PRE-BUILD DUE DILIGENCE / v1.0

Audit the story. Expose the hidden advantages. Reconstruct the economics. Decide before you build.

A 15-tab Google Sheets decision system that turns a SaaS success story, founder thread, or product opportunity into source-backed evidence — so you know whether it's worth validating before you spend a year of your life on it.

15 interconnected tabs 100-claim ledger Evidence-class tagging 30-day validation plan
AUDIT_DASHBOARD.sim
LIVE
01_PROFILE 02_CLAIMS 05_UNIT_ECON 09_HIDDEN_ADV 12_SCORE 15_SUMMARY
CASEIllustrative example
CLAIMS_LOGGED47 / 100
VERIFIED12
DISPUTED3
REVENUE_QUALITYPARTIAL
PAYBACK_MONTHS14.2
HIDDEN_ADV_SCORE6.8 / 10
REPLICATION_SCORE72 / 100
VERDICT
VALIDATE — BOUNDED
15Interconnected Tabs
100Claim Slots
7Evidence Classes
30Day Validation Plan

Most "build this SaaS" threads skip the part that matters.

The headline revenue is real. The path to it usually isn't. By the time you discover the founder had a 50k-subscriber list, a decade of domain expertise, or a distribution channel you can't access — you've already quit your job.

[ERR_01] UNVERIFIED_CLAIMS

Revenue numbers without sources

"$40k MRR" gets repeated as fact. The original tweet, the Stripe screenshot, the cohort data — none of it is checked.

[ERR_02] MISSING_VARIABLES

The advantages that don't fit the story

Audience, expertise, network, timing, capital, partnerships — the things that actually made it work — get edited out of the retelling.

[ERR_03] BROKEN_ECONOMICS

Unit economics that don't survive reconstruction

Once you model CAC, churn, gross margin, and founder load honestly, the "passive SaaS" often pays less than a junior dev salary.

[ERR_04] NO_STOP_CONDITION

No defined moment to walk away

Without pre-committed stop conditions, sunk cost turns a bad bet into a two-year detour.

Four outputs. One decision.

The kit doesn't give you a case study. It gives you a defensible go / no-go on a specific opportunity, with the evidence trail to back it up.

01 / AUDIT

Audit the story

Log every claim with source, date, evidence class, confidence, and limitation. Separate reported from verified from inferred.

02 / EXPOSE

Expose the hidden advantages

Score pre-existing audience, expertise, network, timing, capital, and partnerships — the things the headline omits.

03 / RECONSTRUCT

Reconstruct the economics

Rebuild pricing, customers, fees, CAC, gross margin, LTV, payback, churn, and founder load from first principles.

04 / DECIDE

Decide before you build

Get a transparent weighted Replication Score, defined stop conditions, and a bounded 30-day validation plan.

15 tabs. One decision-ready audit.

Each tab feeds the next. The Final Summary pulls from every other sheet — so the verdict is the math, not a vibe.

TAB_01 START_HERE

Navigation & key results

Single entry point. Map of every tab, what it produces, and where the final verdict comes from.

TAB_02 CASE_PROFILE

Define the opportunity

Company, claim, market, research period, and the specific question this audit is answering.

TAB_03 CLAIM_LEDGER

Up to 100 claims, sourced

Every assertion logged with source, date, evidence class, confidence rating, and known limitations.

TAB_04 REVENUE_QUALITY

How credible is the revenue?

Tests completeness, consistency, and verifiability of the reported numbers against public evidence.

TAB_05 UNIT_ECONOMICS

Rebuild the unit economics

Pricing, customers, fees, CAC, gross margin, LTV, and payback — reconstructed from inputs, not assumed.

TAB_06 COST_STACK

Operating expenses & cash

Estimates opex and cash generation before founder compensation — the number that actually matters.

TAB_07 CHURN_RETENTION

Durability of the revenue

Models customer loss, replacement burden, and how much of the recurring revenue actually survives.

TAB_08 FOUNDER_ECONOMICS

What the founder actually earns

Workload, market-rate founder pay, true cash generation, hourly return, and runway.

TAB_09 HIDDEN_ADVANTAGES

What the headline omits

Scores pre-existing audience, expertise, network, timing, capital, partnerships, and other unfair edges.

TAB_10 DISTRIBUTION_MAP

How the growth actually happened

Acquisition channels, dependencies, accessibility, and how much of the original engine you can copy.

TAB_11 FIRST_CUSTOMER

How the first buyers were found

Reconstructs how the business found its earliest customers — the part most "how I built this" posts skip.

TAB_12 REPLICATION_SCORE

Transparent weighted verdict

Weighted score across every dimension with the math shown — no black-box "AI verdict".

TAB_13 RISKS_STOP_CONDITIONS

When to walk away

Pre-committed conditions that invalidate the opportunity — defined before emotion takes over.

TAB_14 VALIDATION_PLAN

Bounded 30-day test

Converts findings into a specific, time-boxed plan to test the opportunity before committing to build.

