Playbook
What to do, and what to avoid.
Practical guides from launching our own products and putting AI to work. Free to read, whether or not we ever work together.
Guides
Latest from the Playbook
How to validate a startup idea before you build anything
AI has made code cheap. Knowing what not to build is now the expensive part. A practical, step-by-step way to test demand for your idea before spending on development.
Read the guide →
How small businesses can start using AI (without wasting money)
You don't need to understand AI to benefit from it. A practical guide to finding where AI saves your business time, testing it cheaply and avoiding the common traps.
Read the guide →
On-device AI vs cloud AI: how to choose for your app
Where your AI runs shapes your costs, your privacy story and your pricing more than any feature does. What we learned shipping 22 on-device models in HAVEN.
Read the guide →
7 MVP mistakes that sink startups (and how to avoid them)
Most MVPs fail from doing too much, not too little. The mistakes we see founders make again and again, and what to do instead.
Read the guide →
The hidden costs of running an app after launch
Launching is a one-time cost. Running an app is forever. A checklist of the ongoing costs founders forget, and how to keep them under control.
Read the guide →
Regional pricing for apps: why one global price leaves money on the table
A single price quietly excludes most of the world. How tiered regional pricing works, why Finvex uses it, and how to set it up for your app.
Read the guide →
Privacy-first app design: lessons from building a children's app
In sensitive categories, how you handle data decides whether people trust you at all. What building Talkable taught us about designing for privacy from day one.
Read the guide →
How we build
The process behind every product
The same five stages we use on our own products and with every venture partner.
- 01
Validate
Talk to real customers, map the alternatives, test willingness to pay and cut the idea down to the smallest product worth building. This is where we say no to the wrong ideas, including our own.
- 02
Design
Workflows, pricing and monetization, where AI genuinely helps, and an architecture that won't need rebuilding at the first sign of traction.
- 03
Build and launch
A focused MVP with sign-in, payments, analytics and the compliance basics, then store submission and a launch that's ready for real customers.
- 04
Find traction
Onboarding, activation and conversion. We set up the launch infrastructure and advise on growth while you lead sales and customers.
- 05
Improve and scale
Metrics-driven iteration, cost control as usage grows, and a roadmap shaped by what customers actually do.
Have an idea worth building together?
Tell us about the problem, the customer and why you're the right person to solve it. We read every application ourselves.