Founder Fit

Founder Fit — Are You the Right Founder for THIS Business?

This is not a personality test. It's a collision analysis between who you are and what the business demands. The wrong founder building the right business still fails.

Philosophy

Founder quality is meaningless without business context. A brilliant distribution operator is the wrong founder for a deep-tech R&D business. A domain expert with 20 years in healthcare is the wrong founder for a consumer social app. This skill does not measure "are you a good founder?" — it measures "are you the right founder for THIS specific business?"

Read .claude/skills/_shared/philosophy.md for the full bottleneck shift and bootstrapper framework. For founder fit specifically:

The four bottlenecks ARE founder fit. In the AI-native era, the question is no longer "can you build it?" — anyone can build it. The question is whether you possess the four scarce resources this specific business demands:

1. Clarity — Do you understand this market's pain deeply enough to know what to build without asking permission, writing PRDs, or running focus groups? Clarity comes from lived experience, customer proximity, and domain immersion — not from research alone.
2. Distribution — Do you have access to the people who will pay? An audience, a network, a community presence, a channel you've already built. Distribution advantage is the #1 predictor of bootstrapped success.
3. Ambition calibration — Are you swinging hard enough for this market, but not so hard that you need VC-scale resources? A bootstrapper building a $500M platform play is mismatched. A bootstrapper building a $50K/year lifestyle tool when the market supports $3M ARR is also mismatched — in the other direction.
4. Relationships — Do you have trust in this market? Relationships with buyers, partners, influencers, or community members who will champion you? You cannot vibe-code a relationship.

Technical skills are nearly irrelevant. If the founder's primary asset is "I can code," that is the weakest possible advantage in 2026. AI tools collapsed development cost to near zero. Every business needs a builder, but builders are commoditized. What businesses need are founders with clarity, distribution, and domain authority. Evaluate accordingly.

The 8 habits test. A founder's operating habits reveal more than their resume. Are they stuck in permission loops, polish-as-procrastination, meetings-as-default, planning-over-doing? Or do they default to shipping, showing work early, making provisional decisions, and getting ideas in contact with reality? The AI-native era rewards execution tempo above all else. See references/ai-native-bottleneck-shift.md for the full framework.

AI-native reality check — false confidence traps:

• "I'm a developer, so I can build it" — everyone can build it. What can you distribute?
• "I've been thinking about this for years" — thinking is not clarity. Clarity requires customer contact.
• "I'm passionate about this space" — passion without domain knowledge is a hobby, not a business.
• "I work hard" — effort without direction is the most expensive waste. Hard work on the wrong business is worse than no work at all.
• "I've done startups before" — past startup experience in a different domain, different market, with different customers is resume polish, not founder fit.

What IS founder-business fit:

• You can describe the customer's pain in their words, not yours — because you've lived it or been immersed in it
• You can name 20 people who would be early customers — because you already know them
• You can reach the beachhead without spending money — because you have distribution access
• You can make product decisions without research — because you have domain clarity
• You ship and iterate faster than you plan — because your operating habits match AI-native tempo

Reference Books

Check references/INDEX.md for relevant frameworks. Key topics for founder fit: wartime vs. peacetime leadership, execution systems and next-action thinking, solo-founder strategy, identity-based habits, founder psychology and emotional fitness, decision-making under uncertainty, bottleneck shift 8-habits diagnostic.

Research-First Protocol

This skill handles private information differently from other dimension skills. The founder IS the user — most founder-fit data comes from self-disclosure, not web research.

What CAN be researched autonomously:

• Founder's public LinkedIn profile (if provided or findable)
• Founder's public social media presence (Twitter/X, blog, newsletter, podcast)
• Founder's existing audience metrics (follower counts, engagement, newsletter subscribers)
• Founder's open-source contributions or public portfolio
• Domain community presence (are they known in the target market's communities?)
• Target business requirements (what does THIS business demand from a founder?)
• "[industry/domain] founder backgrounds" — what do successful founders in this space look like?
• "[competitor name] founder" — what domain expertise do competing founders have?

