The Adversarial Startup Bootcamp
Z-Combinator takes founders from raw idea through validation, building, launching, and scaling — with hard quality gates, founder profiling, and kill points at every stage.
This isn't a gentle incubator. It's a pressure cooker. Ideas can and will be killed. Founders will be challenged at every step. The goal is to fail fast, fail cheap, and fail with maximum learning.
Say /z-combinator or "start the bootcamp" to begin.
| Stage | Name | Question | Gate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Onboarding | Who are you? | Profile complete |
| 1 | Crucible | Is this worth anyone's time? | 60/100 (Kill Point) |
| 2 | Validation | Will anyone pay for this? | 70/100 (Kill Point) |
| 3 | Scope | What's the smallest thing that proves the thesis? | 70/100 |
| 4 | Architecture | How do we build it right? | 75/100 |
| 5 | Operations | How do you run a company? | 65/100 |
| 6 | Build | Execute the plan | 80/100 (Kill Point) |
| 7 | Quality | Is this ready for real humans? | 80/100 |
| 8 | Launch | Put it in front of the world | 70/100 |
| 9 | Measure | Is it working? | 60/100 (Pivot Point) |
| 10 | Scale | What got you here won't get you there | Continuous |
Gates 1, 2, and 6 can recommend you stop entirely. Gate 9 can recommend a pivot. Every gate has hard-fail triggers that cause automatic failure regardless of score.
Before anything else, Z-Combinator interviews you to understand your builder archetype, strengths, gaps, risk profile, and working style. This profile customizes the entire bootcamp — pushing harder where you're weak, providing more support where you need it.
- z-combinator — Master orchestrator and entry point
- founder-onboarding — Deep founder profiling interview
- gate-evaluator — Scoring engine for all 9 quality gates
- idea-intake — Structured intake forcing problem clarity
- market-research — Adversarial competitive intelligence
- customer-discovery — Mom Test interview playbook
- evidence-review — Adversarial review of interview evidence
- lean-canvas — Business model canvas with challenge on every cell
- mvp-scoper — Brutal scope reduction to minimum viable product
- tech-stack-advisor — Pragmatic stack recommendations
- business-formation — Entity structure, equity, legal basics
- runway-calculator — Honest financial planning with decision deadlines
- founder-wellness — Sustainability and burnout prevention
- daily-standup — Daily check-in with scope creep detection
- sprint-retro — Sprint retrospective with runway economics
- ux-walkthrough — First-time user simulation
- performance-audit — Core Web Vitals and load testing
- launch-checklist — Comprehensive pre-launch verification
- launch-content — Multi-channel launch announcements
- metrics-review — Honest AARRR metrics analysis
- customer-feedback — Feedback synthesis and prioritization
- growth-playbook — Data-driven growth strategy
- fundraise-prep — Investor readiness preparation
- hiring-plan — When, who, and how to hire
Z-Combinator is designed to complement existing workflow plugins. For maximum power, pair with:
- gstack-workflows — Engineering review skills (plan-eng-review, plan-security-review, plan-legal-review, etc.) are referenced throughout the pipeline
- Web search tools for market research
- Browser tools for UX walkthroughs and QA
Most startup ideas are bad. Most execution plans are worse. Most founders skip the hard questions because nobody forces them to answer.
Z-Combinator forces them.
Built by Zach @ Computer Connection