# Scale, hold, and transfer

URL: /workflows/lifecycle/scale-hold-and-transfer · Id: `page:workflows/lifecycle/scale-hold-and-transfer`

> What happens to a Startup after Live: more investment, a pause, a wind-down or a new owner.

Every [Live](/business/lifecycle/states/live) [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) faces one recurring question: should more go in? The answer moves it to Scale, Hold, Dormant, Graduate or Sell, and each answer keeps every promise to [Customers](/business/nouns/customer).

## What Scale requires
[Scale](/business/lifecycle/states/scale) is the state of a Startup that compounds. [Net revenue retention](/agents/customer#net-revenue-retention) holds at 100 or more for two quarters. Two or more sources of demand each acquire Customers for less than their first payment.

Every [Interface](/business/nouns/interface) meets its reliability objectives, and [Agents](/business/nouns/agent) run every recurring [Workflow](/business/nouns/workflow). A [Human](/business/nouns/human) acts only on an [Approval](/business/nouns/approval) or a legal-floor step. A person who wants a say watches the delay windows instead of signing each step.

Take a directory of wheelchair-accessible travel venues, earning from paid listings. It reaches Scale when venues renew at a higher tier and both search and partner referrals bring venues in below their first payment.

Scaling takes several forms, each a different test. More Customers tests capacity and margin, a new [Product](/business/nouns/product) tests a new promise, and a cohort rollout tests whether an approach transfers. The [Decision](/business/nouns/decision) that funds growth names which one it buys.

## Allocation across a Portfolio
A Startup in a [Portfolio](/business/nouns/portfolio) competes for attention and money. Each week the [Studio](/business/nouns/studio) sorts every Startup by two readings: [Default alive](/agents/founding#default-alive), and whether outside revenue grows at the Studio's weekly line.

[Weeks flat](/agents/founding#weeks-flat) counts consecutive weeks below that line. A flat Startup that stays alive is proposed for Hold; one that is neither growing nor alive is proposed for Dormant. Each proposal is a Decision a watcher can stop.

Shared capabilities change the arithmetic. Alone, a Startup may pay too much for each Customer; paired with a sibling that already reaches the same buyers, the same [Offer](/business/nouns/offer) earns well. Allocation reads these dependencies before it cuts.

## Hold keeps an option
[hold](/business/nouns/startup/hold) keeps a Startup running with no new investment. The owner records the reason and a review date.

Customers keep their service, Agents keep answering, and the books keep closing. On the review date, judgment reads the numbers again.

## Dormant winds down, never deletes
[pause](/business/nouns/startup/pause) winds a Startup down before it goes [Dormant](/business/lifecycle/states/dormant). It stops taking new [Orders](/business/nouns/order), delivers or refunds every accepted one, and serves each [Subscription](/business/nouns/subscription) to its term end or refunds the rest pro rata.

Every Customer receives an export of their records. Then scheduled Workflows stop, while the [Site](/business/nouns/site), the [Domain](/business/nouns/domain) and every record stay.

A dropship store whose ads stopped paying back goes Dormant this way. [resume](/business/nouns/startup/resume) returns it to Live with its catalog, Customers and history intact, because [StartupBuilder](/code/builders/startup) deletes nothing.

## Graduate and sell
[graduate](/business/nouns/startup/graduate) moves a Startup to a [Company](/business/nouns/company) of its own, with its [Brand](/business/nouns/brand), Customers, Domains and records intact. [sell](/business/nouns/startup/sell) transfers it to a buyer under a signed [Agreement](/business/nouns/agreement).

Both need a clean boundary. The recipient gets the Customers, Products, Domains, Agreements, financial history, and a list of every dependency. A capability the Studio supplied before the transfer keeps serving the Startup under its own Agreement.

## Next
[Pivots](/business/lifecycle/pivots) explains how a Startup changes course without leaving its [Lifecycle](/business/nouns/lifecycle), and the [states](/business/lifecycle/states) list every entry check.