Target: an MRR ladder. $5k MRR at ~15 hrs/week, $10k full-time, and $20k as the stretch. Profitable, ≥80% gross margin, ≤2.5% monthly revenue churn after month 6.
Rule: nothing in a later phase starts until the current phase's gate is hit. The gates and pivot rules are in WHAT-TO-DO-AND-AVOID.md. Days 1–90 are detailed in 08-90-day-plan.md.
Phase 1: Prove they'll pay instead of using the library (Months 0–3) → Gates day 21, day 90
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Customers | 10–15 discovery calls. 3 paying design partners on a concierge service. |
| Product | v1 API: JSON → ZUGFeRD EN 16931 hybrid PDF + XRechnung CII, validate endpoint, readable errors, 3 templates, EU hosting, DPA, docs in German and English. |
| Distribution | Free public validator and playground. 10 search pages. Answer questions in Mustang and horstoeko GitHub issues and on German developer forums. |
| Team | Paid German tax adviser or e-invoicing consultant review. German-language writer if needed. |
| Pricing | Founding price locked for 12 months. Then €29 / €79 / €199. |
| Exit | Full-time: 15 paying, $1k MRR. ~15 hrs/week: 10 paying, $500 MRR. |
Phase 2: The second recurring job (Months 4–6) → Gate month 6
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | Inbound parsing (XRechnung / ZUGFeRD / UBL → JSON), a readable rendering of received XRechnung, credit notes, batch endpoint, XRechnung UBL. |
| Reliability | Automated watch on rule releases, a regression suite of 100+ reference invoices, status page, month-end load test. |
| Distribution | Stripe webhook guide plus an open-source Stripe → EN 16931 mapping helper. Aim for 20 search pages. |
| Metrics | Revenue churn with a stated cancellation reason. Validator-to-signup conversion. Invalid-document escapes (must stay 0). |
| Exit | Full-time: $2.5k MRR. ~15 hrs/week: $1.2k MRR. Revenue churn ≤3%/mo. |
Phase 3: Channels that compound (Months 7–12) → Gate month 12
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | Stripe connector (hosted), then a Stripe App Marketplace listing (month 9). Agency multi-brand plan. Java and .NET SDKs. |
| Distribution | 3 agency partners (20% recurring referral). Laravel or Shopware plugin if agencies ask. MCP server for AI coding agents. |
| Sales | Scale plan for vertical software vendors: at most 1 call a week. |
| Ops | Help centre in German and English, onboarding emails, annual-plan push. |
| Exit | Full-time: $5k MRR, ≥40% of signups from the validator or search. ~15 hrs/week: $2.5k MRR. |
Phase 4: Second country or deeper Germany (Months 13–24) → Gates month 18, month 24
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | Decision at month 13. If German signups are still growing ≥10% a quarter, go deeper: EXTENDED profile, archive with integrity hash (after adviser sign-off), receiving inbox. If they have flattened, add Factur-X for France, and later Peppol sending via a partner access point for Belgium. |
| Distribution | Double down on the single best channel from months 1–12. Content ahead of the 1 Jan 2028 German deadline for everyone, which is the second demand wave. |
| Team | First paid help: a part-time support person who reads German, not another engineer, unless support load demands it. |
| Month 18 | Full-time: $8k MRR. ~15 hrs/week: $4k MRR. |
| Month 24 | Full-time: $10k+ MRR (stretch $20k). ~15 hrs/week: $5k+ MRR. At ≥$3k with churn ≤3%: keep running it profitably. It's a sellable asset (DocRaptor precedent). |
Revenue path (illustrative, not a forecast)
| Month | Full-time: customers | Full-time: MRR | ~15 hrs/week: customers | ~15 hrs/week: MRR |
|---|
| 3 | 15 | ~$1k | 8 | ~$500 |
| 6 | 35 | ~$2.5k | 17 | ~$1.2k |
| 12 | 70 | ~$5k | 35 | ~$2.5k |
| 18 | 110 | ~$8k | 55 | ~$4k |
| 24 | 135 | ~$10k | 67 | ~$5k |
| Stretch (24) | 270 | ~$20k | — | — |
Assumptions:
- Blended ARPA ~$75.
- Monthly revenue churn ≤2.5% after month 6, with small expansion from volume growth.
- ≥50% of signups from organic sources.
- The ceiling test: $10k at 2.5% churn needs ~$250 a month of replacement MRR, plus growth. $20k needs ~$1,000–1,300 of new MRR a month by months 18–24 (about 13–17 new customers a month).
If churn runs above 4%, this path doesn't work. Fix the buyer mix before spending on growth.
Budget guardrails (bootstrapped)
- Hosting, validation compute, storage and email below 5% of revenue. Merchant-of-record and payment fees about 5–6%.
- One-off costs before month 3: tax adviser review, terms reviewed by a lawyer, professional indemnity insurance. Keep them under ~€3k (estimate).
- Zero paid acquisition before month 6. After that, only channels with payback under 2 months.
- No certification projects (Peppol access point, French PA, ISO 27001) inside the 24 months.
- Keep 6 months of costs in reserve. They're small, so this is easy, and it covers a mandate delay.