Target: the MRR ladder in WHAT-TO-DO-AND-AVOID.md. The plan below aims at ~$7k MRR at ~15 hrs/week and ~$13k full-time by month 24, with the $20k rung (Tier B) as the stretch.
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 and list the app (Months 0–3) → Gates at day 30 and day 90
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Customers | 12–15 buyer calls. 3–5 paid concierge evidence packs. Check what Vanta and Drata already cover. |
| Product | Forge-only v1: event capture, resumable backfill, required-path setting, exceptions report, seeded sample, XLSX and PDF export with a hash. |
| Distribution | Marketplace listing with audit-first copy. 3 guides on audit search terms. |
| Pricing | $1.50 / $0.75 / $0.30 / $0.15 per user per month by tier. Annual at 10× monthly. Design partners get their first year at a discount. |
| Exit | Listed, 3–5 paying sites, 20–30 trials |
Phase 2: Make it retain (Months 4–6) → Month-6 gate
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | Monthly control check (in Jira, plus a Confluence page option). A dashboard gadget for open exceptions. Emergency-change window. Data completeness section in every pack. |
| Distribution | 4 more guides. 2 Atlassian Community articles. Review requests at day 30 of paid use. |
| Platform | Rate-limit monitoring. Apply for a Tier 2 per-tenant quota when the pattern is clear. |
| Metrics | Activation (first exception within 24 hours), trial-to-paid, retention after each customer's audit. |
| Exit | $1k MRR (~15 hrs/week) or $1.5k (full-time), ≥25% trial-to-paid |
Phase 3: Second line and trust (Months 7–12) → Month-12 gate
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | SLA and approval-time evidence for audited service desks (JSM). Control-mapping labels (SOC 2, ISO 27001, SOX wording only). Linked-evidence check (PR or deploy link) if the APIs allow it on Forge. |
| Distribution | Partner programme for audit-readiness consultants. Comparison page against generic history exports. |
| Trust | Security questionnaire answer set. Start the app's own security self-assessment once there are 50 paying sites. |
| Ops | Help centre, templated replies, in-app guidance for every common ticket. |
| Exit | $2.5k MRR (~15 hrs/week) or $4k (full-time), ≤3% monthly logo churn, 10–15+ reviews |
Phase 4: Scale what works (Months 13–24) → Month-18 and month-24 gates
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | Point-in-time snapshots and a hash-chained audit log (within storage limits). Opt-in scheduled email or Slack delivery for admins who accept the egress trade-off. |
| Distribution | Double down on the single best trial source from months 1–12. |
| Decision (month 18) | A second app on the same evidence engine (Confluence page-history evidence, or JSM) only if churn is ≤3% and support is automated. |
| Checkpoint | Month 18: $4.5k (~15 hrs/week) or $8k (full-time). A miss means concentrating on the best channel and stopping new features. |
| Decision (month 24) | At or above target: keep going for the $20k rung in year 3. $1–7k: run it as a profitable app, or prepare it for sale. Below $1k: stop, or sell it. |
| Exit | ~$7k MRR (~15 hrs/week) or ~$13k (full-time), profitable |
Revenue path (illustrative, not a forecast)
| Month | Paying sites (~15 hrs/week) | MRR (~15 hrs/week) | Paying sites (full-time) | MRR (full-time) |
|---|
| 3 | 3 | ~$250 | 5 | ~$400 |
| 6 | 13 | ~$1k | 19 | ~$1.5k |
| 12 | 31 | ~$2.5k | 50 | ~$4k |
| 18 | 56 | ~$4.5k | 100 | ~$8k |
| 24 | 88 | ~$7k | 163 | ~$13k |
| Tier B stretch | — | — | ~250 | ~$20k |
This assumes a blended ~$80 per paying site, monthly logo churn of 2–3% after month 6, trial-to-paid of ~25–30%, and trials growing from ~20 a month (month 4) to ~50–70 a month (month 24, full-time). None of these rates are verified. If churn runs above 4%, the path doesn't work. Fix retention before adding features.
Budget guardrails (bootstrapped)
- Forge platform costs, tools and domains below 3% of revenue. Atlassian's revenue share stays at 0% until $1M lifetime Forge revenue.
- No LLM features in v1. Forge LLM usage has no free allowance.
- Zero paid acquisition before the month-6 checkpoint. After it, only content and partner work with a clear trial source.
- Support ≤1 ticket per 10 paying sites a month. Above that, stop feature work and write docs.
- Keep a buffer week each quarter for platform changes (rate limits, Forge deprecations, Marketplace policy).