Deliver and accept
How a Startup turns an accepted Offer into the promised result, and how acceptance, disputes and remedies decide when the fee is earned.
Delivery turns an accepted Offer into the result the Customer paid for; acceptance records that the result meets the promise. Done is what the Startup claims, and accepted is what the Customer confirms.
What done means for each Product
The success condition follows the Product, never the Interface it ships through.
| Product | Delivered when |
|---|---|
| Dataset | It serves records that meet its truth promise, under its access terms |
| Software | Its declared operations work on the Customer's records |
| Agent | It acts within its Mandate and Limits on the Customer's behalf |
| Service | Its warranted outcome passes acceptance |
Data, Software and Agents deliver through fulfill, which grants Entitlements. A Service delivers work, and work needs acceptance.
The Outcome Contract
An Outcome Contract states five terms: what counts as done, who accepts, the assurance, the remedy for a miss, and when the fee is earned. With them, Agents and a Human share delivery without hiding responsibility from the Customer.
Take a Startup that translates hardware manuals into five languages for device makers. Done is a translated manual in which every safety warning matches the maker's approved glossary. The maker accepts it, or acceptance follows seven days of silence, and a miss earns one free revision.
Run the work
Deliver an outcome runs the work an Order bought. Each step leaves an observable result: source extracted, glossary applied, draft translated, output graded. An Evaluator grades the output against a rubric before the Customer sees it.
A fluent sentence is not proof of a correct one. A term the glossary lacks stays flagged for the maker to decide and never counts as translated. The Delivery Manager owns the Workflow and every exception it raises.
Accept, dispute, earn
deliver hands the finished work to the Customer and opens the acceptance window. confirm records acceptance, which closes the Order and earns the fee. dispute contests the result and starts the remedy the contract names.
Revenue follows acceptance, not payment. A device maker pays $2,400 up front, but the Startup earns it at confirm; until then the money is a liability on the books.
The same rule feeds the Lifecycle. An outside paid Order that ends in a refund counts nowhere, so Outside paying Customers only rises when delivery holds.
When work fails
Failure paths are part of the promise. A Supplier may be unreachable, an input incomplete, or an Evaluator may reject the output. Each failure names who holds the next step and its deadline, and escalates when the deadline passes.
A retry never charges twice and never repeats an outside effect. Work the law reserves for a licensed professional routes to a credentialed Human, who performs the Reserved Act and attests to it. That is one of the few places a Human sits in the path.
Next
Support and retain keeps the promise after delivery.