Startup Idea Kill-or-Continue Review
Startup Idea Kill-or-Continue Review helps the founder or programme team critically review whether to stop, continue, pivot or archive the opportunity with learning preserved. Within Opportunity Discovery & Venture Thesis, it turns a broad or uncertain area of the venture into a concrete Bertie work product that can be reviewed, improved and reused. The task is intentionally discrete: it should produce a specific artefact, decision, evidence item or risk signal rather than general learning notes.
Critically test the quality, consistency and readiness of Startup Idea Kill-or-Continue Review. The objective is to remove ambiguity around whether to stop, continue, pivot or archive the opportunity with learning preserved, give the founder a decision-ready output, and make it clear whether the venture should progress, repeat the task with stronger evidence, escalate to expert support, or move into a linked stage.
Bertie or a programme manager assigns Startup Idea Kill-or-Continue Review when the venture needs a decision-ready output for this group. Typical triggers include group-gate reviews, evidence gaps identified by the co-pilot or founder request.
founder profile; initial idea or opportunity notes; sector interests; early assumptions; available market signals; existing artefact to review; specific context for whether to stop, continue, pivot or archive the opportunity with learning preserved.
Compile all primary customer interview notes, market data, early prototypes, and unit economic assumptions collected during the discovery stage into a single review dossier. Organise these inputs into a structured format that explicitly connects problem hypotheses with initial market signals.
ObjectiveAggregating all primary research and market data into one accessible location creates an objective foundation for evaluation. This prevents selective memory bias during the review and ensures the kill-or-continue assessment is grounded in verifiable evidence.
What's expectedThe founder must present a structured data-room asset containing categorised primary interviews, competitive benchmarks, and preliminary business model assumptions. Every core assertion about the problem, customer, and market size must link directly to a specific evidence source.
Open action arrow_forwardConsultant stress-test · 5 questions- 1.What proportion of the assembled evidence relies on primary customer validation rather than secondary market reports?
- 2.How have you accounted for selection bias in the customer interviews included in this dossier?
- 3.Where in this dossier are the raw, unedited notes that contradict your initial core thesis?
- 4.Why do you believe this dataset is sufficient in size and depth to justify a stage-gate decision today?
- 5.How does the quality of this evidence stack up against the technical or regulatory complexity of the target market?
- A data-room asset titled Startup Idea Kill-or-Continue Review
- A review note with a verdict, evidence gaps, risks, recommended corrections and a clear continue / repeat / escalate decision
- It should update the venture DNA with specific evidence or decisions about whether to stop, continue, pivot or archive the opportunity with learning preserved, create a visible milestone in the founder journey, and generate one or more recommended next tasks
Bertie co-pilot researches market signals, structures opportunity comparisons, challenges weak theses, and recommends discovery or specialist-sector tasks. For this task, it should focus on whether to stop, continue, pivot or archive the opportunity with learning preserved, prompt the founder for missing inputs, draft or improve the output, flag weak assumptions, and record the result back into the relevant data-room section.
A mentor or evaluator can review the output at the group gate. Programme managers can require an advisor checkpoint before Bertie moves the venture forward.