founder

name	founder
description	Use when validating ideas, sizing markets, building pitch decks, preparing for investors, modeling financials, planning launches, or creating board reports. Auto-activates on fundraising, pitch, investor, TAM/SAM/SOM, unit economics, runway, or board deck tasks.

Founder Skill

Router skill for startup workflows. Detects task type and routes to appropriate workflow that produces usable artifacts.

When This Skill Activates

You're working on:

• Validating a product idea or value proposition
• Calculating market size (TAM/SAM/SOM)
• Analyzing competitive landscape or threats
• Building or evaluating a pitch deck
• Preparing for investor meetings
• Modeling unit economics, projections, or cash flow
• Planning a product launch
• Creating board reports or updates

Workflow Selection

Announce which workflow you're using before starting:

Task Type	Workflow	Reference	Output Artifact
Idea validation, stress testing	Validate Idea	references/validate.md	JSON scores + GO/ITERATE/KILL
TAM/SAM/SOM, market opportunity	Size Market	references/market-size.md	Tables + Marp slide
Competition, threats, positioning	Analyze Competition	references/compete.md	Threat matrix + heat map
Pitch deck creation or eval	Build Pitch Deck	references/pitch.md	Marp deck (10-12 slides)
Investor Q&A, meeting prep	Prep for Investors	references/investor-prep.md	Q&A document
Unit economics, projections, cash	Model Financials	references/financials.md	Spreadsheet-ready tables
Launch planning, 90-day roadmap	Plan Launch	references/launch.md	Phased execution plan
Board deck, metrics summary	Report to Board	references/board.md	Marp deck + summary

Related Thinking Tools

From hope/skills/soul/references/tools/:

Tool	When to Use
Abstraction Ladder	Reframe pivot decisions
Hard Choice	GO/KILL verdicts with no clear winner
Zwicky Box	Generate creative business model variations
First Principles	Challenge "that's how it's done" assumptions
Pre-Mortem	Anticipate launch/funding failures
Circle of Competence	Know when to hire vs build yourself

From this skill's references/:

Tool	When to Use
Regret Minimization	Major founder decisions (quit job, pivot, shut down)

Dimensions

This skill has multiple configuration dimensions. See compatibility-matrix.md for:

• Workflow x Stage (Pre-Seed to Growth)
• Validation Verdict x Next Workflow
• Pitch Deck x Audience
• Financial Model Depth x Funding Stage
• Board Report x Company Health
• Market Size Approach x Market Type
• Launch Phase x Traction Level

Use ✓✓ combinations when possible; avoid ✗ combinations.

Usage

1. Detect which workflow applies based on user's task
2. Check compatibility matrix for dimension compatibility
3. Announce: "I'm using the founder skill for [workflow]"
4. Load the appropriate reference file
5. Execute the workflow with confirmation gates (see below)
6. Produce the specified artifact

Confirmation Gates

Multi-step workflows pause at checkpoints to prevent wasted work when intent drifts.

Gate Points:

Phase	Gate
After research/discovery	⚠️ CHECKPOINT: "Does this understanding match your intent?"
After approach/structure	⚠️ CHECKPOINT: "Here's my proposed approach. Should I proceed?"
Before final artifact	⚠️ CHECKPOINT: "Ready to generate [artifact]. Confirm?"

Skip gates: Say "proceed without confirmation" to run uninterrupted.

In workflows: Each reference file should pause at these points:

### Phase 2: Analysis

[... phase content ...]

⚠️ **CHECKPOINT**: Present findings summary. Ask: "Does this capture the key insights? Any adjustments before I continue?"

Artifact Tooling

After generating markdown artifacts, users can convert them:

Artifact	Tool	Command
Slides (Marp)	Marp CLI	npx @marp-team/marp-cli slides.md --pptx
Documents	md-to-pdf	npx md-to-pdf document.md
Spreadsheets	Copy tables	Paste markdown tables into Google Sheets/Excel

Rules

• Always ask clarifying questions before generating artifacts
• Produce complete, usable outputs (not partial drafts)
• Use Marp format for all slide decks
• Use markdown tables for spreadsheet data (easy paste)
• Be brutally honest in evaluations (2% YC acceptance rate mindset)
• Include confidence levels and key assumptions

Quality Footer (Required for High-Stakes Outputs)

All validation, pitch, and financial outputs MUST end with:

---
| Confidence | X-Y% |
| Key Assumption | [What would change this verdict] |
| Reversibility | Type 2A/2B/1 |

Verdict rules:

• GO verdict requires ≥70% confidence
• ITERATE requires identifying specific unknowns to resolve
• KILL must cite specific evidence, not intuition

Common Rationalizations (All Wrong)

Thought	Reality
"The market is huge"	TAM without SAM/SOM is meaningless.
"Nobody's doing this"	If nobody's doing it, ask why.
"We just need 1% of the market"	That's not a strategy, it's wishful math.
"First mover advantage"	First movers usually lose. Execution wins.
"Build it and they will come"	Distribution is harder than product.
"We're different"	Every founder says this. Prove it with evidence.