How FounderFold works

1. The portfolio sets the rules

A portfolio is a set of ideas and projects that share one configuration: who you are, what you want, what you rule out, how you score and how much agents may spend.

• Profile and goals: horizon, budget, risk appetite and who decides.
• Priorities: sectors, markets, advantages and what does not interest you.
• Discard criteria: knock-out questions an idea must pass before it is scored.
• Scoring rubric: weighted criteria on a 0–10 scale, with a minimum score to flag an idea.
• Sources and search rhythm.
• Spending limits.

You don’t fill a blank form. A short conversation with FounderFold proposes each block, quotes the answer it came from, and applies nothing until an owner or editor approves it. Each approved change raises the portfolio version.

An organization can hold several portfolios — one per business unit, for example.

2. Ideas arrive with evidence, and leave with a reason

Every idea is a record with a permanent ID, a status, a score per criterion, its evidence and its history.

Idea statuses

Proposed

Created by an agent or a person. Agents can only create ideas here.

Under evaluation

Being scored against the rubric, with sources.

In test

An experiment with a numeric success criterion is running.

Accepted

Becomes a project with its own lifecycle.

On hold

Paused with a written condition and a review date.

Discarded

Closed with its criterion, reason and family. Records are archived, never deleted.

Every claim in an evaluation carries a URL and the date it was consulted. Claims that could not be checked are marked NOT VERIFIED rather than dropped or rounded up.

• Score your own ideas with the free scorecard

3. Agents propose the lifecycle, you adjust it

FounderFold’s agents identify the type of project, the type of business and who is building it — a corporate team, a studio, a founder — and propose a lifecycle: stages, milestones, exit gates made of measurable milestones, and kill criteria with deadlines. Each portfolio and each project can change it: add or remove stages, and adjust gates, kill criteria, thresholds, deadlines and names. Agents propose; you accept or configure.

Example: the six stages proposed for Halden Mutual, an insurer, and the question each one answers

1. 01ValidationIs there demand someone will pay for?
2. 02PilotDoes it work with real policyholders, through existing channels?
3. 03First revenueDo customers outside the pilot buy, repeatably?
4. 04TractionDoes it grow, and do customers stay?
5. 05ScaleDoes it reach a size that matters to the group?
6. 06HandoverDoes it pay its way, ready for a business unit to run, or is it time to sell?

A project sits in the stage where it really operates. If it skipped a gate on the way, that gate is not hidden: it shows as gate debt, in red.

A triggered kill criterion never closes a project on its own. A person decides: close it, pause it with a retrospective, or record why the criterion does not apply.

The proposal is built in layers: a base lifecycle from a catalog by business type — software, a new line inside an existing company, and more as clients need them; then your incubator profile, which sets thresholds, deadlines, budget, risk appetite and stage names (a corporate team may say Pilot instead of MVP, as Halden Mutual does); then your own targets. Agents propose each layer separately, and your team approves, rejects or changes it.

• Draft a cycle for your type of business
• Write the kill criteria for each stage

4. Experiments, retrospectives and lessons

Experiments test one assumption against a number agreed in advance. Retrospectives record what went well, badly or so-so. Lessons turn that into versioned changes to the portfolio’s criteria.

• Experiment: hypothesis, numeric success criterion, deadline and result.
• Retrospective: periodic review of a project against its gate and kill criteria.
• Lesson: a finding that changes the configuration, with the change logged and its reason.

5. The next step becomes a task

In a project, the next step is not a sentence in a document: it is a task you can review, edit, approve and track.

1. 1FounderFold drafts the task: what will be done, who does it, what it may touch and what it must return.
2. 2You edit the instructions and approve.
3. 3An agent or a person on your team does the work.
4. 4The result comes back structured: what was done, the evidence, which milestones change and the proposed next step.
5. 5You apply all of it, part of it or none of it to the project record.

Who can take a task

Research

Market, competitors, pricing and regulation, with sources.

Analysis

Reads the business data you share against milestones and kill criteria.

Writing

Plans, briefs, interview guides and committee papers.

Monitoring

Watches deadlines, kill criteria and open tasks; prepares retrospectives.

Development

Only for projects with a code repository, on its own branch.

People on your team

Guided tasks with deadlines and reminders, for work only people can do.

Projects in FounderFold don’t need code. A repository is an optional extension for software projects.

6. Report to the board

Whenever you need it, or monthly or quarterly, FounderFold produces a PDF of the portfolio with its weighted pipeline value, funnel, projects and risks.

How board reports work