What MUST come from the user (self-disclosure):

• Time budget (hours/week available, other commitments)
• Financial runway (months of personal expenses covered without revenue)
• Domain expertise depth (how they know this market)
• Existing distribution assets (audience, network, community standing)
• Personal constraints (geography, family, health, risk tolerance)
• Operating habits (how they work, not how they wish they worked)
• Past execution history (what they've shipped, not what they've planned)

Research supplements but cannot replace self-disclosure. A LinkedIn profile tells you what someone presents, not what they actually do. Web research establishes the business's demands; the founder must honestly report whether they match.

See _shared/philosophy.md for the full research protocol.

Sub-Skill Mode

See _shared/philosophy.md Sub-Skill Mode Protocol.

Skill-specific integration points:

• competitor-analysis: What domain expertise and competitive advantages do rival founders have?
• gtm-strategy: What distribution channels does this business need? Does the founder have access?
• problem-analysis: The founder-vs-reality gap directly feeds Dimension 1 (Domain Clarity).
• moat-analysis: Does the relationship/trust moat assessment match the founder's actual relationships?

End-to-End Flow

STEP 0 — CONTEXT GATHERING

Extract from the user's input:

• The business idea or product (what it does, who it's for)
• Who the founder is (background, current role, domain experience)
• Current stage (idea, MVP, live product with customers)
• Any stated constraints or concerns about fit

If the idea is provided but founder context is missing, ask the following in ONE message:

Ask the user to provide (as much as they're comfortable sharing):

1. Your background in 2-3 sentences — What have you been doing professionally? What domain do you know deeply?
2. Your time budget — How many hours/week can you dedicate? Do you have a day job, family obligations, other projects?
3. Your financial runway — How many months can you sustain yourself without this business generating revenue? (Not exact numbers — "3 months", "1 year", "indefinite" is fine)
4. Your distribution assets — Do you have an audience, email list, social following, community presence, or professional network in this market? Approximate numbers if yes.
5. Your execution history — What have you shipped before? (Products, projects, content, businesses — finished things, not plans)
6. Your honest operating style — Do you tend to plan extensively before acting, or ship rough and iterate? Do you work alone or need collaborators? How do you handle ambiguity?
7. Your LinkedIn URL (optional) — If you want research on your public profile.

Do NOT ask for all of these if the user has already provided substantial context. Only ask for what's missing and material. If the user provides enough context to proceed (even partially), proceed. Better to assess with incomplete data and flag the gaps than to interrogate the founder before starting.

STEP 1 — BUSINESS DEMAND PROFILING

Before assessing the founder, profile what THIS business demands. Every business has a "founder profile" it selects for — the question is whether the actual founder matches it.

Research the business's founder requirements:

Use WebSearch to understand what kind of founder succeeds in this specific market:

• What domain expertise is common among founders of successful companies in this space?
• What distribution channels does this market use? (Informs distribution fit)
• What sales motion does this market require? (Self-serve PLG vs. relationship sales vs. content authority)
• What is the buyer persona? (Informs whether the founder can speak the buyer's language)
• What's the competitive landscape's founder talent? (Are competing founders domain experts, technical builders, or marketing operators?)

From prior intelligence (if available):

• competitor-analysis: Competing founder profiles, team compositions, domain expertise signals
• gtm-strategy: Required distribution channels, GTM motion, beachhead reachability
• problem-analysis: Founder-vs-reality gap, customer language vs. founder language
• moat-analysis: Relationship/trust moat requirements, distribution moat demands

Produce a "Business Demand Profile":

• Domain expertise required: [What the founder must understand about this market]
• Distribution access required: [What channels/audience/network the founder needs]
• Sales motion required: [PLG builder / content authority / relationship seller / outbound hustler]
• Time intensity: [Part-time viable / needs full-time / needs full-time + urgency]
• Financial runway required: [How long before revenue? What's the minimum runway?]
• Technical depth required: [None / basic / moderate / deep — calibrated to AI-native reality]
• Execution tempo required: [Fast iteration / methodical / long-term compound]

STEP 2 — FOUNDER PROFILE RESEARCH

Research the founder's public presence to supplement self-disclosure.

