Target: the MRR ladder in WHAT-TO-DO-AND-AVOID.md. The realistic aim is $5–10k MRR at ~15 hrs/week and $20k MRR full-time, profitable at ≥85% gross margin, with ≥70% month-3 retention.
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.
Operating principle: automation first. Every recurring task (layout fixes, search pages, onboarding, support answers) gets a script, a template or a self-serve flow before it gets more hours.
Phase 1: Prove the pain (Months 0–3) → Gates G1, G2
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Customers | 15–30 practitioner calls. Paid design partner signed. 3–10 paid concierge cases. |
| Product | Web v1: case upload, auto-sort, top 30 layouts plus model fallback, balance proof, gap and duplicate detection, row citations, Excel workbook, free 3-page preview, auto-delete. |
| Accuracy | Test corpus of 300 statements from 40+ institutions. Every release must keep the pass rate. |
| Distribution | 30 search pages (use-case first). Security summary. |
| Pricing | Solo $49, Firm $149, Case pass $99. Founding accounts get their price locked for 12 months. |
| Exit | 10 paying (15 hrs/week) / 20 paying (full-time), ≥97% first-run balance pass |
Phase 2: Make it repeatable (Months 4–6) → Gate G3
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | Side-by-side review screen, exceptions queue, password-protected PDFs, "report a bad row" loop into the corpus, audit log, MFA. |
| Distribution | 3 search pages a week (150 total by month 6). A public "does this statement balance?" checker. The first guest article or talk in a professional community. |
| Retention | Annual-plan push at checkout. Case passes for occasional users. A monthly "new layouts" email. |
| Metrics | Hours saved per case (survey), pass rate per institution, organic share of signups. |
| Exit | $1k MRR (15 hrs/week) / $2.5k MRR (full-time), ≥70% month-3 retention, ≥40% of signups organic |
Phase 3: Firm tier and moat (Months 7–12) → Gate G4
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | Firm plan features: 5 seats, cross-account transfer matching, deposits summary, API, client and case labels with a billing export. Brokerage statements (top 10 US brokerages, sectioned). QuickBooks and Xero import files. |
| Accuracy | 300+ saved layouts. Pass rate ≥99% on the top 100 institutions. 48-hour layout-fix promise for Firm accounts. |
| Distribution | 250 search pages. 2–3 talks or articles. A referral offer (1,000 free pages for both sides). |
| Ops | Help center, onboarding videos, a churn-reason survey. Support capped at ~3 hrs a week. |
| Exit | $3k MRR (15 hrs/week) / $7k MRR with 25+ Firm accounts (full-time), churn ≤5% a month |
Phase 4: Scale what works (Months 13–24) → Gate G5
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | Loan and mortgage statements. Payslips only if 5+ paying accounts ask. IIF, OFX and QFX only on paid demand. SOC 2 only if Firm deals stall without it (not before $10k MRR). |
| Distribution | Double down on the best-performing search cluster. 400 pages by month 18. Consider a reseller deal with one practice-management or litigation-support vendor. |
| Pivot B test (optional, full-time only) | If US growth is on track: test one non-English market with 30 pages and a local competitor check. |
| Team | First paid help: a part-time contractor for layout fixes or search pages, not a salesperson. |
| Checkpoint | Month 18: $5k (15 hrs/week) / $13k (full-time). Missing it means concentrating on the single best channel. |
| Exit | $8k MRR (15 hrs/week) / $20k+ MRR profitable (full-time) |
Revenue path (illustrative, not a forecast)
| Month | Paying accounts (15 hrs/week) | MRR (15 hrs/week) | Paying accounts (full-time) | MRR (full-time) |
|---|
| 3 | 10 | ~$0.6k | 20 | ~$1.2k |
| 6 | 18 | ~$1.2k | 38 | ~$2.6k |
| 12 | 45 | ~$3.2k | 100 | ~$7.2k |
| 18 | 72 | ~$5.2k | 180 | ~$13k |
| 24 | 110 | ~$8k | 275 | ~$20k |
This assumes:
- blended ARPU rising from ~$60 (mostly Solo) to ~$73 as Firm accounts grow;
- monthly churn of 4–5% after month 6;
- ≥50% of new accounts from organic search or referral.
For comparison, the comparable was at roughly $1k MRR at month 10 and $4k at month 17, full-time, in a less crowded market (research/10). If churn runs above 8%, this path doesn't work. Fix retention (annual plans, case passes) before publishing more pages.
Budget guardrails (bootstrapped)
- Model, hosting and storage costs below 10% of revenue. The target is ≤5%.
- Zero paid ads before month 9. After that, only a capped test with CAC payback under 3 months. The comparable lost money on ads.
- Design partner: $300–500 a month for months 1–6, then review.
- Keep 6 months of personal runway on the full-time track. If it drops below 3 months, drop to the ~15 hrs/week track rather than cut the accuracy work.
- Cyber insurance once you have Firm accounts (~$100–250 a month, analyst estimate).