Growth Foundations

Growth Foundations

The hub for distribution, go-to-market, and growth. It carries the cross-cutting worldview, defines the shared vocabulary once, and routes every question to the sibling that owns the mechanics. Siblings link back here; do not redefine hub vocabulary in a sibling.

Stance, not neutrality. This suite is opinionated and grounded in named sources. It will refuse certain recommendations (see Guardrails). Take the stance; don't hedge into "it depends" without giving the decision rule.

The worldview (4 stances)

Full treatment with sources, when-it-applies/does-not, decision cue, worked example, and the failure each prevents: [references/worldview.md](references/worldview.md).

1. Distribution-first. A great product with no distribution channel is a bad

business (Thiel & Masters, Zero to One). Distribution and positioning are designed with the product, never bolted on after. "Build it and they will come" is a predictable failure (Kahl, The Embedded Entrepreneur).

1. Niche-monopoly before scale. Win a market small enough to dominate, then

expand (Thiel, Zero to One; Moore's beachhead, Crossing the Chasm). Competing broadly on day one is the error.

1. Traction is a track you run in parallel with product. Spend pursuing

traction roughly equal to spend building product — the 50% rule (Weinberg & Mares, Traction). Product quality does not substitute for a distribution channel.

1. Everything is a cheap test before it is a bet. One channel/feature/claim

at a time, measured, killed fast if no signal (the Bullseye master loop). This loop is the orchestration spine for the whole suite.

The master loop (orchestration spine)

Resolve any growth effort in this order; each step is run as an experiment (growth-experiments cross-cuts all of them):

Position  →  Discover the truth  →  Pick ONE channel  →  [Solve cold start]  →  Build the habit
(who/what)   (is the problem real)   (Bullseye)            (only if a network)    (retention)

You cannot pick a channel for a product you cannot describe (positioning first), and you cannot trust a channel test built on a fictional problem (discovery before spend). Skip "solve cold start" only if the product has no network effect.

Decision tree — route the question

Identify what the question is really about, then hand off:

What is the question really about?

├─ Who is this for? What is it? What category? "Nobody understands what we do."
│   Naming, framing, competitive comparison, the pitch.
│      → growth-positioning           (Obviously Awesome 5+1; Crossing the Chasm)
│
├─ Is the problem real? What do users actually do? How do I interview / find
│   an audience / build in public / know I'm building the right thing?
│      → growth-customer-discovery    (The Mom Test; The Embedded Entrepreneur)
│
├─ How do I get users? Which channel? No growth. CAC too high. Marketing plan.
│      → growth-traction-channels     (Traction 19 channels + Bullseye)
│
├─ Marketplace / social / multi-sided / community won't start. Chicken-and-egg.
│   "It works for me but new users see an empty room."
│      → growth-network-effects       (The Cold Start Problem)
│
├─ Users try once and leave. No retention. How do I make this a habit / a
│   recurring engagement loop?
│      → growth-habit-loops           (Hooked; Fogg Behavior Model)
│
└─ How do I test / prioritize this? What metric? Is it working? Am I ready to
    scale? "Our numbers are up" (but which numbers?).
       → growth-experiments          (cross-cuts all; Traction test-cheaply)

If several apply, follow the master-loop order above. Every branch is
ultimately executed through growth-experiments.

Guardrails (Claude refuses these, with the cited reason)

State the refusal and the source; offer the correct next step instead.

• Won't recommend scaling a channel with no traction signal. Cite the

Bullseye discipline and the 50% rule (Traction). Correct step: design a cheap inner-ring test first (growth-traction-channels).

• Won't recommend scaling a network with no atomic network yet. Cite the

atomic-network requirement (The Cold Start Problem). Correct step: seed and saturate one smallest viable network (growth-network-effects).

• Won't endorse "build it and they will come." Cite Zero to One

(distribution thesis) and The Embedded Entrepreneur (audience-first).

• Won't treat vanity metrics as a success signal. Cite growth-experiments;

demand a North Star / one-metric-that-matters tied to value delivered.

• Won't broaden the target before the niche is dominated. Cite *Zero to

One and Crossing the Chasm* (beachhead).

Shared vocabulary

Defined once here; siblings use these exactly and do not redefine them. Full definitions with sources: [references/vocabulary.md](references/vocabulary.md).

Distribution channel · Traction (vs. product) · 50% rule · Monopoly / niche-monopoly · Power law (of returns and of distribution) · CAC · CLV/LTV · Bullseye (inner/middle/outer ring) · Beachhead / whole product · Atomic network · Hard side · Positioning · North Star / one-metric-that-matters · Traction signal · Premature scaling · Habit Zone.

Cross-cutting anti-patterns

Suite-wide failures (each sibling adds its own narrower catalog). Full catalog: [references/anti-patterns.md](references/anti-patterns.md).

1. Building before distribution is designed.
2. Scaling before a traction signal / before an atomic network.
3. Diversifying channels early instead of focusing the ONE that works.
4. Vanity metrics standing in for value delivered.
5. Broad-market positioning before niche domination.
6. Treating customer interviews as pitches (contaminating the data).

Worked example (running, illustrative — not a product spec)

vai-nascer-v2 (pregnancy/baby; network-member access tied to the pregnant woman's subscription/trial). A growth question — "should we run ads?" — routes: positioning is undefined ("a pregnancy app" is a category, not a position) → growth-positioning first. Only then is "the pregnant woman in her first trimester, in Brazil" a beachhead a channel test can target. Jumping straight to ads violates the master loop and Guardrail 1.

family-agent (Android app + .NET backend). "Which channel?" with zero users is a Bullseye question (growth-traction-channels), but "do families even want this?" is a discovery question (growth-customer-discovery) and must precede channel spend.

See also (siblings — built after this hub is approved)

• growth-traction-channels — Traction's 19 channels + Bullseye operations.
• growth-positioning — Obviously Awesome 5+1; Crossing the Chasm.
• growth-habit-loops — Hooked Hook Model; Fogg; Manipulation Matrix.
• growth-customer-discovery — The Mom Test; The Embedded Entrepreneur.
• growth-network-effects — The Cold Start Problem.
• growth-experiments — cheap prioritized tests; North Star metric.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: williancesar
• Source: williancesar/saasoned
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.