Who We Help

A repeatable motion exists. A system anyone but the founder can run does not.

This is what separates early growth from pre-PMF: deals now close for recognisable reasons, so the motion is real. What does not exist yet is a system that survives without the founder in every deal, and the real cost at this stage is everything that never happens because that one person is the bottleneck. This is where Diagnosis most often applies, reading the motion that already works before more people are hired onto it, with Build where the system around it still has to be put in place.

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What breaks at this stage

Where the strain concentrates once the motion works but only one person can run it.

Everything runs through one person

The founder is usually still the best seller, which is a strength until it becomes the ceiling. Nothing that depends on that one person's calendar clearing gets built, because the person is too busy selling to build it.

A pattern only one person can run

Deals close for recognisable reasons now, so the motion is real, but it lives in the founder's judgement rather than in anything written down. Nothing a second seller could pick up and repeat has been captured yet.

The cost is invisible by nature

There is no broken process to point to, because the motion works, it has just never been turned into one anyone else can follow. The cost here is what never got attempted: the segment not entered, the hire not made, the motion not scaled.

What it looks for here

Read the motion before its first handoffs become permanent.

The diagnostic does not assume which dysfunction family or cost component matters most at this stage. It tests the founder-led motion across all six families, then follows the evidence into the financial consequences the available data can support. The question is not which cost should exist in theory, but where this particular motion is creating strain before more people are hired into it.

Interviews centre on the founder and whoever else touches revenue directly, since there is usually no separate commercial team yet to interview around. Calendar time, deal notes, and whatever informal record of closed and lost deals exists are read together, because a formal CRM history rarely exists at this stage to read on its own.

The five growth stages as a single progression Five points on one line, in order from pre-PMF through early growth to scale-up, expansion, and enterprise, showing a sequence of growth stages rather than a ranking. The stage this page describes is marked as the current position. The work needed changes as the commercial system takes shape and grows. Pre-PMF you are here Early Growth Scale-Up Expansion Enterprise the work changes as the system takes shape and grows
The five growth stages as a single progression Five points on one vertical line, in order from pre-PMF through to enterprise, showing a sequence of growth stages rather than a ranking. The stage this page describes is marked as the current position. The work needed changes as the commercial system takes shape and grows. Pre-PMF Early Growth you are here Scale-Up Expansion Enterprise
FAQ

How early is too early.

We only have one or two people selling, is there enough of a system to diagnose?
If there is a repeatable pattern to how deals close, there is enough to read, even with one or two sellers. If every deal still closes for a completely different reason, you are likely earlier than this, closer to pre-PMF, where a diagnostic may not fit yet.
Isn't a diagnostic overkill before we have real commercial headcount?
It depends on what you are about to build on top of the current motion. A diagnostic before the first sales hire is often cheaper than inheriting an undiagnosed pattern into a larger team later.
The founder is the one being interviewed here, does that change the process?
Not the process, just the emphasis. Founder-led interviews focus heavily on what is being carried personally that has not yet been written down anywhere else in the company.
What does the euro figure even mean at this stage, if revenue is still small?
It usually reads as forgone growth rather than as waste: the expansion, the segment, or the hire that has not happened because the founder's time is the bottleneck. That figure is real even before revenue is large.
Where to go next

Three ways to keep going.

See how Build works

The reverse-order engagement for companies putting a first commercial system in place.

Explore Build →

See what gets measured

The six families, the signals that reveal them, and how each one turns into cost.

Explore the Diagnosis →

Find out where you sit

Ten questions, two minutes. A first read on which part of your system is carrying the most strain.

Take the Strain Check →

Get started

The motion works. What it is quietly preventing from happening is the number to find.

One call, 30 minutes. We will review what is working, what is stalling, and where the cost is actually sitting. You will leave with a concrete next step, whether that is Kihon Labs or not.

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