Find evidence
Write the evidence test before the feature list
An experiment brief forces a team to name what could prove an idea wrong before build momentum makes every result look encouraging.
3 min · Practical guide
AMBITION, MEET EVIDENCE.
The work behind
building a company.
What to test. Who will buy. Where the cash goes. A field notebook for founders and operators who want the reasoning—not just the answer.
Find your starting point ↗Explore 20 new practical guides →
A smaller test.
A better question.
Turn an assumption into evidence you can actually use.
Read the practical guide ↗20new practical guides
200preserved archive records
22sector profiles
5decision-led paths
What has—and has not—been checked ↗01 / FOLLOW THE QUESTION
Different decisions.
Connected evidence.
01 / Find evidence
Is the problem worth a company?
Trade a large promise for a small, testable question. Learn what an interview, a pilot and a market model can actually establish.
5 guides →02 / Earn customersWho chooses it—and why do they return?
Connect a narrow buying situation to a first useful outcome. Then test the route to another customer without hiding the work.
5 guides →03 / Read the economicsWhat does growth leave behind?
Keep the cohort intact, include delivery costs and follow the cash. Worked examples make the assumptions available for inspection.
4 guides →04 / Build the operating systemWhat breaks when the founder is not there?
Name the bottleneck, the owner and the recovery path. Make decisions, dependencies and security evidence tangible before they become urgent.
4 guides →05 / Keep your optionsWhat kind of company are you financing?
Start with the use of capital and the obligations it creates. Prepare the evidence for a future transaction without making a sale your only plan.
2 guides →Useful work starts with a specific question.
All practical guides ↗Earn customers
Choose the first customer segment by constraint, not charisma
Segment prospects by trigger, workflow, buyer, and budget path, then make the weighting judgment visible instead of declaring an intuitive ICP.
3 min · Practical guide
Read the economics
Retention With the Cohort Intact
A small operating sheet for separating logo retention, gross revenue retention, and net revenue retention without letting new sales repair the past.
3 min · Practical guide
02 / WORK IT THROUGH
Make the assumptions visible.
03 / THE DOCUMENT TRAIL
Less mythology.
More source material.
Read the filing, the dated claim and the constraints around the decision. Archive photographs retain their source credits and pending publication review.
History
A signed contract, not a myth, financed Fairchild's founders
Museum archives date the 1957 resignation and financing, but not a founder equity split.
3 min · 2 source records
History
HP wrote its culture down before it became legend
HP's own archives date a 1957 objectives statement; a proven template for other cultures it is not.
2 min · 2 source records
History
Adobe's founders left PARC over speed, not stolen ideas
Museum records tie Adobe's 1982 founding to one slow project inside Xerox, not a full account of missed PARC bets.
2 min · 2 source records
04 / THE DEEPER NOTEBOOK
The original research stays in view.
Seventeen reader documents, 36 company cases and 53 post-mortem entries. The new guides connect to this foundation without pretending every inherited claim has been freshly verified.
Search the complete library →Explore the 22 sectors →Read the earlier source-checked notes →