# After Live

URL: /workflows/processes/after-live · Id: `page:workflows/processes/after-live`

> How a Live Startup holds, graduates, sells, goes dormant, resumes, or pivots, and what each move keeps for its Customers.

A Live [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) leaves Live through one of five [Processes](/business/nouns/process) or a pivot, never through deletion. Each move is a [Decision](/business/nouns/decision) backed by [Evidence](/business/nouns/evidence), and each keeps every promise made to [Customers](/business/nouns/customer).

## Hold review picks the move
[Hold review](/workflows/processes/hold-review) runs every quarter on every Live Startup. The [Founder](/agents/founding/founder) is accountable, the [Strategist](/agents/founding/strategist) and [Finance Lead](/agents/finance/finance-lead) prepare it, and every other [Team](/business/nouns/team) lead is consulted. It reads three numbers: [Default alive](/agents/founding#default-alive), [Weeks flat](/agents/founding#weeks-flat), and [Outside revenue](/agents/founding#outside-revenue).

| The record shows | The move | Process |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Growth above the weekly line and margins that hold | Keep investing | none: the Startup stays Live |
| Default alive, growth flat | Hold | [Hold review](/workflows/processes/hold-review) records it |
| Outside revenue that supports a [Company](/business/nouns/company) of its own, a cofounder, or a raise | Graduate | [Graduate](/workflows/processes/graduate) |
| A signed offer from a buyer | Sell | [Sell](/workflows/processes/sell) |
| Neither growing nor default alive | Go dormant | [Go dormant](/workflows/processes/go-dormant) |
| Evidence that breaks the founding [Hypothesis](/business/nouns/hypothesis) | Pivot | [pivot](/business/nouns/startup/pivot) |

Every move is a proposal first. A one-way move waits its [delay window](/agents/autonomy-levels/delay-windows), and any watcher can stop it before it runs.

## Hold keeps the option open
[Hold](/business/lifecycle/states/hold) keeps a Startup operating with no new investment. Customers keep their service, [Agents](/business/nouns/agent) keep answering, and the books keep closing. The Startup's own revenue funds it.

The Decision records the reason and a review date. On that date, hold review reads the numbers again. A held Startup can return to growth, graduate, sell, or go dormant.

## Graduate moves it to its own Company
[Graduate](/workflows/processes/graduate) moves a Startup from the [Studio](/business/nouns/studio)'s holding Company to a Company of its own. It forms the entity, assigns each [Agreement](/business/nouns/agreement), moves the [Domain](/business/nouns/domain), payment accounts and records, and moves its [Audience](/business/nouns/audience) off the Studio's shared accounts. Customers keep the same address, [Offers](/business/nouns/offer) and terms throughout.

The [Legal Lead](/agents/legal/legal-lead), Finance Lead and [Marketing Lead](/agents/marketing/marketing-lead) do the work; officers sign, because the move transfers equity. A capability the Studio supplied keeps serving the new Company under its own Agreement. The Studio keeps its seed stake in the graduate.

## Sell transfers it whole
[Sell](/workflows/processes/sell) opens with diligence. The buyer reads the Startup through a scoped read grant, so every answer comes from records, never from a narrative.

The purchase Agreement names everything that moves: [Brand](/business/nouns/brand), Domains, Customers, [Products](/business/nouns/product), Agreements, financial history, and a list of every dependency. Officers sign it. Then one transfer moves it all, and every Customer keeps its terms.

## Dormant winds down, and resume brings it back
[Go dormant](/workflows/processes/go-dormant) winds a Startup down in a fixed order:

1. Stop taking new [Orders](/business/nouns/order).
2. Deliver or refund every accepted Order.
3. Serve each [Subscription](/business/nouns/subscription) to its term end, or refund the rest pro rata.
4. Send every Customer an export of their records.
5. Stop every scheduled [Workflow](/business/nouns/workflow).

The [Site](/business/nouns/site), the Domain and every record stay. A dormant Startup costs no more than its Domain and storage.

[Resume](/workflows/processes/resume) reverses it. It re-runs the Live entry checks, reopens Offers, and restarts the Workflows, usually after a new Hypothesis [Version](/business/nouns/version) gives the Startup a sharper Customer.

## A pivot returns it to Building
A pivot changes the founding Hypothesis at the root: its Customer, its [Problem](/business/nouns/problem), or its approach. The Founder records it as a Decision that cites the Evidence, and the Startup moves from Live back to [Building](/business/lifecycle/states/building).

The pivot bumps the Hypothesis Version, and the diff between the two Versions is the pivot. Site copy, Offers, [Prices](/business/nouns/price) and [Plays](/business/nouns/play) recompile from the new Version. Existing Customers keep their service until each Offer they hold ends on its own terms.

## A Startup never ends; a Company can
No move deletes a Startup. Hold, dormant and resume keep it where it is, and graduate and sell change only who holds it.

A Company ends differently. [Company dissolution](/systems/legal-and-corporate/entity-dissolution) winds up a Company that no longer holds a business, after its Live Startups move to another Company.

It then files final returns and its certificate, and every record stays.

## Next
- [Scale, hold, and transfer](/workflows/lifecycle/scale-hold-and-transfer): what each move looks like from the [Lifecycle](/business/nouns/lifecycle).
- [Pivots](/business/lifecycle/pivots): what counts as a pivot and when to review one.
- Holding tree: which Company holds each Startup.