What’s inside

One SKILL.md (the playbook) + one starter template. A preview:

Founder Skills Kit

When to use

• You are starting or running a small company and every week brings a decision that feels bigger than the information you have
• Your pitch changes every time you tell it, and listeners keep asking "so what do you actually do?"
• You are tracking twenty metrics and none of them tells you whether the business is working
• The next hire feels make-or-break, but the role is still a fuzzy paragraph in your head
• You are months from needing money and want the fundraising basics in place before the clock starts

Workflow

1. State the decision and the deadline (input: open question → output: decision memo)
   Every decision gets a memo with three lines: the decision to make, the options on the table, and the date it will be made. A decision without a deadline is a meeting that never ends; a deadline without options is a panic. Most founder decisions are reversible — mark them as such and make them fast. The irreversible few get the slow, careful treatment. Knowing which kind you are facing is half the skill.
2. Write the one-page pitch (input: decision memo → output: pitch page)
   One page, five blocks: the problem (who hurts, how much), the product (what it does, in one paragraph), the customer (who pays, not just who uses), why now (what changed to make this possible), and the ask (what you need from this reader). If a block takes more than four sentences, you do not understand it yet — write shorter until the fog lifts. The pitch page is the document every other document is cut from: deck, site, intro email, all of it.
3. Pick the three numbers that matter (input: pitch page → output: metrics sheet)
   Choose three numbers that together tell you whether the business works: one for demand (are people coming?), one for value (do they stay or pay?), one for money (does it pay for itself?). Write each with its definition and where it comes from — a metric without a definition gets gamed, usually by you, usually by accident. Review the three weekly; everything else is a curiosity until one of the three moves.
4. Hire for the next bottleneck (input: metrics sheet → output: role brief)
   The next hire is the person who unblocks the bottleneck the three numbers point at — not the person you wish you could afford, and not the role your peers are hiring for. Write the role brief around the bottleneck: the outcome this hire owns in their first ninety days, the three skills that produce that outcome, and what "good" looks like at day ninety. Hire for the bottleneck, not for the org chart.

Template preview

Founder — Decide-and-Ship Template

One week = one decision memo, one pitch page, three numbers, one shipped slice.

Decision memo

Decision: {what to decide}

Options: 1. {option} 2. {option} 3. {option}

Deadline: {date} | Type: [ ] reversible — decide fast [ ] irreversible — decide carefully

Decision: {made on {date}} — Why: {one paragraph}

One-page pitch

Problem: {who hurts, how much — ≤4 sentences}

Product: {what it does — ≤4 sentences}

Customer: {who pays, not just who uses — ≤4 sentences}

Why now: {what changed to make this possible — ≤4 sentences}

Ask: {what you need from this reader — ≤4 sentences}

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