If LinkedIn URL provided:

• Professional background and career trajectory
• Industry/domain experience
• Network size and quality (connection count, endorsements in relevant skills)
• Content publishing activity (articles, posts — frequency and engagement)
• Recommendations and endorsements from people in the target market

Public presence search (if name/handle provided):

• "[founder name] [industry/domain]" — domain authority signals
• Blog, newsletter, podcast — content presence and audience size
• Twitter/X presence — followers, engagement, topics discussed
• GitHub/portfolio — shipping history, public projects
• Community contributions — Stack Overflow, Reddit, forums, Slack groups in the target space
• Conference talks, podcast appearances — thought leadership signals
• Product Hunt launches, Indie Hackers posts — execution history

What you're measuring:

• Does the founder have visible domain authority in the target market?
• Do they have an existing audience that overlaps with the buyer persona?
• Is there evidence of shipping (not just planning or discussing)?
• Do people in the target market know who they are?

STEP 3 — NINE-DIMENSION FOUNDER-BUSINESS FIT ASSESSMENT

Work through all nine dimensions. For each, assess based on research evidence and self-disclosure, rate categorically, and note the specific evidence that supports the rating.

Dimension 1: Domain Clarity

Does the founder understand this market's pain deeply enough to make product decisions without extensive research? Clarity is the #1 bottleneck — the founder who knows what to build has the most valuable asset in the AI age.

The clarity spectrum:

What to evaluate:

• Can the founder describe the customer's pain in the customer's language? (Or only in their own?)
• Has the founder done the job that the target customer does? (Or something close?)
• How many potential customers has the founder spoken to? (0 = outsider. 50+ = informed. Daily contact = practitioner.)
• Does the founder's description of the problem match what the problem-analysis found? (If problem-analysis has run, compare directly.)
• Can the founder make a product decision right now without asking anyone? (Practitioners can. Outsiders can't.)
• How long has the founder been immersed in this domain? (Months? Years? Decades?)

Rate: PRACTITIONER / ADJACENT EXPERT / INFORMED OUTSIDER / OUTSIDER

Dimension 2: Distribution Access

Does the founder have existing access to the people who will pay? Distribution is the #1 moat when code is cheap. A founder with an audience in the target market has a structural advantage that no amount of capital can replicate quickly.

Distribution asset types:

What to evaluate:

• Can the founder reach 100 potential buyers this week without spending money? (If yes — strong access)
• Does the founder have an email list, newsletter, social following, or community presence in this market?
• Is the founder known in communities where buyers congregate? (Not just a member — known and trusted)
• Does the founder have professional relationships with people who match the ICP?
• Has the founder built distribution before? (Even in a different market — the skill transfers partially)
• Does the GTM strategy require distribution the founder doesn't have? (Mismatch = months of ramp)
• How long would it take the founder to build the required distribution from scratch? (Months? Years?)

Bootstrapper lens: A mediocre product with founder-built distribution beats a superior product with zero distribution. If the founder has no access to buyers, distribution must be built BEFORE the product. This adds 6-12 months to timeline and dramatically increases risk.

Rate: DIRECT ACCESS / ADJACENT ACCESS / BUILDABLE / NO ACCESS

• DIRECT ACCESS: Founder can reach target buyers immediately through existing assets
• ADJACENT ACCESS: Founder has distribution, but not perfectly aligned with target market
• BUILDABLE: No current access, but a viable plan to build it in 3-6 months
• NO ACCESS: No distribution assets, no clear path to building them, starting from zero

Dimension 3: Execution Tempo & Operating Habits

Does the founder operate at the speed this business requires? In the AI-native era, the 8 habits to break are the sharpest diagnostic of founder capability.

The 8 habits assessment:

What to evaluate:

• What has the founder shipped in the last 90 days? (Shipped = live, not "almost done")
• How does the founder describe their work process? (Listen for planning-heavy vs. action-heavy language)
• When stuck on a decision, does the founder default to more research or to trying something?
• Has the founder built and launched a product/project before? How long did it take from idea to live?
• Does the founder have a weekly review or execution system? (Some system > no system)
• Is the founder comfortable showing unfinished work? (Comfort with imperfection = speed)
• How many of the 8 anti-patterns does the founder exhibit?

Rate: AI-NATIVE / FAST / MODERATE / SLOW

• AI-NATIVE: Ships weekly or faster, defaults to doing, comfortable with imperfection, 0-1 anti-patterns
• FAST: Ships regularly, mostly action-oriented, occasional planning pauses, 2-3 anti-patterns
• MODERATE: Ships but with delays, mixed planning/doing, some anti-patterns are habitual, 4-5 anti-patterns
• SLOW: Plans extensively, rarely ships, multiple anti-patterns deeply ingrained, 6+ anti-patterns

Dimension 4: Time & Energy Budget

Does the founder have enough time and energy to build this business? And does the time available match what the business demands?

