The working build
One real flow through the core of your idea, usable on a phone. No licence, no lock-in: everything another developer needs is in the repository.
First Proof
Once Clarity has named the riskiest part of your idea, two weeks to turn it into something real people can use, tested against a bar you agree on before anyone sees it.
The bind
Most ideas die of the wrong question, not the wrong code.
Your idea has probably been sitting in a doc for a while. Not because you're lazy, but because committing real money to it feels like a leap, and you can't quite see where you'd land.
That instinct is right. Most products don't fail because nobody could build them. They fail because someone spent months and a pile of money before finding out that nobody wanted what got built.
The shape of it
Most of what you could build never needed building.
Everything you could build
Every feature, every version, every direction the idea could take.
How the two weeks go
One step, and a bar set before anyone sees the build.
- Before · Clarity
Is this worth building?
The thinking happens first, in Clarity: the real problem, the riskiest assumption, and a clear call on whether a First Proof makes sense. If something fatal shows up, you find it there, cheaply.
- First Proof · two weeks
The part that matters, made real
One flow, the one that matters, built so a real person can pick it up and use it on a phone without you standing over their shoulder. What gets left out is a decision, not an oversight.
What Clarity settles first
Four questions most ideas skip.
- Is this a real, painful problem, or a feature that sounds cool?
- One gets paid for. The other gets admired and forgotten.
- Who exactly is the customer, and can you reach them?
- "Everyone" is not a customer. A reachable group of people with the same problem is.
- Would people pay, or would they just say "I'd use it"?
- Those are not the same sentence, and only one of them is evidence.
- Is the exciting part actually the risky part?
- Usually not. The risk tends to sit somewhere quieter, and that's the part worth building first.
The bar
Decided before the results, not after.
We agree in advance what a result means. Not after you've seen the data, when hope starts quietly moving the bar. Before.
Go
People do the thing without being nudged, and they come back to it. You know what to build next.
Adjust
The problem is real but the shape is wrong. You know specifically what to change, not just "iterate".
Stop
People are polite, but nothing pulls them. You keep your money and move on to a better idea.
What you own at the end
Named things, yours to keep.
The decision brief
The riskiest assumption in one sentence, the bar it has to clear, how to read what comes back, and the call once the sessions are done. Short enough for a co-founder or an investor.
The testing playbook
Where to find the right people, how many you actually need, and how to run a session so politeness doesn't quietly ruin your results. So the next idea needs no one else.
Finding people takes real calendar time and depends on strangers being free, so the sessions sit outside the two weeks. Run them yourself with the playbook, or have them run for you.
What happens after
Three ways this ends. All of them beat not knowing.
Continue
The core assumption held. You know what to build next, and you can build it with anyone, including me.
Pivot
Part of it held and part didn't. The idea points somewhere new, and the same two weeks can run again on the changed version.
Stop
It didn't hold. You get a clear reason why it's a real stop and not "try harder", and you keep the money you'd have spent finding out the long way.
Why the answer is honest
It's built into the arrangement, not a marketing line.
If the money were in the build, "you should build this" would be the profitable answer to every question, and you'd never quite know whether you were hearing judgment or a quote. Here the value is the clarity. That makes "don't build this" a perfectly good outcome, and it's the only arrangement in which the advice is worth anything.
What it costs
Every number agreed before the work it pays for.
Rung one · fixed€750
Clarity
A sensemaking session, the orientation map, and a decision session. It ends with a straight call, and if a First Proof makes sense, its scope and price in writing. Priced so that "don't build" is a cheap answer to get.
Rung two · scoped in Clarity€2,500–4,500
First Proof
The flow built, the bar set, the brief and the playbook in your hands. The range leaves room for what the flow genuinely needs, and the number is agreed in writing before anything is built, so it's yours to say no to.
Optional · flat€900
The testing, run for you
Finding the right people and putting the build in front of them, if you'd rather not run the sessions yourself.
No retainer, no hourly meter, no invoice you didn't see coming.
Where it fits
A ladder, not a leap. Every rung can be the last.
- Rung oneClarityUnderstand what you're actually creating, and decide whether it's worth proving.→
- Rung twoFirst ProofTwo weeks to make the riskiest part real, and find out whether it holds.
- OptionalThe testing, run for youThe sessions with real people, if you'd rather not run them yourself.
Who this works for
This fits
if…
It probably isn't it if you already know exactly what you want built and just need hands, need a finished product that scales, or would rather not hear that the idea has a problem. No hard feelings either way.
- 01
you have an idea you believe in, but can't build it yourself
- 02
you'd rather hear a hard truth early than a comfortable one late
- 03
you're ready to put something in front of real people in the next month or two
Said out loud
The three things people think and rarely say.
- "What if it's a bad idea, and I find out too late?"
- You find out first, before anything big gets built. That's the whole point.
- "I'm not technical. I won't understand what's happening."
- You don't need to be. Every step is explained plainly enough for you to decide with confidence.
- "I don't want to be talked into a build I don't need."
- You won't be. You'll get an honest answer, even when the honest answer is "don't build this yet".
First step
Let's find out if your idea is real. I'll give you a straight read.
A few questions in your own words. I read every answer myself and reply within one working day, either with times for a free 20 to 30 minute call or, if it's not a fit, with that and a better direction. Your answers are yours to keep either way.