The seven stages
One ladder from Idea to Scale. Each stage has an entry, a graduation test and a focus, and the plan never gives you work from a stage you have already passed.
Updated 2026-10-13
Every screen, every edge function and every AI prompt uses the same seven stages. That matters because an earlier version had six different ladders, and a company with 400 users could be put back into “Build” and told to ship the MVP. There is now one ladder.
| Stage | Where you are | To be here | To leave it | Graduation milestone |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Idea | Choosing the problem to chase | A problem you want to solve | Specific customers confirm the pain unprompted | Problem interviews: 15 conversations with a clear, repeated pain |
| 2. Validation | Testing demand before building much | A problem worth testing | A first commitment: pre-orders, deposits or LOIs | Commitments: 10 pre-orders, deposits or LOIs |
| 3. Build | Building the first version | Validated demand | The first version is live with real users | Live users: MVP live with 20+ real users |
| 4. Early Traction | Live with first users; finding what makes them stay and pay | The product is live with real users or customers | Retention holds and revenue repeats (~$10k MRR) | MRR: $10k MRR with steady retention |
| 5. Product-Market Fit | Retention holds, demand pulls | ~$10k MRR with steady retention | ~$50k MRR, 40%+ retention, one channel that scales | Retention: $50k MRR + 40% retention |
| 6. Growth | Scaling what works | ~$50k MRR | ~$500k MRR / Series A ready | MRR: $500k MRR / Series A ready |
| 7. Scale | New markets, a real organisation | ~$500k MRR / Series A | Multi-product or multi-market, $5M+ ARR | ARR: $5M ARR / Series B ready |
How your stage is chosen
- Your explicit answer to “Where the company is today” on the dossier wins.
- If you did not choose, Pythe uses its own reading of your brief.
- If neither exists, it uses the evidence you ticked: paying customers or revenue data means Early Traction; users means Early Traction; a waitlist, signups or conversations means Validation.
- Evidence can only move your stage forward, and only when it proves something is live. A founder with users is never put back into Idea or Build because a field was blank.
Older stage names, such as “prelaunch”, “Ideation”, “Unicorn” or “MVP”, are still understood and mapped onto the ladder, so nothing stored earlier has to be rewritten.
Nothing from the past
When Pythe writes your plan it is told your passed stages. A founder past Validation is not given discovery interviews. A founder past Build is not told to ship an MVP. Everything has to move you forward from where you are.
Locked and graduated stages
- You work the stage that is open. Later stages are locked until you graduate from your current one.
- On Free you get your starting stage and the next one. Base and Premium unlock every stage.
- A stage you graduated from shows the date and stays readable.
Graduating
When 80% or more of the milestones in your stage are complete, a banner appears: “You may be ready to move on”. It lists the graduation criteria and asks for an honest assessment. Choosing Graduate to next stage marks the stage graduated and writes fresh milestones for the next one.
Related
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