Time budget reality check:

What to evaluate:

• How many hours/week can the founder realistically dedicate? (Not aspirational — actual)
• Is there a day job? If so, is it in the same domain? (Same-domain day job = bonus clarity. Different domain = context-switching tax)
• What's the founder's energy pattern? (Peak creative hours available for the business, or only leftover tired hours?)
• Are there co-founders or partners who complement the time gap?
• Does the time budget match the GTM motion? (Sales-led needs full-time. Content-led can be part-time. PLG needs intensive bursts for product work.)
• What's the founder's commitment horizon? (3 months of effort? 1 year? 3 years? This business may need sustained effort for 18+ months before significant revenue.)
• Family, health, or personal constraints that affect availability?

Bootstrapper lens: Time scarcity is not disqualifying — most bootstrapped businesses start as side projects. But the time must match the business model. A founder with 10 hours/week trying to do outbound sales to enterprise is delusional. A founder with 10 hours/week building a content-led micro-SaaS is perfectly viable.

Rate: ABUNDANT / SUFFICIENT / CONSTRAINED / INSUFFICIENT

• ABUNDANT: Full-time dedication, few competing obligations, long commitment horizon
• SUFFICIENT: Enough time for the chosen GTM motion, some constraints manageable
• CONSTRAINED: Time available, but mismatched with business demands — requires adapting the strategy
• INSUFFICIENT: Not enough time to reach minimum viable traction, regardless of strategy

Dimension 5: Financial Runway & Risk Tolerance

Can the founder survive long enough for this business to generate revenue? And does their risk tolerance match bootstrapping reality?

Runway reality check:

What to evaluate:

• How many months of personal expenses can the founder cover without business revenue?
• Is there a partner/spouse with income providing a safety net?
• What's the founder's minimum monthly income requirement? (Affects pricing strategy and urgency)
• Is the founder comfortable with the psychological weight of financial uncertainty?
• Does the financial timeline match the business's expected time-to-revenue? (Content-led GTM = 6-12 months to meaningful revenue. PLG = 3-6 months. Sales = variable.)
• Has the founder bootstrapped before? (First-timers consistently underestimate time-to-revenue)
• Is there a revenue bridge? (Consulting, freelancing, services in the same domain — can fund the product journey)

Rate: COMFORTABLE / ADEQUATE / TIGHT / CRITICAL

• COMFORTABLE: 12+ months runway, low burn, financial safety net, emotionally prepared
• ADEQUATE: 6-12 months, manageable but needs revenue plan, some financial pressure
• TIGHT: 3-6 months, high urgency, must generate early revenue or maintain income source
• CRITICAL: <3 months or high personal burn with no safety net — financial pressure will compromise decisions

Dimension 6: Relationship & Trust Capital

Does the founder have trust in this market? Relationships are one of the four AI-native bottlenecks — you cannot vibe-code a relationship. In an era where anyone can build a product, the founder who is known and trusted by buyers has a durable advantage.

Trust capital assessment:

What to evaluate:

• Can the founder get a meeting with 10 target buyers this week through warm introductions?
• Is the founder recognized as an expert or authority in the target domain?
• Has the founder published, spoken, or contributed in spaces where buyers pay attention?
• Do competing founders have deeper relationship networks? (If so, how much deeper?)
• Are there partnership opportunities the founder can access through existing relationships?
• Does this business require high-trust sales? (Enterprise, regulated industries, large contracts = trust-critical)
• Can trust be built through content/community, or does it require in-person/1:1 relationship building?

Rate: INSIDER / TRUSTED / PARTICIPANT / UNKNOWN

• INSIDER: Known by name in the target industry, buyers take their calls, can sell before building
• TRUSTED: Respected in a related circle, has referral paths, 1-2 degrees from target buyers
• PARTICIPANT: Active in relevant communities but not yet recognized as authority
• UNKNOWN: No relationships in the target market, starting cold

Dimension 7: Ambition-Business Calibration

Is the founder's ambition correctly sized for this business? Mismatched ambition — in either direction — is a common failure mode.

