Startup Design

What the source does

• FilesystemNone observedNo reads or writes in the source
• NetworkNone observedNo outbound calls in the source
• ShellNone observedNo commands run in the source
• DependenciesPinnedNothing floats
• SecretsNone foundNo keys in source

Five audit layers

Gates applied: no behavioural pass.

Audit 0.4.1 · source sha 053aee617f0d · 18 Oct 2026Report an issue or request a re-scan

• Publisherferdinandobons GitHub userOwner of the repository this skill is read from
• Source folderferdinandobons/startup-skill/startup-designThe exact folder we audited
• LicenceMITAs the repository states it
• Commit pinned for this verdict053aee617f0dA new audit runs when the source changes
• Repository statusNot archivedLast push 109 days ago
• Sandboxed runNot runSkills are read, not executed; layer L4 is skipped

Its description: Design, validate, and plan a startup from scratch. Covers market research, competitive analysis, business model, brand identity, product definition, financial projections, and validation experiments. Trigger when the…

---
name: startup-design
description: Design, validate, and plan a startup from scratch. Covers market research, competitive analysis, business model, brand identity, product definition, financial projections, and validation experiments. Trigger when the user has a startup idea to explore, wants to validate a business concept, needs a business plan or lean canvas, asks for market sizing or competitive landscape, wants brand positioning or go-to-market strategy, or says anything like "I have an idea for..." or "is this idea worth pursuing". Also handles resuming from a previous checkpoint.
---

# Startup Design

A structured, multi-phase skill that takes a startup idea from raw concept to validated design. It produces a complete set of markdown documents organized by domain, with built-in progress tracking so work survives session interruptions.

## How It Works

The process has 8 numbered phases executed sequentially, plus a Pre-Flight Check (Phase 0.5) and a Customer Discovery gate (Phase 3.7). Each phase produces output files and updates the progress tracker. If a session is interrupted, resume from the last completed checkpoint.

```
PRE-FLIGHT → INTAKE → BRAINSTORM → RESEARCH → [Research Gate] → CUSTOMER DISCOVERY → [Interview Gate] → STRATEGY → BRAND → PRODUCT → FINANCIAL → VALIDATION
```

### Modes

**Full Mode (default):** Execute all phases in order, including Pre-Flight and Customer Discovery. Best for thoroughly designing a startup from scratch.

**Fast Track Mode:** When the user says they want a "quick validation," "rapid assessment," or similar, or when time/budget is clearly limited, run a compressed version:
1. Phase 0.5 (Pre-Flight Check) — always run, takes 5 minutes
2. Phase 1 (Intake) — shortened to 1 round of questions; capture any prior customer conversations
3. Phase 2 (Brainstorm) — 3 variations instead of 5-8
4. Phase 3 (Research) — Wave 1 + Wave 2 only (skip customer voice and distribution deep-dives)
5. Phase 3.5 (Research Gate) — go/no-go checkpoint
6. Phase 3.7 (Customer Discovery) — if founder has 5+ prior conversations, document them; if not, run at least 3 interviews before proceeding
7. Phase 4 (Strategy) — Lean Canvas only
8. Skip Phase 5 (Brand) and Phase 6 (Product)
9. Phase 7 (Financial) — Revenue model only, Stage A (assumption-based), no full projections
10. Phase 8 (Validation) — Scorecard + top 3 experiments only

Fast Track produces fewer files but still gives the founder a clear go/no-go signal with evidence. Note in PROGRESS.md that Fast Track mode was used, so a future session can expand to full mode if the idea passes validation.

### Language

Default output language is **English**. If the user writes in another language or explicitly requests one, use that language for all outputs instead.

---

> **Reference:** Read `references/output-guidelines.md` once at the start. It defines the standard file header/footer (title, date, phase, confidence, flags), cross-phase referencing format, quality examples of good vs. bad output, and how to handle mid-process pivots.

## Phase 0: Resume Check

Before anything else, check if a `PROGRESS.md` file exists in the working directory (or a project subdirectory). If it does, read it and resume from the last incomplete phase. Tell the user: "I found progress from a previous session. You completed [phases]. Picking up from [next phase]."

If no progress file exists, start from Phase 1.

---

## Phase 0.5: Pre-Flight Check

Before investing time in the full process, run a fast sanity check — 2-3 targeted searches, 5 minutes maximum. The goal is to surface any immediately disqualifying signals so the founder knows them upfront.

**Run these three checks:**

**1. Dominant solution check** — Does a well-funded, widely-adopted solution to this exact problem already exist? Search: `"{problem domain} software"`, `"{problem} tool site:producthunt.com"`, `"{problem} app reviews"`. If a clear market leader with 10k+ customers exists, flag it immediately — this is not a reason to stop, but the founder needs to know the competitive reality before starting.

**2. Precedent failure check** — Has a company tried this exact idea and failed publicly? Search: `"{startup idea} startup failed"`, `"{problem} startup shutdown"`, `"why {product category} failed"`. Prior failures are not disqualifying — they're learnings. But unknown prior failures are landmines.

**3. Regulatory/legal instant kill** — Is there an obvious legal reason this idea cannot exist? (E.g., specific financial regulations, data privacy laws in the target geography, licensing requirements.) A quick search prevents building toward a wall.

**Output:** A short message to the founder (3-5 bullet points max) with what was found. Use this format:

```
## Pre-Flight Check

✅ No dominant incumbent found — space appears open.
⚠️  [CompanyX] tried a similar approach in 2021 and shut down in 2023.
    Key reason: [one sentence]. Worth understanding before proceeding.
✅ No obvious regulatory blockers identified for [target market].

→ Ready to proceed to intake. The above is context, not a verdict.
```

Keep it brief. This is a heads-up, not a full analysis. The project directory and PROGRESS.md don't exist yet at this point — present the findings in the conversation, then save them to `{project-name}/00-intake/preflight.md` during the Phase 1 output step, once the project directory is created.

---

## Phase 1: Intake Interview

The quality of everything downstream depends on how much context you extract now. Don't rush this — a thorough intake saves hours of misdirection later.

> **Reference:** Read `references/intake-questions.md` for the full question set (idea, founders, market, business, constraints), the hard questions that surface blind spots, and interviewing technique.

Cover all five question areas plus the hard questions — they set the tone for the entire process and signal that this is an honest assessment, not a cheerleading session. Ask 3-5 questions at a

Excerpt, first 6,000 characters of SKILL.md, verbatim from the audited commit. It is text from someone else’s repository, quoted so you can judge it before your agent reads it.

1. 2026-10-18
   ✓SAFE B 89 / 100

   first audit · source 053aee617f0d

Questions about Startup Design

• github.com/ferdinandobons/startup-skill/tree/main/startup-design — the audited source at commit 053aee617f0d and every finding aboveObserved · 18 Oct 2026

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