Target: Tier B is $20k+ MRR (≈ $250k ARR), profitable, ≥80% gross margin, ≥70% month-3 retention by month 24. Realistic plan targets: ~$12k MRR full-time and ~$6k MRR at ~15 hrs/week (odds in WHAT-TO-DO-AND-AVOID.md).
Rule: nothing in a later phase starts until the current phase's gate is hit. Gates and pivot rules are in WHAT-TO-DO-AND-AVOID.md. The detail for days 1–90 is in 08-90-day-plan.md.
Phase 1: Prove the pain (Months 0–3) → Gates G0 (day 45), G1 (day 90)
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Customers | RCIC partner signed. 12–20 discovery calls. Hands-on compliance setup for 3–5 paying firms at CA$99/month. Day-45 kill test. |
| Product | Web v1, Canadian hosting: section-24 agreement builder with e-signature, client-account ledger with the 30-day flag, status-update log, 3 program checklists, client portal, file export. |
| Distribution | Free service-agreement checker. 5 search pages on the rules. |
| Pricing | Solo CA$89, Practice CA$179, Firm CA$349. Pilots get founding pricing locked for 12 months. |
| Exit | 6 paying firms (12 full-time), every new file in the app |
Phase 2: Make it repeatable (Months 4–6) → Gate G2
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | Self-serve import wizard (spreadsheets, Drive, Officio and Clio exports). Invoice builder with section-33 rules. Deadline tracker. |
| Distribution | Register outreach within CASL, 2 emails a week per province. 10 more search pages. One association or CPD provider conversation. Referral offer. |
| Ops | Recorded demo, help center, weekly office hours in Canadian afternoon hours. |
| Metrics | Per-firm outcomes: hours per file, days to a complete document set, ledger flags, exports. |
| Exit | $2k MRR full-time / $1k at ~15 hrs/week, churn ≤2%, ≥30% of trials from search or referral |
Phase 3: Depth for Practice and Firm plans (Months 7–12) → Gate G3
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | Roles and staff-supervision log (s.38), concurrent-representative check, 4 more program checklists, multilingual intake (2–3 languages pilots ask for), QuickBooks CSV export. |
| Distribution | Publish a yearly "RCIC practice compliance checklist" guide. Speak at one association or CPD session. |
| Data | Anonymised benchmarks across firms (time to complete document sets by program), only with consent. |
| Ops | Churn-reason survey that separates closures from switches. |
| Exit | $5k MRR full-time / $2.5k at ~15 hrs/week, ≥50% on annual |
Phase 4: Scale what works (Months 13–24) → Gate G4
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | French and Quebec (Law 25) if Quebec demand is proven. IMM form help only if pilots rank it top 3. AI document sorting, capped per file. |
| Distribution | Double down on the single best channel from months 1–12. |
| Team | First hire: part-time onboarding and support in Canadian hours, not another developer. |
| Checkpoint | Month 18: $8.5k MRR full-time / $4k at ~15 hrs/week. Missing it means raising revenue per firm before chasing new firms. |
| Decision at month 24 | Above $10k: keep running it profitably, and test Australian registered migration agents with one pilot. Below $3k: stop, or sell the customer base to a rival. |
| Exit | $12k+ MRR full-time / $6k at ~15 hrs/week, profitable |
Revenue path (illustrative, not a forecast)
Blended ~US$95 per firm per month after annual discounts.
| Month | Firms (full-time) | MRR (full-time) | Firms (~15 hrs/week) | MRR (~15 hrs/week) |
|---|
| 3 | 12 | ~$1.1k | 6 | ~$0.6k |
| 6 | 21 | ~$2k | 11 | ~$1k |
| 12 | 53 | ~$5k | 26 | ~$2.5k |
| 18 | 90 | ~$8.5k | 42 | ~$4k |
| 24 | 126 | ~$12k | 63 | ~$6k |
| Tier B | ~210 | ~$20k | — | not realistic |
This assumes ≤2% monthly logo churn after month 6 (closures included), ≥50% of trials from search or referral, and onboarding under 1 founder hour per firm after firm #20. If churn runs above 4%, the full-time path tops out near $8k. Fix retention and program focus before spending on growth.
Budget guardrails (bootstrapped)
- Hosting, storage, e-signature, email and SMS, and capped AI below 10% of revenue.
- RCIC advisor retainer or equity agreed in writing before the first sale.
- Zero paid acquisition before the month-6 checkpoint. After it, only channels with CAC payback under 3 months.
- Keep 12 months of personal runway at all times. If it falls below 6 months, cut to the core (agreements, ledger, status log) and the best channel.