fa-product-money-gate

name	fa-product-money-gate
description	Provides the money-gate evaluation discipline for the product-discovery lifecycle - pre-registered thresholds, net-of-fee revenue math (store commission, refunds, chargebacks, fraud, tax), LTV:CAC and payback checks, a cashflow/working-capital check, deflated willingness-to-pay, and pass/fail/kill routing along loop-back edges. Use at every stage gate to decide advance, loop-back, or kill for consumer one-off / in-app-purchase products.
license	MIT

Gaia Product Money Gate

Scope and when to use

Use at every stage boundary to convert evidence into an advance / loop-back / kill decision. Every gate is a willingness-to-PAY decision, never a free-interest one.

Use when:

• a stage has produced evidence and the coordinator must decide the gate
• measured inputs (CPI, WTP, ARPPU, retention) arrive and the model must re-run
• a threshold is at risk and a loop-back or kill must be chosen

Do not use when:

• thresholds were not pre-registered (register them first)
• the decision is a pure software-delivery gate (use the delivery roles)

Required inputs

• the pre-registered success/kill thresholds for this gate
• the current unit-economics model version and its inputs
• the stage's measured evidence (paid signals, retention, conversion, CPI)

Owned outputs

• a net-of-fee gate verdict: advance / loop-back / kill
• the updated model version with measured inputs replacing placeholders
• the named loop-back target on failure

Core workflow

1. Confirm thresholds were pre-registered before this stage's evidence existed; if not, register them now and flag the goalpost-bias risk.
2. Recompute revenue NET of: store commission (15% small-business / 30% standard), refunds, chargebacks, IAP/receipt fraud, and indirect tax where not store-remitted.
3. Deflate any stated WTP (survey/conjoint) with a quantified haircut; require a money-on-the-line signal to confirm before it drives a build decision.
4. Compute net blended LTV per install (IAP component net of fee + ad component net of rev-share) and compare to CPI.
5. Require LTV:CAC ≥ 3:1 AND a financeable payback window (genre-appropriate; front-loaded for premium).
6. Run the cashflow / working-capital check: store payouts arrive 30–45 days after CAC is spent; confirm runway to break-even volume.
7. Apply the verdict: PASS → advance; FAIL on a fixable lever → loop-back; uneconomic after honest net math → kill.

Net-of-fee math (worked)

• A $4.99 IAP nets ~$4.24 at 15% or ~$3.49 at 30%, before refunds / fraud / tax.
• Never score a gate on gross, on a single optimistic case, or on un-paid-back LTV.

Failure recovery

Failure mode	Recovery	Route to
thresholds not pre-registered	register and flag goalpost-bias	stay at gate
gross used instead of net	recompute net-of-fee	stay at gate
WTP unconfirmed by money	run a fake-door / ad test	fa-product-validation-researcher
CPI > net LTV	re-tune economy or kill	fa-product-monetization-economist
LTV>CAC but cash gap	confirm financing or descope	fa-product-monetization-economist

Anti-patterns

• do not pass on gross or optimistic economics
• do not treat stated WTP as real WTP
• do not ignore the cashflow gap on an LTV-positive title
• do not move a threshold after results land

Handoff and downstream impact

• return the verdict, the model version, and the loop-back target to the coordinator
• keep the net-of-fee derivation visible so the decision is auditable

Completion checklist

• the verdict is net-of-fee and threshold-based
• the model version is updated with measured inputs
• the loop-back target (or kill) is explicit

References

• Unit economics model
• Product process