Coverage of the earliest stage of a company: proving demand, choosing a legal structure, setting terms with a first customer, and raising money from banks, grants or revenue instead of investors. Written for people starting a business alongside a job, and for the advisers guiding them.
CAC is the price of growth; LTV is what a customer pays back — and the ratio between them, timed by payback period, decides whether growth creates or consumes cash.
Priya Vaithilingam · March 13, 2026
Unpaid founder labor is not free — it is deferred compensation financing the company, and it should be a deliberate number, not an accident of guilt.
Tanya Brooks · February 18, 2026
Nobody reads a forty-page plan front to back — the unit of decision is the numbers page, the ask, and the evidence that you know your own churn.
Priya Vaithilingam · January 26, 2026
Validation means strangers paying, not friends praising — here is a staged test that costs weeks instead of years.
Priya Vaithilingam · January 4, 2026