Exercises 07 — Startup & Product (10)

Concepts: Phase 15. Cheatsheet: 18.

SP1 — "Can OpenAI build this?"

  • Scenario: Your idea is "ChatGPT for contracts." An investor asks the question.
  • Task: Give a defensible answer (or admit you can't).
  • Constraints: AI startup pitch.
  • Expected answer: Answer structurally from a moat: proprietary data + feedback loop, system-of-record/workflow ownership, domain depth/trust, distribution. "We're better/faster/first" is a head start, not a moat (Phase 15.06).
  • Rubric: Senior = names a structural moat, not effort.
  • Common mistakes: "Our prompts/fine-tune are better."
  • Extension: Design a data flywheel for the idea.

SP2 — Painkiller vs vitamin

  • Scenario: Users love the demo but won't pay.
  • Task: Diagnose.
  • Constraints: Pre-revenue.
  • Expected answer: Likely a vitamin (nice-to-have) or demo magic, not a painkiller (acute/expensive pain). Validate with commitments ("would you pay $X?"), not compliments; target expensive knowledge work (Phase 15.01).
  • Rubric: Senior = painkiller test + commitments > compliments.
  • Common mistakes: Trusting praise; building more features.
  • Extension: Design a discovery sprint.

SP3 — Negative gross margin

  • Scenario: Each active user costs more than they pay.
  • Task: Fix the unit economics.
  • Constraints: Scaling.
  • Expected answer: Model cost per resolved task (incl. loops/retries); engineer margin via routing (cheap model for easy), caching, token budget, distillation; price to margin/value, cap usage. Target 70–80% gross margin (Phase 15.05).
  • Rubric: Senior = resolved-task cost + levers + price-to-margin.
  • Common mistakes: Per-request cost only; pricing to compete.
  • Extension: Build the cost model (labs/lab-11-cost-calculator).

SP4 — Wrapper vs AI-native

  • Scenario: Your product is a chat box over an API.
  • Task: Make it defensible.
  • Constraints: Crowded space.
  • Expected answer: Stop wrapping — own a narrow workflow end-to-end and the system of record/action layer; add evals, cost instrumentation, human approval, trust/audit, routing. The model is an ingredient, not the product (Phase 15.03).
  • Rubric: Senior = workflow + ownership + the 7 principles.
  • Common mistakes: Adding features to a wrapper.
  • Extension: Run the wrapper check on your design.

SP5 — Beachhead selection

  • Scenario: "We serve all knowledge workers."
  • Task: Narrow it.
  • Constraints: Early stage.
  • Expected answer: Pick a narrow beachhead with a sharp ICP (industry/size/buyer/user) you can dominate and expand from; go vertical for defensibility; size SOM bottom-up; have a "why now?" (Phase 15.02).
  • Rubric: Senior = beachhead + sharp ICP + bottom-up sizing.
  • Common mistakes: Too broad; TAM theater.
  • Extension: Write the market-selection brief (template).

SP6 — MVP scope

  • Scenario: Team wants to build a gateway, fine-tuning, and a polished UI before launch.
  • Task: Redirect.
  • Constraints: Limited runway.
  • Expected answer: Avoid infra-first — ship the smallest core-workflow slice embarrassingly simple (hardcoded prompt + CLI/Streamlit) to real users; add evals/cost by week 4–8; build infra after validating demand (Phase 15.04).
  • Rubric: Senior = cut to core workflow; ship fast; validate first.
  • Common mistakes: Building the platform before users.
  • Extension: Write the 12-piece MVP spec.

SP7 — The converting demo

  • Scenario: Your demo wows but doesn't close serious buyers.
  • Task: Fix the demo.
  • Constraints: Enterprise.
  • Expected answer: Show before → after on real data → trust (citations/approval/accuracy) → quantified outcome + next step; trust, not magic, converts skeptical buyers (Phase 15.07).
  • Rubric: Senior = trust features + outcome + CTA.
  • Common mistakes: All wow, no trust.
  • Extension: Script it for your product.

SP8 — Enterprise gauntlet

  • Scenario: A pilot succeeds; the deal stalls in security/procurement for months.
  • Task: What should have been ready?
  • Constraints: Enterprise sale.
  • Expected answer: The deal-blocker kit: SOC 2 (started early — Type II takes months), DPA + AI-data answers, SSO/RBAC, isolation proof, audit logs, SLA, security-questionnaire answer bank — Phase-14 controls packaged as evidence (Phase 15.08).
  • Rubric: Senior = readiness as sales accelerant + start SOC 2 early.
  • Common mistakes: Starting SOC 2 when asked.
  • Extension: Fill the security checklist.

SP9 — Fundraising story

  • Scenario: You pitch how clever your AI architecture is; investors are lukewarm.
  • Task: Fix the pitch.
  • Constraints: Seed round.
  • Expected answer: Sell the business: problem → why now → demo → market → moat → unit economics → traction → team → ask. Nail the two AI killer questions (moat vs model vendors; margins). Tech is the enabler (Phase 15.09).
  • Rubric: Senior = business narrative + the two killer answers.
  • Common mistakes: Pitching tech; weak moat answer.
  • Extension: Build the fundraising kit.

SP10 — Build vs buy

  • Scenario: Deciding which components to build vs use OSS.
  • Task: Decide for: foundation model, gateway, vector DB, eval, domain logic.
  • Constraints: Small team.
  • Expected answer: Buy/OSS the commodities (foundation model, gateway=LiteLLM/OpenRouter, vector DB=pgvector/Qdrant, eval framework); build your domain logic + workflow + the moat. Never build a foundation model (Phase 15.00).
  • Rubric: Senior = build the differentiator, buy the rest.
  • Common mistakes: Building infra instead of the product.
  • Extension: Map your stack to build/buy.

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