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47 project types

What you can do with Groundwork

You didn't need a technical co-founder to build it — AI got you there. Turning it into an actual business is the part no prompt can do: the legal structure, the real financial model, the go-to-market plan. And at this point you don't know what you don't know — you're not missing the answers, you're missing the right questions to ask yourself.

Each project type below is one of those question paths, covering a domain most first-time founders have never had to think through. You work through it with AI that builds deep context about your specific situation, and it ends in the real artifact — a document, a financial model, a deck, a wireframe set — or, at the big forks in the road, a decision you can defend.

Foundational

The founder's path — the things every company has to get right, roughly in the order they come up.

Business PlanningDecision

Which Idea Do I Pursue?

Choose which of your ideas deserves the next year of your life — founder fit, reachable customers, and honest excitement, compared side by side.

13 steps · ends in a decision

Business PlanningDecision

Quit Your Job or Nights-and-Weekends?

Decide whether to go all-in on your startup or build it nights-and-weekends — what the leap actually costs, what staying actually costs, and what would have to be true either way.

13 steps · ends in a decision

Business PlanningDecision

Solo or Cofounder?

Decide whether to build alone or bring on a cofounder — what you actually need, what half your company costs, and what the right plan looks like either way.

13 steps · ends in a decision

LegalDecision

Incorporate Now — and As What?

Decide whether it's time to incorporate, and what to form — LLC, C-corp, or your home-country equivalent — based on what you're actually doing, not startup folklore.

12 steps · ends in a decision

Legal

Founder Agreement

Work through equity, vesting, IP ownership, roles, and what happens if someone leaves — before those conversations become awkward or costly.

25 steps · ends in a document

Marketing

Customer Persona

Build a sharp, evidence-based profile of the specific person who buys and uses your product — so anyone on your team knows exactly who you're building for.

20 steps · ends in a document

Business Planning

Value Proposition

Articulate exactly what your product does, for whom, and why it's worth paying for — with enough precision to use in a pitch, a landing page, or a sales conversation.

19 steps · ends in a document

Business Planning

Value Prop Canvas

Turn your Value Proposition work into a shareable visual — a one-page canvas mapping your customer's jobs, pains, and gains against your product's features, pain relievers, and gain creators.

13 steps · ends in a wireframe set

Marketing

Name Your Startup

Choose a name you can defend, spell out loud, and actually own — working from positioning criteria rather than word games, with live domain checks on the shortlist.

20 steps · ends in a document

Product Design

Product Validation

Test whether your product idea is worth building before you build it — with a clear validation plan and a landing-page wireframe to test demand with.

18 steps · ends in a wireframe set

Business Planning

Market Segmentation

Identify which markets you could serve, narrow to the segment most worth pursuing first, and build the case for why that's the right beachhead.

19 steps · ends in a document

Marketing

Competitive Positioning

Map your competitive landscape, find the position that's genuinely yours to own, and build the case for why your approach beats the alternatives for the customers who matter most.

19 steps · ends in a document

Marketing

Competitive Map

Turn your Competitive Positioning work into a shareable visual — a 2×2 map so you, your team, and your investors can see exactly where you stand and why your position is defensible.

12 steps · ends in a wireframe set

Business Planning

Business Model

Define how your business creates, delivers, and captures value — with a clear model you can test, stress-test, and communicate to investors or partners.

20 steps · ends in a document

Business Planning

Business Model Canvas

Turn your Business Model work into a shareable visual — the classic 9-block canvas showing how all the parts connect, ready to share with co-founders, investors, or advisors.

15 steps · ends in a wireframe set

Product Design

MVP Scope

Define what your minimum viable product actually is — the smallest thing you can ship to test your core hypothesis with real customers.

19 steps · ends in a document

Product Design

MVP Scope Matrix

Turn your MVP Scope work into a shareable visual — a prioritized matrix plotting each feature by value vs. effort, so the right cuts to make before you start building are obvious.

12 steps · ends in a wireframe set

Legal

Privacy Policy

Think through what data you collect, how you use it, and who you share it with — and produce a privacy policy tailored to your product, not a generic paste job.

18 steps · ends in a document

Legal

Terms of Service

Work through what you're offering, what users can and can't do, and where your liability ends — and produce terms that actually fit your product.

19 steps · ends in a document

Marketing

Go-to-Market Strategy

Define how you'll reach and convert your first meaningful customer cohort — with a clear channel strategy, a sales motion, and a realistic path from zero to traction.

20 steps · ends in a document

Finance

Financial Modeling

Build a financial model that reflects your actual business — revenue drivers, cost structure, hiring plan, and runway — not a generic spreadsheet template.

19 steps · ends in a financial model

FinanceDecision

Bootstrap or Raise?

Decide whether to fund your startup with customer revenue or investor money — what each path demands, what it costs you, and which one your business can actually support.

14 steps · ends in a decision

Business Planning

Pitch Preparation

Structure your investor pitch — nail the narrative, sharpen the story, and build a slide deck that gets meetings and closes rounds.

