The first
90 days,
week by week.
Every week produces a real artifact. Every phase ends on a decision. On day one, founders know what happens on day 30, day 60, and day 90, and roughly what the questions will be at each of those points.
One artifact a week.
- 01Week 1Lock the market and the contract
We name the buyer and the target account list, and sign a short operating agreement between founder and studio spelling out what gets shipped, what gets reviewed, and what the decision points are. Nothing gets built until it's on paper.
- 02Week 2–3Ship a first version to a real account
Working software in front of one paying-conversation account by the end of week three. Deployed to production, with a login, running against a real workflow. No prototypes.
- 03Week 4First letter of intent or paid pilot
Written intent or a small check from the named buyer. If nothing lands, we recut the market rather than push a weak product into a bigger pipeline.
- 04Week 5–8Turn on the sales team
The studio's distributed sales bench, going live with Cohort 01, works the target account list on the company's behalf: outbound sequencing, discovery interviews, pilot conversion. The founder stays in every buyer conversation. The studio owns the CRM. Target for the phase: the first five to ten paying customers.
- 05Week 9–10Draft the fundraising package
Deck, metrics, cap table, security posture, customer references, financial model. Everything a competent seed partner would ask for on the first call, sitting in one place before the first call happens.
- 06Week 11–12Open introductions
Warm introductions to seed funds that lead, once the package is credible. A smaller number of high-quality conversations beats a wide net. The founder handles the meetings.
- 07Week 13Day-90 reading
Every company resolves to one of four readings: GO, GROW, PARK, KILL. Joint call, written down, communicated to the cap table the same week.
Four honest endings.
Two of the four are wins: the company raises, or the company generates real revenue. One is patience. One is an honest ending. The industry counts unicorns. We pay closer attention to the number of companies still operating a year later, run by the founders who built them.
The metrics are where they need to be for a real venture round. We open warm introductions to seed funds that lead. The founder runs the process and closes the round.
Real revenue, but the shape isn't quite venture yet. Sometimes another quarter or two of operating before we reopen introductions. Sometimes running for cash flow with distributions instead of dilution. Both are wins.
Something worth watching, but the market or the moment isn't ready. The studio moves to a lighter cadence and sets a specific date to look at it again.
Rare. Reserved for the case with no traction and no path. The founder keeps everything: code, customers, domain, and name. Nothing gets clawed back.
How each company is run.
- Cohort size
- 3–5 companies at a time. Small enough that every founder gets partner time every week. Large enough that the sales work compounds across the group.
- Operating cadence
- One ship review a week, one pipeline review a week, one monthly metrics readout to the cap table. No office hours in perpetuity.
- Founder development
- Weekly ship reviews and pipeline reviews, with investor prep from Week 9. The founder is in every buyer and investor conversation. The goal is a CEO who can run the company without the studio.
- Build stack
- AI-first tooling on the studio's infrastructure and credits. A technical partner alongside you if you're solo, or a matched founding CTO if you're an operator without one. Every account, repository, and domain in the company's name from day one.
- Sales
- The studio's distributed sales bench runs outbound, discovery, and pilot conversion against the target account list. The studio owns the CRM; you own the buyer relationship and the close. The bench is a compensated-in-equity function of the studio, not a billed line item.
- Build stack cost
- Infrastructure, credits, sales bench, and studio operators are compensated in studio equity, not billed to the company. Direct cash outlay across the ninety days is roughly $5,000; the fully-loaded studio cost of the build (labor + infra + bench, valued at market) is roughly $150,000 and forms the SAFE principal.
- Standard docs
- Delaware C-corp with one class of common plus our preferred stake. Studio agreement, IP assignment, mutual NDA. Every document templated, reviewed by counsel, signed before day one.
- How a cohort is measured
- One number. Outcome rate, defined as GO plus GROW. A cohort where one company raises and two others reach real revenue is a good cohort.
- Where we work
- Distributed globally. Founders work where they already live: the US, Europe, Asia, India, or anywhere the working hours can overlap the weekly cadence. The studio syncs on a real weekly cadence rather than a mandatory office.