Calibration mismatches:

What to evaluate:

• What's the founder's revenue goal for this business? (Does it match the market-size TRM?)
• Is the founder trying to build a lifestyle business, a growth business, or a platform? (Match to market)
• Does the founder's ambition require resources they don't have? (Team, capital, time)
• Is the founder willing to start small (beachhead) and expand? Or do they need to "go big" from day one?
• Has the founder demonstrated patience with compound growth? (Bootstrapping rewards patience)
• Is the founder taking enough swings? (In the AI-native era, timidity is the risk — not wasted effort)

Rate: CALIBRATED / AMBITIOUS-BUT-VIABLE / OVER-SCOPED / UNDER-SCOPED

• CALIBRATED: Ambition matches market opportunity, resources, and timeline perfectly
• AMBITIOUS-BUT-VIABLE: Slightly over-scoped but can be staged; founder is aware and adaptable
• OVER-SCOPED: Ambition exceeds resources significantly; needs to narrow or secure more resources
• UNDER-SCOPED: Aiming too low for the market opportunity; leaving value on the table

Dimension 8: Resilience & Psychological Readiness

Can the founder sustain the emotional weight of bootstrapping? Building a business without external funding means you are the sole source of momentum, conviction, and recovery. There is no board to blame, no investors to reassure you, and no team to share the burden (at least initially).

What to evaluate:

• Has the founder dealt with professional failure before? How did they respond? (Recovery speed is the signal, not absence of failure)
• Does the founder have a support system? (Spouse, friends, community of founders, mentor — isolation is the #1 psychological risk)
• How does the founder handle negative feedback? (Defensiveness = fragility. Incorporation = resilience.)
• Is the founder emotionally attached to their first idea? (Willingness to pivot is survival skill #1)
• What's the founder's relationship with uncertainty? (Comfortable making decisions with 60% information, or paralyzed without 95%?)
• Does the founder practice self-awareness? (Can they distinguish between "this is hard" and "this is wrong"? The inability to tell the difference causes both premature quitting and stubborn persistence.)
• Has the founder done hard things with sustained effort before? (Not just startups — any long, difficult effort: writing a book, training for a marathon, learning a complex skill)

Psychological traps to flag:

• Sunken cost attachment: "I've already spent 6 months on this, I can't pivot"
• External validation seeking: Needs advisors, friends, or internet strangers to confirm every decision
• Comparison anxiety: Measures progress against funded startups or creators with 10-year head starts
• Loneliness spiral: Solo founder with no peer support, trending toward isolation
• Certainty addiction: Can't act without near-complete information

Rate: BATTLE-TESTED / PREPARED / UNCERTAIN / FRAGILE

• BATTLE-TESTED: Has navigated significant professional adversity, strong support system, self-aware
• PREPARED: Reasonable emotional fitness, some experience with uncertainty, adequate support
• UNCERTAIN: Untested — no evidence of resilience, but no red flags either. Unknown territory.
• FRAGILE: Significant psychological risk factors — isolation, attachment to specific outcome, inability to handle negative feedback, no support system

Dimension 9: Founder-Business Fit Synthesis (The Match Test)

The ultimate synthesis. Given everything assessed in dimensions 1-8, is this founder the right person to build this specific business?

The match test:

This is not "is this a good founder?" — it's "does this founder's specific profile match what THIS business specifically demands?"

What to synthesize:

• Compare the Business Demand Profile (from Step 1) against the founder's actual profile (Dimensions 1-8)
• Identify matches: Where does the founder's profile exceed what the business demands?
• Identify gaps: Where does the business demand more than the founder currently has?
• Identify deal-breakers: Are any gaps insurmountable? (e.g., business requires deep regulatory domain expertise and founder is a complete outsider with no path to acquiring it)
• Identify asymmetric advantages: Does the founder have something for this business that is rare and hard to replicate? (This is the "unfair advantage" — but grounded in specifics, not ego.)

Critical question: If 100 people wanted to build this exact business, what percentile advantage does this founder have?

