The Founder's Quest
An interactive board of the founder's path from an idea to product-market fit: twenty-two jobs across three regions, the temptations that pull a founder off the path, and the gate that evidence opens.
Thesis · Jobs · Notes · Connect
I · The Unmapped Wilds
Find a market worth serving.
- 1.1 North Star Camp Choose a why worth a decade: a problem to solve, or a future to build toward. Founder-only. Done by Bermuda Venture Studio.
- 1.2 Ecosystem Basin Know the ecosystem: who plays, how value flows, which role is empty. Value can only be taken where it is first provided. Hireable. Done by Bermuda Venture Studio. Assessed by Validation.Works.
- 1.3 Customer Village Know the customer, defined so you'd recognise them, and each side of them if your model has sides. Founder-led. Done by Bermuda Venture Studio. Assessed by Validation.Works.
- 1.4 Problem Ravine Know the customer's problem as if it were your own. They will rarely be able to say it cleanly. Founder-led. Done by Bermuda Venture Studio. Assessed by Validation.Works.
- 1.5 The Jobs Workshop Know the jobs the customer needs done to run their business, and which of them they'd let someone else do. Founder-led. Done by Bermuda Venture Studio. Assessed by Validation.Works.
- 1.6 Exchange Bridge Know what they'll give for the jobs they'd let go of, and when. Hireable. Done by Bermuda Venture Studio. Assessed by Validation.Works.
- 1.7 Beachhead Pass Choose the smallest market worth winning first: narrow enough to dominate, large enough to matter. Founder-led. Done by Bermuda Venture Studio. Assessed by Validation.Works.
II · The Venture Marches
Build and sustain the venture capable of finding the product.
- 2.1 Compass Watch Keep yourself aligned with the why, on the straight and narrow, when every week offers a reason to wander. Founder-only. Done by Bermuda Venture Studio.
- 2.2 Runway Depot Know your runway, in learning cycles and in the finances beneath it. Hireable. Done by Y Partners.
- 2.3 The Capital Fork Decide if, when, how and why to take on capital. The fork, exit or yield, decides it. Then reach and close the capital that fits. Founder-led. Done by Y Partners.
- 2.4 Cofounder Crossing Choose your co-founders: the few decision-makers the thing cannot succeed without. Founder-only. Done by Bermuda Venture Studio.
- 2.5 Team Camp Find and keep the team: capability, culture, energy, a shared why, for the unknowable length. Founder-only. Done by Bermuda Venture Studio.
- 2.6 Company Forge Stand the company up, with counsel: jurisdiction, structure, cap table, and licence where regulated. Hireable. Done by Y Partners.
- 2.7 Seats Citadel Fill the seats the stage needs, including governance and any mandated roles where they apply. Hireable. Done by Y Partners.
III · The Mountain of Pull
Find the product the market comes back for.
- 3.1 First-Customer Outpost Find the first customers worth serving. Founder-only. Done by Bermuda Venture Studio.
- 3.2 Assumption Cliffs Name the riskiest assumption, usually one of 1.2 to 1.6, and design the cheapest test that could kill it. Hireable. Done by Validation.Works. Assessed by Validation.Works.
- 3.3 Kill-Test Bridge Deploy the test, the prototype not the product, into the hands of the users it was built for. Hireable. Done by Validation.Works.
- 3.4 Evidence Fork Collect what the test tells you, get an independent verdict on it, and change the design with it. Hireable. Done by Validation.Works. Assessed by Validation.Works.
- 3.5 Payment Pass Get someone to pay for the outcome, then get the next one, without changing the offer for each. Founder-led. Done by Bermuda Venture Studio. Assessed by Validation.Works.
- 3.6 Delivery Foundry Deliver the outcome you sold, repeatably, without the founder carrying every delivery. Founder-led. Done by Bermuda Venture Studio.
- 3.7 Retention Reservoir Keep the customers you have, without persuasion: they return because the outcome holds. Founder-led. Done by Bermuda Venture Studio. Assessed by Validation.Works.
- 3.8 Channel Beacon Find the channel that keeps bringing the customers you qualified in 3.1. Hireable. Done by Bermuda Venture Studio.
Product–Market Fit Gate
The market begins to pull. Before the Gate the founder pushes. After it, the world pulls: demand arrives faster than you can serve it, and the constraint moves from evidence to capacity.
Product–Market Fit Valley
Bright, fertile, and not the end. Beyond the Gate the terrain falls away into a valley that grows without persuasion. Scale becomes a legitimate problem. Early Scale City unlocks from here.
Temptations
- Bandwagon Fair Whatever is loudest this quarter.
- Palace of Mirrors Feedback from people who are not the customer.
- The Boundless Plain A market too large to lose and too large to win.
- City of Busywork Useful activity that answers nothing.
- Fundraising Casino Capital mistaken for traction.
- Narrative Castle A story strong enough to outrun the evidence.
- Hall of Familiars The team you started with, in seats they have outgrown.
- Compliance Cathedral Legitimate structure, extended forever.
- Builder's Mine Building the real thing before the test.
- Ritual Grounds The ceremony of validation, without the risk.
- Pilot Purgatory Enthusiasm with no budget behind it.
- Heroics Kitchen Delivery that only works when the founder does it.
- Leaky Cistern Churn covered by acquisition.
- Vanity Valley Numbers that go up and mean nothing.
- Early Scale City The company you want to become, built too early.
- The False Summit One good quarter read as arrival.
- Sunk-Cost Swamp The ground everything wrong drains into.