These guides cover the three steps founders most often get wrong in their first year. Each one is written so you can do the work yourself, with worked examples, scripts and checklists. Read them in order if you're starting from an idea; jump to the one that matches your stage if you've already begun.
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How to run customer interviews that tell you the truth
Good discovery interviews ask about what people did, not what they would do. This guide gives you the recruiting approach, a full script, a notes template and a way to read twenty conversations without fooling yourself.
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Founder-led sales: how to land your first ten customers
Your first ten customers will almost certainly come from conversations you start yourself. This guide covers the target list, the first message, the sales call, the price objection and the follow-up, with Canadian consent rules in mind.
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The MVP cut list: how to decide what version one won't do
A minimum viable product is the smallest thing that solves one buyer's problem well enough to charge for. The cut list, the written record of what you're leaving out and why, is what keeps it small.
How to run customer interviews that don't mislead you
The customer interview guide teaches you to learn from buyers without accidentally steering them toward the answer you want.
It covers who to interview and how to find strangers who fit, how to ask for twenty minutes without sounding like a sales pitch, a full interview structure built around past behaviour, and a notes template that stops you remembering only the encouraging conversations. It ends with a method for reading twenty sets of notes and deciding whether the problem is urgent enough to build for.
Read it if: you've described your idea to friends and family and they all liked it, but no stranger has offered to pay.
The MVP cut list: what version one won't do
The MVP cut-list guide shows how to shrink a product plan to the one job buyers will pay for.
It walks through writing the one-job sentence, sorting every planned feature into must, later and never, testing each "must" against what buyers actually said, and finding the parts you can deliver by hand for the first customers. A worked example takes a twelve-feature plan down to a version that can ship in weeks, and shows what happens to the budget.
Read it if: you have a quote from a builder that worries you, or you've been "nearly ready" for months.
Founder-led sales: your first ten customers
The first-ten-customers guide explains how to win early customers yourself, one conversation at a time, before you spend on marketing.
It covers building a target list of fifty specific prospects, writing a first message that gets replies, running a sales conversation that ends in a clear yes or no, handling the price objection without discounting, and following up without being a nuisance. It also explains the consent rules Canadian founders must respect when they message prospects.
Read it if: you have something to sell and fewer than ten paying customers.
How the guides connect to our work
Each guide matches one of our services. The guide teaches the method; the service is us doing it with you, with a written result at the end.
- Customer interviews connect to the customer discovery sprint.
- The MVP cut list connects to MVP scoping.
- First-customer sales connects to go-to-market for the first 100 customers.
Plenty of founders use the guides and never hire us. That's fine; the point is to waste less money building. If you try the method and get stuck, or you'd like a second pair of eyes on your interview notes or your cut list, call, text or email. The contact page explains what to send.
How long each guide takes to put into practice
Reading takes minutes; doing the work takes longer, and it's worth knowing roughly how long before you start.
- Customer interviews: two to four weeks for about twenty conversations, most of it spent recruiting.
- MVP cut list: a focused day for the first pass, then a week of checking each "must" against your notes and talking to your builder.
- First ten customers: eight to twelve weeks of steady weekly outreach for most ventures, depending on how fast your buyers decide.
A note on what the guides don't cover
The guides deal with building the business, not with its legal and financial structure.
Choosing between a sole proprietorship and a corporation, provincial or federal incorporation, shareholder agreements, sales-tax registration and tax credits all need a lawyer or a CPA. When the guides touch those topics, they point you to the official source and suggest the questions to ask a professional. They don't replace that advice.
Frequently asked questions
Are these guides free to use?
Yes. Use the scripts, worksheets and checklists on your own venture. If you'd like someone to review your results, the first 30-minute consultation is free.
Which guide should I read first?
The customer interview guide, unless you already have notes from at least ten conversations with strangers in your market. Everything else builds on what those conversations tell you.
Do the guides apply outside software?
Yes. The examples include services, physical products and software, because the order of the work is the same: find the problem, scope the smallest fix, sell it directly, then systematise.