. |
| Multi-human | Operating model | Multi-human is the operating model where several Humans share Roles with Agents, each Human working under their own Mandate and Limits. |
| b2b | Motion | b2b is the Motion where a business buys the Offer and its people or Agents use it. |
| b2c | Motion | b2c is the Motion where a person buys the Offer for their own use. |
| b2d | Motion | b2d is the Motion where a developer buys the Offer to build it into their own Software. |
| b2a | Motion | b2a is the Motion where an Agent finds, buys, and uses the Offer itself, paying within its own Limits. |
| b2h2a | Motion | b2h2a is the Motion where a person buys the Offer and their Agent uses it. |
| b2a2b | Motion | b2a2b is the Motion where an Agent buys the Offer on behalf of a business. |
| b2a2c | Motion | b2a2c is the Motion where an Agent buys the Offer on behalf of a person. |
| b2a2d | Motion | b2a2d is the Motion where an Agent buys the Offer on behalf of a developer. |