Build and publish
How a Startup's definition becomes Products, a Site and Interfaces, and how the launch checklist admits it to Live.
Building turns a Startup's definition into working Products; publishing puts its Offers where Customers and their Agents can accept them. The launch checklist decides when a stranger can.
Five Builders, one definition
StartupBuilder reads the definition and runs build, which provisions every System, Site and Interface the definition declares. Four more Builders each own one part of the result.
| Builder | Builds |
|---|---|
| SiteBuilder | The Site, its Pages, its Brand and its Domain |
| SoftwareBuilder | Software, Datasets and Agents, with their APIs |
| ServiceBuilder | Delivery Workflows, Outcome Contracts and supply |
| SalesBuilder | Offers, Prices, checkout and demand |
Agents seated in Roles do the work. The Engineering Lead implements each Change, and the Designer shapes the Site as data that renders for people and Agents alike.
Sell while you build
The Building state is not hidden. SiteBuilder publishes a reserve page on the first day: the Offer, its Price, and a refundable deposit. Each deposit is commitment-grade Evidence and counts toward Committed ICP members.
Take a Startup that sells a Dataset of municipal building permits to developers of construction software. Its reserve page offers a year of API access at $1,200, with a $100 deposit. Twelve deposits in two weeks say more about demand than any feature list.
Each Product kind proves something different
Choosing an API as the Interface removes nothing a Product promises underneath. Every Startup passes the root checks, and each Product kind adds the proof it needs.
- A Dataset proves provenance: every Source is licensed, crawled within its terms, or synthetic.
- An Agent passes its evaluation suite on every task type its Offers sell.
- A Service publishes its outcome, its SLA, and the remedy when the SLA is missed.
- A marketplace onboards its first Suppliers, and a licensed one verifies each Supplier's Credential.
The permits Startup owes the Dataset proof. Each of its 300 city portals is a Source with its terms recorded, and a city whose terms forbid reuse never enters the Dataset.
Publish only what delivery keeps
publish makes an Offer available to accept. Every published Offer needs a Workflow that delivers it, with each step assigned to Software, an Agent, or a Human.
A Page that promises more than delivery provides creates an obligation the Startup cannot meet. The Content Lead writes from the definition, so copy and capability share one source of truth.
The launch checklist
Live reads its root entry checks in order, plus the checks each Product kind adds.
| Check | Id | Kind | Applies to | Passes when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offers published | live-offers | registry | Every Startup | At least one Offer is published with a price and terms; launch refuses a Startup without one. |
| Work defined | live-work | registry | Every Startup | Every published Offer has a workflow that delivers it, with each step assigned to software, an Agent, or a person. |
| People assigned | live-people | registry | Every Startup | Every role the workflows need is held by an Agent or a person, with instructions and limits. |
| Site published | live-site | ui | Every Startup | The site serves home, pricing, terms, and privacy pages under the Brand, readable by people and agents. |
| Test run passed | live-test-run | transcript | Every Startup | A sample Customer completes every published Offer end to end in test, with no real charge or message. |
| Portal ready | live-portal | ui | Every Startup | The customer portal on the site shows each Customer their orders, deliveries, invoices, and messages. |
| Agent API open | live-agent-api | contract | Every Startup | The API, MCP server, OpenAPI document, llms.txt, and agents.json serve every published Offer and pass conformance. |
| Payouts connected | live-payouts | contract | Every Startup | Stripe takes payments for the Startup and pays out to its bank account. |
| Address resolves | live-address | contract | Every Startup | The canonical Domain serves the Site over HTTPS with a valid certificate and, where it embeds a payment form, Stripe lists it as a payment method domain. |
| Five slots at Commitment | live-slots | grade | Every Startup | All five Founding Hypothesis slots hold Commitment Evidence from outside people. Slots customer, problem, approach, switch, differentiation at Commitment or stronger, outside Evidence only. |
| Sources secured | live-sources | registry | Dataset API, Directory | Every dataset source is licensed, crawled within its terms, or synthetic. |
| Evals passing | live-evals | transcript | Agent as a Service | The Agent passes its evaluation suite on every task type its Offers sell. |
| SLA published | live-sla | registry | Services-as-Software, E2E managed service | Every service Offer states its outcome, its SLA, and the remedy when the SLA is missed. |
| Supply seeded | live-supply | registry | Marketplace, Licensed-human marketplace | The first suppliers are onboarded, have accepted supplier terms, and can receive payouts. |
| Credentials verified | live-credentials | contract | Licensed-human marketplace | Every supplier who performs licensed work holds a verified, current credential for each jurisdiction served. |
| Human steps staffed | live-human-loop | registry | E2E managed service | Every human step in delivery has a staffed role, a response time, and an escalation path. |
Every Interface reads the same checklist: the startups.new console shows 8 of 10 ready, and the API returns the two failing checks. Each failing check opens a Task for the Role that owns it.
Launch
When every check passes, launch deploys the current Version to the live environment and puts the Startup on its Domain. From then on, live runs only what was deployed; an edit reaches Customers only through the next deploy.
Launch starts a clock. Days to first outside Order counts from this moment, and the number that matters becomes Outside paying Customers.
Next
Acquire and sell brings the first outside Customers to the published Offer. The test and live environments explain what the test run proves.