Target: the MRR ladder in WHAT-TO-DO-AND-AVOID.md. Month-24 plan: $5k MRR at ~15 hrs/week, $10k MRR full-time, profitable, ≥80% gross margin, ≥70% month-3 retention. The portfolio's $20k Tier B target is a stretch here (~3% / ~6%).
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.
The roadmap is built for limited hours per week: sell by hand first, automate what repeats, and cap the connector count so upkeep stays small.
Phase 1: Prove the pain (Months 0–3) → Gates G1, G2
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Customers | 12–15 agency owner calls. Hand-built booked-jobs reports for 3–5 paying agencies. |
| Product | v1: Google Ads with LSA leads, CallRail, Jobber. Phone-number matching with an unmatched queue. One template, white-label PDF and link, a contractor-language summary, pre-send data-gap checks. |
| Access | Google Ads API developer token (Explorer, then Basic). Jobber developer app. |
| Distribution | 5 niche guides. The free one-off booked-jobs report from CSVs. |
| Pricing | $19 per client per month, $99 minimum. Founding agencies $15 per client, locked 12 months. |
| Exit | ~15 hrs/week: 5 paying agencies. Full-time: 8. ≥60% match rate. |
Phase 2: Make it repeatable (Months 4–6) → Gate G3
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | Housecall Pro connector (confirm access terms first). Year-on-year comparison. The "leads you didn't book" page. Connector health page. |
| Distribution | Jobber App Marketplace listing (if accepted). 2 partnerships with home-services agency communities or coaches. Referral offer: 1 month free per paying referral. |
| Ops | Docs for every connector error. Templated support replies. Self-serve client OAuth links. |
| Metrics | Match rate, saves reported by agencies, reports sent per agency. |
| Exit | $750 MRR (~15 hrs/week) / $1.2k (full-time), ≥70% match rate, ≥70% M3 retention |
Phase 3: Depth, not breadth (Months 7–12) → Gate G4
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | Meta Ads and Google Business Profile connectors (connector 5 and 6, the cap until $5k MRR). Agency roll-up view with at-risk clients. Job-type breakdown. Quoted vs sold vs collected revenue. |
| Distribution | First quarterly "cost per booked job by trade" benchmark (with consent). 20 niche guides in total. |
| Ops | Churn-reason survey. Onboarding emails. Pre-send checks tuned from real failures. |
| Exit | $2k MRR (~15 hrs/week) / $3.5k (full-time), ≤3% monthly churn |
Phase 4: Scale what works (Months 13–24) → Gate G5
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | GA4 and Search Console (table stakes for agencies that also do SEO). WhatConverts or CallTrackingMetrics as an alternative call source, if paying agencies ask. |
| Distribution | Double down on the single best source of agencies from months 1–12. |
| Expansion test | A second niche on the same engine (e.g. roofing agencies on JobNimbus), only after the month-18 checkpoint. |
| Team | Part-time support contractor only if support passes ~5 hours a week. |
| Checkpoint | Month 18: $3.5k MRR (~15 hrs/week) / $6.5k (full-time). Missing it means concentrating on the single best channel. |
| Exit | $5k MRR (~15 hrs/week) / $10k (full-time), profitable |
Revenue path (illustrative, not a forecast)
| Month | Paying agencies (~15 hrs/week) | MRR (~15 hrs/week) | Paying agencies (full-time) | MRR (full-time) |
|---|
| 3 | 5 | ~$550 | 8 | ~$900 |
| 6 | 6 | ~$750 | 10 | ~$1.2k |
| 12 | 13 | ~$2k | 22 | ~$3.5k |
| 18 | 20 | ~$3.5k | 35 | ~$6.5k |
| 24 | 26 | ~$5k | 50 | ~$10k |
This assumes blended revenue per agency rising from ~$110 (founding prices, few clients) to ~$200 (about 11 clients at list price, after annual discounts), monthly churn of about 3% after month 6, and ≥40% of trials from organic, marketplace or referral sources. If churn runs above 5%, this path doesn't work. Fix retention before spending on growth.
Budget guardrails (bootstrapped)
- Hosting, AI summaries, PDF and email, and tools below 10% of revenue. Target under $0.10 of AI cost per report.
- Six connectors maximum until $5k MRR. No connector added for a single prospect.
- Zero paid acquisition before the month-6 checkpoint. After it, only channels with CAC payback under 3 months (DashThis reported ~3 months on a ~$450 blended CAC in 2022).
- Keep connector upkeep below 30% of your hours. If it passes 40% for two months, stop new features and stabilise.