23 free prompts · all verified
Startup & Strategy prompts
Founder prompts that force rigor — idea validation with real disconfirming questions, pitch-deck narratives, competitive analysis, pricing thinking — instead of cheerleading.
Every prompt lists the exact tool and version it was tested against.
Turn a startup idea into hypotheses a good interview could actually killGenerates falsifiable hypotheses, the cheapest real-world test that could disprove each one, and Mom-Test-style interview questions — so a bad idea gets caught before months of building, not after.ChatGPTClaude2026-08-08Write a JTBD interview script that surfaces the job, not a feature wishlistBuilds a three-phase Jobs-to-be-Done interview script — timeline, forces of progress, desired outcome — anchored to a real past switching moment instead of the interviewee's opinion of your product.ChatGPTClaude2026-08-02Turn raw startup facts into a pitch narrative investors can follow in one skimOrganizes scattered facts into the standard investor narrative arc slide by slide, writing the one sentence each slide must land, and flags any slot the facts genuinely can't support yet instead of inventing content to fill it.ChatGPTClaude2026-08-06Map a competitive landscape by how customers actually choose, not a feature checklistPlaces every competitor — including the status-quo and DIY options a feature matrix always leaves out — on the two axes customers actually weigh, then writes one honestly-checked differentiation sentence.ChatGPTClaude2026-08-04Design pricing tiers around what each segment values, not round numbers copied from a competitorBuilds value-based pricing tiers around a deliberately chosen value metric and an explicit anchor tier, and flags any must-have feature gated behind a higher tier as a deliberate trade-off rather than an accident.ChatGPTClaude2026-08-05Pick a GTM channel by testing cheaply across many, not betting on the obvious oneScores candidate go-to-market channels on fit, cost, and speed to signal rather than raw potential, then builds a pre-committed pass/fail test plan for the top two before any real budget gets spent.ChatGPTClaude2026-08-03Cut a feature wishlist down to the MVP that actually tests your riskiest assumptionReduces a full feature wishlist to the smallest version that tests one specific assumption, with a visible cut list naming what got left out and which assumption it would have tested instead.ChatGPTClaude2026-08-06Write a monthly investor update that gets replies, not silenceTurns raw metrics and notes into a concise investor update — headline numbers first, honest lowlights included, and asks specific enough to actually act on within seconds of opening the email.ChatGPTClaude2026-08-07Get a term sheet clause explained in plain English before you sign anythingWalks through what a term sheet or SAFE clause mechanically does to ownership and payout, with a concrete numeric example — mechanics only, explicitly not legal or investment advice.ClaudeChatGPT2026-08-07Turn a stack of customer discovery notes into patterns you can actually act onSynthesizes raw notes from multiple customer discovery interviews into patterns that repeated at least twice, with verbatim quotes preserved — not one loud opinion mistaken for consensus.ClaudeGemini2026-08-05Audit your product-market-fit signals honestly instead of eyeballing 'traction'Reads survey, retention, and channel-mix data through the Sean Ellis "very disappointed" threshold and retention-curve shape to produce an honest PMF verdict instead of a vibe.ChatGPTClaude2026-08-06Turn your background into a founder-market-fit story investors actually believeBuilds a founder-market-fit narrative from only checkable facts in your background, with an explicit gap-check that refuses to manufacture an unfair advantage that isn't really there.ChatGPTClaude2026-08-07Structure a cofounder equity conversation before resentment forces itTurns each cofounder's actual contributions — time, capital, IP, opportunity cost — into a reasoned equity split proposal with a standard vesting schedule, plus the exact talking points for the conversation nobody wants to have first.ChatGPTClaude2026-08-08Build a one-line positioning statement that survives a follow-up questionRuns April Dunford's five-component positioning method — competitive alternatives, unique attributes, value, best-fit customer, market category — before compressing it into one line, so the punchy version is a distillation, not a copywriting guess.ChatGPTClaude2026-08-05Pick a North Star metric that leads value instead of just reporting revenueSelects a North Star metric that reflects value actually delivered, is owned by a real team, and names a stated countermetric — so it can't be quietly gamed the moment it becomes the thing everyone optimizes for.ChatGPTClaude2026-08-04Find out why customers actually left, not just which canned reason they clickedSynthesizes churned-customer exit notes by categorizing free-text reasons and separating never-activated churn from used-then-quit churn — the two need different fixes, and lumping them together produces mushy insight.ClaudeChatGPT2026-08-03Write a first-hire scorecard before you write the job postingBuilds a Who-style scorecard — mission, measurable outcomes, then competencies — and behavioral interview questions tied to each outcome, so the hiring bar exists in writing before a single resume gets read.ChatGPTClaude2026-08-06Structure a board meeting deck the room can actually use to make decisionsSeparates a board deck into metrics-for-reading versus decisions-needing-input, so the meeting itself is spent on the questions that actually need the board's judgment rather than a live narration of numbers they could have read beforehand.ChatGPTClaude2026-08-05Model runway scenarios with a trigger you'll actually act on, not just a number to watchTurns cash balance, burn, and revenue assumptions into 2-3 runway scenarios with a pre-committed action trigger for each — arithmetic and scenario modeling only, explicitly not financial or investment advice.ChatGPTClaude2026-08-06Define your ideal customer profile from actual deals, not an imagined personaBuilds an ICP from patterns in closed-won deals contrasted against closed-lost and churned ones, expressed as concrete filters a salesperson could apply to a new lead in seconds, not an abstract description.ChatGPTClaude2026-08-04Tighten an accelerator application essay down to specific, checkable claimsRewrites raw application notes into concrete, number-backed answers inside a hard character limit, flagging buzzword phrases and vague market-size claims that reviewers screen out on sight.ChatGPTClaude2026-08-07See what multiple funding rounds actually do to your ownership, not just this oneModels founder dilution across sequential future rounds, including the option-pool refresh mechanic that hits existing shareholders specifically — mechanics and arithmetic only, explicitly not investment advice.ClaudeChatGPT2026-08-08Run a pre-mortem before a big launch instead of a post-mortem after it failsUses Gary Klein's pre-mortem technique — imagining the decision has already failed a year out — to surface risks each team member names independently before groupthink sets in, then converts only the top risks into owned mitigations.ChatGPTClaude2026-08-09