18 steps · ends in a slide deck

Ongoing

The work that recurs — run these whenever the situation calls for it.

Marketing

Annual Marketing Plan & Marketing Hire Brief

A retrospective on a year of founder-led marketing, a forward plan for the next one, and — if it's time — a hiring brief for your first marketing hire.

19 steps · ends in a document

Marketing

Case Study

Interview a happy customer the right way and turn it into a case study with a real narrative arc — not a generic 'increased efficiency by 30%' quote.

17 steps · ends in a document

Marketing

Comparison / Alternative Page

A 'you vs. them' or '[competitor] alternative' page built on real differences, not spin — structured for search and for a reader who already knows the competitor well.

16 steps · ends in a document

Product Design

Competitive Teardown

Tear down how real, shipped products handle a specific feature or flow — pattern by pattern — and turn it into an opinionated brief of what to adopt, adapt, and deliberately avoid.

17 steps · ends in a document

Legal

Contractor / Freelancer Agreement

Work out IP assignment, confidentiality, and payment terms before a contractor or agency starts — so ownership of what they build for you is never in question.

17 steps · ends in a document

Product Design

Customer Interview

Prepare for a customer interview that actually changes what you think — with sharp questions, the right framing, and a synthesis doc you can act on.

16 steps · ends in a document

Legal

Data Incident / Breach Response Readiness

A concrete incident response plan — what counts as reportable, who owns the response, and your notification obligations — built before you need it, not improvised during one.

18 steps · ends in a document

Legal

Data Processing Agreement (DPA)

Turn your Privacy Policy decisions into a DPA that satisfies enterprise procurement and security review — subprocessors, data location, breach notification, and audit rights.

18 steps · ends in a document

Legal

Employee Offer Letter & Equity Terms

Turn a hiring decision into a specific offer — equity, vesting, at-will terms, and IP assignment — for your first employee hire, not a contractor.

18 steps · ends in a document

Product Design

Feature Design

Turn a feature idea into a clear design brief and a complete design — covering flows, edge cases, and the key UX decisions.

20 steps · ends in a wireframe set

Business PlanningDecision

First Hire: Employee, Contractor, or Wait?

Decide whether the work piling up needs your first employee, a contractor, or a process fix — before you take on payroll and everything that comes with it.

12 steps · ends in a decision

Business Planning

Hiring Brief

Get clear on what you're actually hiring for before you post anything — and produce a job description and scorecard you can use to evaluate candidates consistently.

17 steps · ends in a document

Finance

Investor Update

Write an investor update that's actually worth reading — clear on what moved, honest about what didn't, and specific about what you need.

16 steps · ends in a document

Marketing

Landing Page Copy & Messaging

Turn your persona and positioning work into landing page copy that converts — hero, proof, objections, and CTA, built from what you actually know about your buyer, not a generic template.

18 steps · ends in a working prototype

Marketing

Launch Kit

Turn your GTM plan into an actual launch: channel-specific copy for Product Hunt, Hacker News, and X, sequenced into a launch-day plan you can execute without freezing.

18 steps · ends in a document

Business PlanningDecision

Pivot, Persevere, or Shut It Down?

The honest post-launch reckoning — read your traction for what it actually says, and decide whether to keep pushing, change course, or call it.

14 steps · ends in a decision

Marketing

Pricing Page & Objection-Handling

Turn your Business Model and Value Proposition decisions into pricing-page copy and an FAQ that pre-empts real objections — not just a table of tiers.

17 steps · ends in a document

Marketing

Re-engagement & Win-back Campaign

A targeted win-back campaign for churned or dormant users — segmented by why they left, sequenced so it doesn't read as desperate, built to re-run for each new cohort.

17 steps · ends in a document

Marketing

Retention & Lifecycle Messaging Map

Map your users' lifecycle — activation, habit, renewal, churn risk — to specific messaging triggers, so retention becomes a system instead of a single onboarding email.

18 steps · ends in a document

Marketing

SEO Content Brief

A tight, repeatable brief for your next article — the reader's real question, the competitive content gap, and an outline built to rank and convert, not just fill a content calendar.

16 steps · ends in a document

FinanceDecision

Take the Accelerator Offer?

Evaluate a specific accelerator or incubator offer — what the equity really costs, what the program really delivers, and whether it's right for this company right now.

12 steps · ends in a decision

Business PlanningDecision

Take the Big Custom Deal?

A customer is waving real money for custom work. Decide whether it funds the roadmap or becomes the roadmap — before you say yes.

12 steps · ends in a decision

LegalDecision

Term Sheet & Financing Terms Prep

Break down a term sheet's actual terms — valuation, pro-rata rights, board seats, protective provisions — before you sign anything, so you know what you're giving up and what's negotiable.

12 steps · ends in a decision

Legal

Terms/Privacy Policy Update Review

A focused review for when a product change touches data collection or usage — what specifically needs to change in your existing Terms of Service or Privacy Policy, not a full rewrite.

16 steps · ends in a document

Start with whichever one is on fire.

You don't have to work the path in order. Pick the project that matches the decision in front of you — the context you build carries across all of them.

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