TAB_15 FINAL_SUMMARY

Decision-ready dashboard

Evidence, economics, key risks, recommendation, and next action — all on one screen.

The Plausible Analytics demo workbook.

Every tab comes pre-filled with a complete audit of Plausible Analytics — a real, publicly-documented SaaS — using current public evidence. Every data point is tagged by evidence class so you can see exactly how the system works before you run your own.

  • Reported — what the company or founder said publicly
  • Verified — confirmed against independent sources
  • Calculated — derived from verified inputs
  • Estimated — modeled from reasonable assumptions
  • Inferred — reasoned from indirect evidence
  • Disputed — conflicting or contradictory sources
  • Unknown — gaps the public record doesn't cover
Get the Kit — $59
CLAIM_LEDGER.sim
DEMO FILLED
"$83,637 MRR on 2 June 2022"REPORTED
"Implied paying customers: 9,293"CALCULATED
"Blended price per customer: $9/mo"ESTIMATED
"Gross or net of payment fees"INFERRED
"Roughly $3.1M revenue for 2024"ESTIMATED
"Sold TinyPilot for $600,000"REPORTED
"Carrd is bootstrapped, no funding"DISPUTED
"Listen Notes revenue"UNKNOWN
"Revenue net of fees: $81,212"CALCULATED

From opportunity to verdict in four passes.

The kit is structured so you don't have to think about what to do next — each tab tells you what it needs and what it feeds.

PASS_01

Frame the case

Define the company, the claim, the market, and the research period. Lock the question this audit answers.

PASS_02

Log every claim

Pull every assertion from public sources into the Claim Ledger. Tag evidence class and confidence.

PASS_03

Model the economics

Reconstruct unit economics, churn, founder load, hidden advantages, and distribution from the evidence.

PASS_04

Decide & plan

Score, define stop conditions, generate a 30-day validation plan, and read the Final Summary verdict.

Built for founders who decide with evidence, not vibes.

The kit is opinionated. It assumes you want a defensible answer more than you want encouragement.

// BUY THIS IF

  • You're considering building a SaaS you saw succeed publicly
  • You want to know if the economics actually work before you quit your job
  • You suspect the founder had unfair advantages the thread didn't mention
  • You want a structured way to log and weigh evidence, not a Notion template
  • You need a defensible go / no-go to show a co-founder, investor, or partner
  • You want to define stop conditions before emotion takes over

// SKIP THIS IF

  • You want motivational case studies, not due diligence
  • You're looking for a generic "SaaS metrics dashboard" template
  • You already have a business and just need a KPI tracker
  • You want someone to tell you the idea is good without showing the math
  • You're not willing to spend 4–8 hours on a real audit

One payment. One decision system. Use it forever.

Less than a single hour with a fractional CFO — and you keep the framework for every opportunity you evaluate next.

SINGLE PURCHASE
$59
ONE-TIME / NO SUBSCRIPTION
  • The 15-tab Google Sheets decision system (your copy, edit freely)
  • Fully filled Plausible Analytics demo workbook with current public evidence
  • Evidence-class tagging system (reported / verified / calculated / estimated / inferred / disputed / unknown)
  • 100-claim ledger with source, date, confidence, and limitation fields
  • Built-in formulas for unit economics, churn, founder load, and Replication Score
  • 30-day validation plan generator
  • Use it on unlimited opportunities after purchase
Get Instant Access — $59
Instant Google Sheets access after checkout

Questions founders actually ask.

Is this a case study bundle or a decision system?

A decision system. The Plausible Analytics demo workbook is included so you can see every tab filled in with real public evidence — but the kit itself is a framework you run on your own opportunity. The output is a Replication Score, defined stop conditions, and a 30-day validation plan — not a story to read.

Do I need to know how to use Google Sheets?

Basic Sheets competence is enough. Every formula is pre-built. You fill in the inputs (claims, sources, your assumptions) and the outputs calculate automatically. If you can use a spreadsheet at work, you can run this audit.

How long does an audit actually take?

For a well-documented public opportunity: 4–8 hours across a weekend. For something with thin public evidence: longer, because you'll hit the "unknown" column often — which is itself a useful signal.

What if the opportunity has no public data?

The kit handles that explicitly. The Claim Ledger, Hidden Advantages, and Risks tabs all surface "unknown" as a first-class state. A high proportion of unknowns is itself a stop condition — you can't validate what you can't see.

Can I use this on more than one opportunity?

Yes. Make a copy of the workbook for each new opportunity. The framework is yours to reuse indefinitely.

What if I disagree with the verdict?

Good. The Replication Score is transparent — every input is visible, every weight is editable. If you think a dimension is weighted wrong, change the weight and re-score. The kit is a structured argument, not an oracle.

Is there a refund policy?

Yes. If the kit doesn't give you a more defensible decision than you had before, contact support within 14 days for a full refund.

Stop building on someone else's highlight reel.

Audit the story. Expose the hidden advantages. Reconstruct the economics. Decide before you build.

Get the Kit — $59