Build is where a chosen idea becomes a business. Each project runs on a lifecycle for its type of business, passes gates a person decides, and is measured against kill criteria written before anyone fell in love with it.
Early access is by invitation.
Open the Validation stage
Write the kill criterion first
Record the figures
Decide the gate
Illustrative data — Fictional company, ideas and figures, shown for illustration only.
Key figures of project P-0214: 6 paid pilots and 20 interviews recorded this week, and the kill criterion of the Validation stage changing from Watch to No risk.
In Build, FounderFold turns a chosen idea into a project with stages, milestones and gates from a reference lifecycle for its type of business, or with stages of your own. The figures you record measure milestones and kill criteria: No risk, Watch or Triggered. A person decides each gate, with the date and the reason, and can pause or close the project with a retrospective.
A chosen idea becomes a project in its first stage, linked to the idea and its evidence. The CEO then suggests the first step in Today.
Reference lifecycles for software, a new line inside an existing company, the search for and purchase of a company, services, commerce and physical products, or stages of your own for the portfolio, with their thresholds and deadlines.
A milestone is done when it has its evidence, and the gate decision records who decided, when and why. Gates skipped earlier stay visible as gate debt.
Each stage carries dated conditions that force a stop. When one is triggered, a person decides whether to stop, pivot or keep going, and writes down why.
The figures in a project’s record, such as customers, revenue or retention, measure its milestones and kill criteria, so its status is calculated instead of argued.
Pausing or closing a project leaves a retrospective: what worked, what did not and the lessons, which stay in the portfolio for the next search.
The CEO lines up the next step by rules from your records: an overdue experiment, a kill criterion to review, a gate with a deadline. It prepares the close, and nothing is written until you confirm.
Illustrative data — Fictional company, ideas and figures, shown for illustration only.
The physiotherapy software from Discover, once it has been chosen.
The project starts with three milestones: 20 clinic interviews, a price agreed with 5 clinics and a paid pilot signed.
If fewer than 5 of 20 clinics agree to a paid pilot by day 45, the project stops or pivots.
Each week the founder records interviews and pilots. On day 30 the criterion shows Watch, with 3 pilots so far.
By day 42 there are 6 pilots. She records the evidence and decides the gate to the MVP stage, with the date and the reason.
Illustrative data — Fictional company, ideas and figures, shown for illustration only.
Today panel docked beside project P-0107: step 1 of 4, labeled “Overdue experiment”, says experiment E-0131 closed three days ago without a result, with the buttons “Yes, I have the result”, “Let the CEO prepare it” and “I need more time”.
A kill criterion works when it is written while the team can still be objective, usually at the start of the stage. Four rules help.
Customers, pilots, revenue or retention: a figure in the project’s record, so the criterion is measured, not argued. A metric with no data shows “not read” and is never replaced by a similar one.
“Fewer than 5 paid pilots by day 45” can be triggered; “if traction is weak” never will be. Every kill criterion carries its deadline.
Stopping, pivoting and keeping going are all possible answers. What matters is that a person decides and writes down why, and that the reason stays with the gate.
If the team moves on before a gate is met, the gap stays visible as gate debt, so nobody forgets what was never proved.
Kill criteria and milestones are measured from the figures you record, but no gate is passed and no project is closed without a person’s decision, kept with its reason.
Yes. Besides software, reference lifecycles cover a new line inside an existing company, the search for and purchase of a company, services, commerce and physical products, and a portfolio can set stages of its own. A code repository is optional.
It shows as Triggered, and a person decides whether to stop, pivot or keep going, with the reason written down. Nothing closes on its own.
The owners and editors of the portfolio; readers can only consult. Every gate decision keeps the person, the date and the reason.
Yes. A software project with a repository can be brought up to date from it: FounderFold proposes what changed and you confirm what is saved.
Early access is by invitation.