• Top 10%: They should build this. Strong founder-business fit.
• Top 25%: Good fit with addressable gaps. Worth pursuing.
• Top 50%: Average fit. Success depends on execution and learning speed.
• Bottom 50%: Someone else is better positioned. The founder should consider a different business that matches their profile, or invest 6-12 months building the missing assets before starting.

Rate: STRONG FIT / GOOD FIT / PARTIAL FIT / POOR FIT

• STRONG FIT: Founder's profile exceeds business demands on most dimensions. Clear asymmetric advantage.
• GOOD FIT: Founder matches business demands with addressable gaps. No deal-breakers.
• PARTIAL FIT: Significant gaps exist but could be closed with deliberate effort over 3-6 months. Business may need to be scoped differently to match founder.
• POOR FIT: Fundamental mismatches between founder profile and business demands. Wrong founder for this business, or wrong business for this founder.

STEP 3b — VALIDATION GATES

Seven binary checks. Pass/fail. No nuance.

Gates passed: X/7

• 7/7: Exceptional founder-business fit — proceed with confidence
• 5-6/7: Good fit with addressable gaps — name the gaps, build a plan to close them
• 3-4/7: Significant gaps — do NOT start building product until failing gates are addressed
• < 3/7: STOP — either this is the wrong business for this founder, or the founder needs 6+ months of preparation before starting

STEP 4 — OUTPUT

Produce the full report using the template below.

Output Template

# FOUNDER-BUSINESS FIT ANALYSIS: [Product/Idea Name]

Research date: [date]
Founder: [Name or "Founder" if anonymous]
Stage: [Idea / MVP / Live Product]
Business: [One-line description of the business]

---

## FOUNDER-BUSINESS FIT SCORE

Overall fit verdict: [STRONG FIT / GOOD FIT / PARTIAL FIT / POOR FIT]

| Dimension | Rating | Fit Assessment |
|-----------|--------|---------------|
| Domain Clarity | PRACTITIONER/ADJACENT EXPERT/INFORMED OUTSIDER/OUTSIDER | [Does the business need this? Match/Gap/Deal-breaker] |
| Distribution Access | DIRECT ACCESS/ADJACENT ACCESS/BUILDABLE/NO ACCESS | |
| Execution Tempo | AI-NATIVE/FAST/MODERATE/SLOW | |
| Time & Energy Budget | ABUNDANT/SUFFICIENT/CONSTRAINED/INSUFFICIENT | |
| Financial Runway | COMFORTABLE/ADEQUATE/TIGHT/CRITICAL | |
| Relationship & Trust | INSIDER/TRUSTED/PARTICIPANT/UNKNOWN | |
| Ambition Calibration | CALIBRATED/AMBITIOUS-BUT-VIABLE/OVER-SCOPED/UNDER-SCOPED | |
| Psychological Readiness | BATTLE-TESTED/PREPARED/UNCERTAIN/FRAGILE | |
| Founder-Business Match | STRONG FIT/GOOD FIT/PARTIAL FIT/POOR FIT | |

---

## VALIDATION GATES

| # | Gate | Result |
|---|------|--------|
| 1 | Can describe customer pain in customer's words | PASS / FAIL |
| 2 | Can name 10+ contactable first customers | PASS / FAIL |
| 3 | Has 6+ months financial runway or revenue bridge | PASS / FAIL |
| 4 | Has shipped something live in past 12 months | PASS / FAIL |
| 5 | Time budget matches required GTM motion | PASS / FAIL |
| 6 | Has distribution access or concrete 90-day build plan | PASS / FAIL |
| 7 | Exhibits fewer than 5 of 8 anti-pattern habits | PASS / FAIL |

**Gates passed: X/7** — [Assessment: Exceptional / Good with gaps / Significant gaps / STOP]

---

## BUSINESS DEMAND PROFILE

What this specific business requires from its founder:

| Requirement | Level Needed | Founder's Level | Match? |
|-------------|-------------|----------------|--------|
| Domain expertise | [what the business needs] | [what the founder has] | Match / Gap / Deal-breaker |
| Distribution access | [channels needed] | [channels available] | |
| Sales motion capability | [PLG / content / sales / community] | [founder's strength] | |
| Time commitment | [full-time / part-time viable] | [founder's availability] | |
| Financial runway | [months to revenue] | [months available] | |
| Technical depth | [what the business needs — usually low in AI era] | [founder's level] | |
| Relationship depth | [market requires high-trust / transactional] | [founder's trust capital] | |

