Startup Launch Decision Checklist: Go / No-Go Framework
Authors: ['henu-wang']
Year: 2026
Methodology
- Design: qualitative
- Data: Practitioner expertise, KeepRule Scenarios
Factors Extracted (9)
Problem Validation (Customer Interviews) [moderate] — 30+ potential customers interviewed
Problem Frequency [moderate] — Daily/weekly occurrence
Solution Advantage [moderate] — 10x better than alternatives
Market Size (TAM) [weak] — > $1B
Market Size (SAM) [weak] — > $100M
Market Growth [weak] — 10%+ annually
Unit Economics (LTV/CAC) [moderate] — > 3 ratio
Gross Margins [moderate] — > 50% for software
Defensible Moat [moderate] — Network effects, IP, data, or brand
Key Findings
- A structured scoring system (0-2 points per criteria) across 9 sections is proposed to quantify launch readiness.
- Successful launches require validation across multiple dimensions: Problem, Solution, Market, Competition, and Business Model.
- Specific quantitative benchmarks (e.g., 30+ interviews, $1B TAM, 3:1 LTV/CAC) are used as heuristic thresholds for a 'Go' decision.
Limitations
- The source is a practitioner-generated checklist (Gist) rather than a peer-reviewed study.
- Benchmarks like '$1B TAM' are common VC tropes and may not apply to all successful business models.
- The scoring is subjective (0-2 scale) and relies on the founder's own assessment of 'evidence'.
Extracted by lib/ingest/literature_review.py via gemini-flash