# Your plan

Three strategies, one for what you can spare. Paste your product URL at [salesbuilder.dev/plan](https://salesbuilder.dev/plan) to see yours, read against your own site.

One rule picks it: cash of $2,000 a month or more runs Paid; otherwise 3 hours a week or more runs Hands-on; otherwise Launch and search.

## Hands-on

Cold email, LinkedIn and community answers drafted by your agents, plus intros from people you know: intro replies in days, cold replies from week 3.

First signal: intro replies in days; cold replies from week 3.

### Your three Plays

- [Cold email](/plays/cold-email.md): Your agent emails companies that gave a public reason to talk: three short emails at most, stopped at the first reply.
- [LinkedIn outbound](/plays/linkedin-outbound.md): Picks each day’s people on LinkedIn and drafts the note and messages; you send each one from your own profile.
- [Community answers](/plays/community-answers.md): Finds people asking about the problem you solve, and gets a sourced answer up from your account within hours.

**10 hours a week.** Cold email at 50 a day, and [Founder voice](/plays/founder-voice.md) as a fourth Play.

**$1,000 to $1,999 a month.** $1,000 buys about 200 search clicks: enough for the first 150-click test with its hard stop, not the full Paid strategy. Run it beside Hands-on, or add $1,000 to run Paid.

### Week one

| Step | Who | Your time | Cost |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Describe your customer in one sentence | You | 2 min | free |
| Count the market | Your agents | none | free |
| Approve 50 accounts worth a conversation | You approve | 15 min | about 20¢ per 100 rows |
| Name the person to talk to at each account | Your agents | none | free |
| Ask the people you know for intros | You approve | 10 min | free from your inbox |
| Find who is asking about the problem | Your agents | none | under 20¢ per 100 searches |
| Answer the threads where buyers ask | You approve | 10 min a week | about 2¢ a step |
| Set up a second sending domain and start its warm-up | You | 10 min | free |
| Add the people engaging with posts in your category | Your agents | none | about 30¢ per 100 posts |
| Approve your LinkedIn requests and messages | You approve | 5 min a week | about 2¢ a step |

- Month one: about $5 to $20 of data and sends.
- First customer: weeks 4 to 8, from intros first and the cold batches after them.
- Week by week: [Hands-on](/strategy/hands-on.md).

## Paid

Ads on your own accounts: a $300 to $500 message test on Meta, then 150 search clicks with a hard stop, and 350 more only if signups arrive.

First signal: clicks in a day.

### Your three Plays

- [Paid search](/plays/paid-search.md): Bids on searches from people looking for a tool like yours, and runs only while a first sale earns more than it costs to win.
- [Positioning tournament](/plays/positioning-tournament.md): Tests three ways of saying what you do, as ads that differ in one phrase, and counts only signups that fit and act.

### Week one

| Step | Who | Your time | Cost |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Connect your ad account | You | 5 min | free |
| See who already pays for your terms | Your agents | none | about 2¢ a competitor |
| Forecast 500 clicks on your terms | Your agents | none | about 9¢ a forecast |
| Connect your site analytics | You | 5 min | free |
| Approve the ad kit | You approve | 15 min | 50 to 80¢ a kit |
| Test your message on Meta for $300 to $500 | You approve | 5 min | $300 to $500 |
| Approve the first 150 clicks and the hard stop | You approve | 5 min | about $750 at about $5 a click |

- Month one: about $1,000 to $3,000 of ad spend, depending on the first 150 clicks, plus under $2 of data and sends.
- First customer: weeks 3 to 6, from the 10 or so signups 500 clicks buy at a 2% rate, once the first 150 clicks pass.
- Week by week: [Paid](/strategy/paid.md).

## Launch and search

Thread answers, one launch and pages that rank: replies in days, launch signups in week 4, and search signups that build from month 6.

First signal: launch-day signups in week 4; thread replies in days; search signups from month 6.

### Your three Plays

- [Community answers](/plays/community-answers.md): Finds people asking about the problem you solve, and gets a sourced answer up from your account within hours.
- [Directory listings](/plays/directory-listings.md): Keeps one accurate listing on every directory and review site your buyers read, and fixes any field that drifts within a week.
- [Launch sites](/plays/launch-sites.md): Launches your product where your buyers already read, one place at a time; your agent builds the kit, you write every post and reply.

### Week one

| Step | Who | Your time | Cost |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Find who is asking about the problem | Your agents | none | under 20¢ per 100 searches |
| Answer the threads where buyers ask | You approve | 10 min a week | about 2¢ a step |
| Approve the product kit once | You approve | 15 min | free |
| Approve 20 to 40 terms worth winning | You approve | 15 min | about 5¢ per 100 terms |
| Connect your domain | You | 5 min | free |
| Push every page you publish to Bing | Your agents | none | free |
| Ask Google for your five key pages | Your agents | none | free |

- Month one: about $3 to $6 of data and sends.
- First customer: weeks 4 to 8, from threads and the launch; search signups from month 6 to 12 on a new domain.
- Week by week: [Launch and search](/strategy/launch-and-search.md).

## Approve your first 20

1. Connect your agent: `claude mcp add --transport http startup-builder https://api.sb/mcp`. The first time, it opens a one-time sign-in in your browser.
2. Then say: “Run my Hands-on plan for your-product.com in try mode, and show me the first 20 before anything sends.”

Your agents read your product and draft the first 20. Nothing sends until you approve.