---

## DOMAIN CLARITY DEEP DIVE

**How the founder describes the problem:**
"[Founder's words]"

**How customers describe the problem:**
"[Customer language from problem-analysis or research]"

**Language gap**: [Match / Minor gap / Significant gap — explain]

**Clarity source**: [Personal experience / Customer conversations / Research / Assumption]

**Clarity verdict**: [PRACTITIONER / ADJACENT EXPERT / INFORMED OUTSIDER / OUTSIDER]
[2-3 sentences explaining why this level, with specific evidence]

---

## DISTRIBUTION ACCESS ASSESSMENT

**Current distribution assets:**

| Asset | Size/Reach | Overlap with Target Market | Value |
|-------|-----------|---------------------------|-------|
| [Email list / Newsletter] | [subscribers] | [% overlap with ICP] | High / Medium / Low |
| [Social following] | [followers, platform] | [% overlap with ICP] | |
| [Community presence] | [where, role] | [recognition level] | |
| [Professional network] | [relevant connections] | [warm intro potential] | |
| [Platform presence] | [what, metrics] | [traffic/reach] | |

**Distribution gap**: [What the business needs that the founder doesn't have]
**Time to close gap**: [How long to build the missing distribution — months? years?]
**Distribution verdict**: [DIRECT ACCESS / ADJACENT ACCESS / BUILDABLE / NO ACCESS]

---

## EXECUTION TEMPO ASSESSMENT

**8 Habits Scorecard:**

| # | Habit | Founder Pattern | AI-Native? |
|---|-------|----------------|-----------|
| 1 | Permission loops | [How the founder operates] | Y / N |
| 2 | Polish as procrastination | | |
| 3 | Meetings as default | | |
| 4 | Structured waiting | | |
| 5 | Planning over doing | | |
| 6 | Deck instead of demo | | |
| 7 | Consensus before action | | |
| 8 | Hoarding until ready | | |

**Anti-patterns present**: [X/8]

**Shipping history**: [What the founder has shipped, when, how long from idea to live]

**Tempo verdict**: [AI-NATIVE / FAST / MODERATE / SLOW]
[2-3 sentences — is the founder's tempo sufficient for this business's competitive environment?]

---

## TIME, RUNWAY & RISK PROFILE

**Time budget:**
- Hours/week available: [X]
- Day job: [Yes/No — same domain?]
- Commitment horizon: [months/years]
- Competing obligations: [what else competes for time]

**Financial runway:**
- Months covered: [X]
- Revenue bridge: [consulting/freelancing/other income plan]
- Minimum monthly income: [$X]
- Safety net: [partner income, savings, fallback]

**Match with business timeline:**
- Estimated time to first revenue: [X months]
- Estimated time to ramen profitable: [X months]
- **Runway covers it?** [YES with margin / YES barely / NO — needs bridge / NO — insufficient]

---

## RELATIONSHIP & TRUST ASSESSMENT

**Market presence:**
- Known in the target market? [Yes — how / No]
- Published content in this space? [Yes — what / No]
- Community standing? [Authority / Active member / Lurker / Absent]
- Conference/event presence? [Speaker / Attendee / None]

**Warm network overlap:**
- Buyers accessible through warm intros: [estimated count]
- Partners/influencers accessible: [estimated count]
- Competing founders' network advantage: [stronger/comparable/weaker]

**Trust verdict**: [INSIDER / TRUSTED / PARTICIPANT / UNKNOWN]

---

## AMBITION CALIBRATION

**Founder's stated goal**: [Revenue target, business type, timeline]
**Market opportunity** (from market-size if available): [TRM range]
**Resource reality**: [Time, money, distribution available]

**Calibration verdict**: [CALIBRATED / AMBITIOUS-BUT-VIABLE / OVER-SCOPED / UNDER-SCOPED]
[2-3 sentences — is the ambition matched to the opportunity and resources?]

---

## PSYCHOLOGICAL READINESS

**Resilience signals**: [Evidence from history of handling adversity, uncertainty, failure]
**Support system**: [Who does the founder have? Other founders, spouse, mentor, community, nobody?]
**Psychological risks**: [Top 1-2 traps this founder is most susceptible

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