A complete startup evaluation toolkit: preflight checks your odds, blueprint shows you how winners win.
🇨🇳 中文版见
README.zh-CN.md
Six skills that take you from idea to execution, built on systematic analysis of 2,500+ failed startup post-mortems and 5,000+ successful founder stories.
Every claim is backed by real cases and real numbers. This is not generic startup advice — it's pattern extraction from thousands of actual outcomes:
| What Most "Advice" Does | What Startup Kit Does |
|---|---|
| "Build a moat" → hand-wavy | "Build one of Helmer's 7 Powers" → each with real company examples |
| "Validate your idea" → vague | Mom Test with specific checklists, 15-conversation rule |
| "Know your unit economics" → generic | LTV > 3×CAC, GM >50%, with industry benchmarks |
| "Competition is tough" → obvious | Competition kills 53% — here's how ConvertKit beat Mailchimp |
| "Choose a channel" → abstract | One channel, milk it dry: Carrd grew to $1.5M ARR on SEO alone |
Every skill in this repo follows the same rule: frameworks grounded in analyzed case data, not hunches or blog post wisdom.
┌──────────────┐
│ forge │ ← Find problems worth solving
└──────┬───────┘
│ "What pain should I work on?"
▼
┌───────────────┐
│ preflight │ ← 2,500+ failures
│ "how you die" │ ← 12-dimension stress test
└──────┬────────┘
│ "Your biggest risks are X, Y, Z"
▼
┌───────────────┐
│ blueprint │ ← 5,000+ successes
│ "how you win" │ ← 5 modules, 8 founder moves
└──────┬────────┘
│ "Here's how survivors solved it"
▼
┌──────────────┐
│ pricing │ ← Price what it's worth
└──────┬───────┘
│ "How much should I charge?"
▼
┌──────────────┐
│ compass │ ← Track what matters
└──────┬───────┘
│ "What metrics at my stage?"
▼
┌──────────────────────┐
│ gtm │ ← Go to market
│ "which channel when" │ ← backed by case data
└──────────────────────┘
| # | Directory | Description | Data Backing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | forge/ |
Idea generation: pain mining, quick filtering, opportunity discovery (v0.5) | Preflight G0 methodology + 16-industry failure profiles |
| 2 | preflight/ |
12-dimension startup health check: demand, competition, unit economics, runway, team, etc. | 1,749 failed startups ($535B burned) · CB Insights (483 post-mortems) · LOOTR heatmap · Killed by Google (307 products) |
| 3 | blueprint/ |
Success playbook: 7 frameworks, 5 revenue stages, 6 business model playbooks, 8 founder moves | StarterStory (1,000+ interviews) · IndieHackers (5,000+ founders) · YC Startup School · MicroConf |
| 4 | pricing/ |
Pricing lab: value-based pricing, tier design, price raise audits, 12+ real cases (v0.5) | Hormozi Value Equation + StarterStory + IndieHackers pricing outcomes |
| 5 | compass/ |
KPI dashboard: stage-appropriate metrics ($0→$1M+), industry benchmarks, health thresholds (v0.5) | Blueprint revenue stage data + model-specific benchmarks |
| 6 | gtm/ |
Go-to-market playbook: 10 channels, stage-matched recommendations, 20+ case studies (v0.5) | StarterStory + IndieHackers + Blueprint cross-referencing (data confidence tags) |
# Clone the entire kit
git clone https://github.com/alpha-xone/startup-kit
# Or copy individual skills to your CodeWhale skills directory
cp -r forge ~/.codewhale/skills/
cp -r preflight ~/.codewhale/skills/
cp -r blueprint ~/.codewhale/skills/
cp -r pricing ~/.codewhale/skills/
cp -r compass ~/.codewhale/skills/
cp -r gtm ~/.codewhale/skills/Then ask your agent:
"Find me ideas in [domain]" → Forge opportunity report "Run Preflight on my idea" → Diagnostic report "Run Blueprint on my startup" → Success pattern analysis "How should I price my product?" → Pricing analysis "What metrics should I track?" → Compass dashboard "Which GTM channel for my stage?" → Channel match analysis
startup-kit/
├── README.md
├── README.zh-CN.md
├── forge/ ← ① Find problems
├── preflight/ ← ② Diagnose risks
├── blueprint/ ← ③ Prescribe moves
├── pricing/ ← ④ Set pricing
├── compass/ ← ⑤ Track metrics
└── gtm/ ← ⑥ Go to market
Every skill at the same level. Each has its own SKILL.md, SKILL.zh-CN.md, and references/.
- forge ✅ — Idea generation engine (v0.5)
- preflight ✅ — 12-dimension diagnostic
- blueprint ✅ — Success playbook
- pricing ✅ — Pricing lab (v0.5)
- compass ✅ — KPI dashboard (v0.5)
- gtm ✅ — Go-to-market playbook (v0.5)
- raise (WIP) — Fundraising suite: pitch deck patterns, financial modeling, investor mapping
- Not a crystal ball — it uses historical patterns to tell you probabilities, not futures
- Not a cheerleader — tools tell you when data looks bad; they won't sugarcoat what you're missing
- Not VC-only — patterns are tagged by founder type (bootstrapped vs VC, solo vs co-founder)
- Not survivorship bias unacknowledged — each skill documents limitations in its
references/data-sources.md - Not the final word — the decision is yours. These tools just ensure it's an evidence-backed one
Built by studying 2,500+ who failed and 5,000+ who succeeded — so you can spot the patterns before you commit.