Target: an MRR ladder, not one number. The on-plan path reaches $10k MRR full-time or $5k at ~15 hrs/week by month 24, profitable, ≥80% gross margin, ≥80% month-3 retention. The odds of staying on this path are in WHAT-TO-DO-AND-AVOID.md: ~10% full-time, ~11% for $5k at 15 hrs/week.
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: day 30, day 45, day 90
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Customers | 20 agency calls. Daily concierge tests on ~100 real client forms. 5 paying pilots by day 45. |
| Product | Thin v1: WordPress companion plugin (4 form plugins), daily tests from 2 regions, catch-inbox arrival check, passive silence monitoring, failure reasons, multi-client dashboard, white-label monthly report, uptime/SSL/domain/MX basics. |
| Distribution | Free one-off form check. First anonymised "what broke" posts in 2 agency communities. |
| Reliability | Own status page, second-provider watchdog, 7-day alert rota. |
| Pricing | Starter $49, Agency $99, Agency Plus $199 per month. Pilots keep founding pricing for 12 months. |
| Exit | Day 30: ≥1 real failure per ~100 forms. Day 45: 5 paying. Day 90: $1k MRR full-time / $600 at 15 hrs. |
Phase 2: Make it repeatable (Months 4–6) → Gate: month 6
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | Bulk import from WP Umbrella, ManageWP and MainWP exports. Maintenance windows. Alert routing per client. SMS alerts on Agency Plus. |
| Distribution | Companion plugin listed in the WordPress plugin directory (free tier: 3 forms, one site). Founder posts twice a week in agency communities. Referral offer: 1 month free per paid referral. |
| Data | Failure-reason taxonomy from every caught failure. |
| Metrics | Failures caught per 100 forms, false-alarm rate, report forward rate. |
| Exit | $2k MRR full-time / $1.2k at 15 hrs. Month-3 retention ≥80%. ≥60% of agencies forward the report. |
Phase 3: Depth where agencies ask (Months 7–12) → Gate: month 12
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | HubSpot arrival check (then Pipedrive). SPF/DKIM/DMARC checks on form notification senders. 15-minute tests on key forms (Agency Plus). |
| Distribution | First quarterly "silent form failures" report from anonymised data. Guest spots with care-plan coaches and agency communities. |
| Ops | Help center, onboarding emails, cancellation-reason survey. Support ≤2 hrs/week at 15 hrs. |
| Exit | $4k MRR full-time / $2.5k at 15 hrs. Logo churn ≤3%/month. |
Phase 4: Scale the best channel (Months 13–24) → Gate: month 18, month 24
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | Passive monitoring depth for Webflow and Framer forms. One booking-form journey type only if dental and clinic agencies ask. Plain-English failure explanations in reports. |
| Distribution | Double down on the single best channel from months 1–12 (usually agency communities or the plugin directory). Consider one partnership with a care-plan tool or host. |
| Team | A part-time support contractor for alert triage only once the reliability duty exceeds 4 hrs/week. |
| Checkpoint | Month 18: $6.5k MRR full-time / $3.5k at 15 hrs. Missing it means concentrating on the single best channel. |
| Decision at month 24 | Above target: add CRM integrations and a second market. $2–5k: run it profitably at low hours. Below $1k: stop, or sell the plugin and customer list. |
| Exit | $10k+ MRR full-time / $5k+ at 15 hrs, profitable |
Revenue path (illustrative, not a forecast)
| Month | Agency accounts, full-time | MRR, full-time | Agency accounts, ~15 hrs/week | MRR, ~15 hrs/week |
|---|
| 3 | 12 | ~$1k | 8 | ~$600 |
| 6 | 25 | ~$2k | 15 | ~$1.2k |
| 12 | 50 | ~$4k | 31 | ~$2.5k |
| 18 | 80 | ~$6.5k | 44 | ~$3.5k |
| 24 | 125 | ~$10k | 63 | ~$5k |
This assumes a blended ~$80 per agency account (after annual and founding discounts), monthly logo churn of ≤3% after month 6, and ≥40% of new accounts from communities, the plugin directory or referral. If churn runs above 5%, this path doesn't work. Fix the quiet-month problem before spending on growth.
For comparison, Hyperping was at roughly $2.5k/month about 21 months after its first revenue. This path asks for faster growth than a category winner achieved, which is why its odds are low.
Budget guardrails (bootstrapped)
- Hosting, headless browsers, inbound email and the watchdog below 8% of revenue.
- Zero paid acquisition before month 6. After it, only channels with CAC payback under 3 months.
- No spending on status pages, on-call features or uptime check speed at any point.
- Keep 6 months of costs in reserve. The costs are small; the risk is the time.