The Kill Decision
Ten questions to find out whether you have enough evidence to keep building.
Free. Takes about ten minutes. No email required.
Of more than a hundred startup post-mortems, the most common cause of failure wasn't funding, team, or execution. It was building something nobody needed.
CB Insights — cited by 42% of failed companies
Almost none of them thought that was what they were doing at the time. That's the uncomfortable part: founders building the wrong thing rarely feel like they're building the wrong thing. They feel busy, and encouraged, and close.
Ten questions. Each one sorts into evidence or assumption. At the end you'll see which column your company is actually standing on.
- No maybesYes or no. Partial credit is how founders talk themselves into evidence they don't have.
- Show itAnswer yes only if you could show someone. Not a belief, not a hunch.
- Not youIf a founder, advisor, or investor is your only source, that's a no.
Takes about ten minutes. Nothing is stored or sent.
Prefer paper? Take it offline instead.
The premise
CB Insights analysed more than a hundred startup post-mortems. The most common cause of failure wasn't funding, team, or execution. It was building something nobody needed — cited by 42% of failed companies.
Almost none of them thought that was what they were doing at the time.
That's the uncomfortable part. Founders who build the wrong thing rarely feel like they're building the wrong thing. They feel busy, and encouraged, and close.
This assessment is a check on your evidence, not your conviction. It asks whether what you know would convince someone who has no stake in the answer.
What's inside
Ten questions across three sections.
Evidence quality — Have you actually heard it, or did you infer it?
Whether your understanding of the problem came from customers or from your own head.
Behavioural proof — Has anyone done anything about it?
Stated interest is cheap. These test whether the problem has changed anyone's behaviour.
Economics and urgency — Will anyone pay, and does it have to be now?
A real problem nobody funds is a hobby.
Plus a synthesis question, a scoring guide, and a page that maps your weakest section to what to do about it.
How to use it
Answer each question Yes or No. There's no "partially" — that's deliberate. Partial credit is how founders talk themselves into believing they have evidence they don't.
Score Yes only if you have something you could show someone. Not a belief. Not a hunch. If a founder, advisor, or investor is your only source for a Yes, score it No.
Then do it separately from your co-founder and compare. The gaps between your two scores are usually more informative than either score alone.
Why it's free and ungated
Because a form field would cost me more completions than it'd earn me email addresses, and completions are the point.
If it's useful, you'll come back. That's a better filter than a download form.
After you've scored yourself
A low score isn't bad news. It's early news. Finding out in week three costs a lot less than finding out in month nine.
If you want an outside read on your answers, book a fit call. Twenty minutes, free. Tell me what you scored and what you're stuck on, and I'll tell you whether I'm the right person to help — and if I'm not, who is.
Also useful
The Early-Stage Messaging Audit
If the Kill Decision tells you the problem is real but nobody's converting, this one diagnoses why.
Take the audit →Signal & Sense
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