Keep and grow

Days are to the first paying customer; cash leaves out your hours, and loaded CAC adds them at $100 an hour. Planning estimate unless a source is named: how each was set.

The decisionCopy Anchor Link

Move here once 10 customers pay from Hands-on, Paid or Launch and search. Read churn as a rate only from 20 customers; below that, 3 or more cancellations in 60 days is the signal. First, define activation: the event every kept customer hit in week 1 and the churned ones missed.

Nudge every signup that has not activated at hour 24 and day 3. Open a save move on each churn signal: no login in 14 days, usage down 50% in a month, a ticket open 48 hours, a failed payment. Silence watch reads them daily.

Prompt an upgrade at 80% of a plan limit with Upgrade note. Read net revenue retention over the trailing 12 months: what the customers paying a year ago pay now. At 4% monthly churn, upgrades alone hold it near 69%; passing 100% takes expansion that grows with use, seats or usage, of about 4.2% a surviving account a month. Ask for referrals by hand under 50 customers, and switch on a program only past 50 (Customer referrals).

The mathCopy Anchor Link

kept after a year = (1 − churn)^12; value ≈ monthly margin ÷ churn; net revenue retention, trailing 12 months = revenue now from customers paying a year ago ÷ their revenue then

Planning estimate unless a source is named: how each was set.

At 5% churn, 0.95^12 = 54% stay a year. At 3%, 69% stay (the numbers).

A $49 customer at 5% churn is worth $39 ÷ 5% = $784. At 3:1, CAC stays under about $261 (your price).

Net revenue retention, trailing 12 months: at 4% churn 0.96^12 = 61% of customers remain, and upgrades from 5% of the base a quarter at +67% add the rest: about 69%. At 3% churn it is 78%. Above 100% needs surviving accounts to grow 4.2% a month at 4% churn: price on seats or usage, not on a tier the account reaches once.

Referral ask: 50 × 10% × 2 × 20% = 2 customers a quarter. At 10 customers it is 0.4, so the founder asks in person. At scale referrals reach about 1 customer a month at scale.

PlaybookCopy Anchor Link

Worked exampleCopy Anchor Link

Leaseline has 20 customers at $149 and loses 2 a month. 10% churn keeps 28% after a year, and no acquisition rescues that.

Activation becomes “first renewal notice sent in week 1”, because no churned customer sent one. Silence watch sends nudges on day 3, and activation rises from 55% to 80%.

Churn falls to 4%, so a year keeps 61%. Upgrade note at 80% of the plan limit moves 1 in 4 to the next tier. Save and win back drafts each save note. To pass 100%, the founder tests a per-property price on the largest 5 accounts.

Churn falls from 10% to 4% a month, and trailing-12-month net revenue retention rises from 32% to 69%; seat pricing is the lever that would carry it past 100%.

When it breaksCopy Anchor Link

How your agents run itCopy Anchor Link

Each call is priced from its composition. Week 1: about 30 minutes of yours and nothing in calls. Week 2: about 25 minutes of yours and 3¢ in calls. Week 4: about 25 minutes of yours and 25¢ in calls. Week 8: about 5 minutes of yours and 42¢ in calls. Week 12: about 15 minutes of yours and nothing in calls.

The month runs as a Play Mix: PlayMix.compile plans it from your hours and budget, Play.apply runs each Play, and each Play runs the compositions in its rows above. Goal.pursue is the shortcut that takes the month as one goal and records which Play each step served.

import { $ } from 'startup-builder'

const mix = await $.PlayMix.compile({ strategy: 'keep-and-grow', hours: 1 })
for (const play of mix.plays) await $.Play.apply({ play: play.id, hours: play.hours })

// Each Play runs its compositions in weeks 1 to 4:
// next-outcome        silence-watch, weekly-readout, save-and-win-back
// usage-upsell        upgrade-note
// review-requests     review-requests
// customer-referrals  referral-ask

You see the plan and its price before anything runs. Sends and posts go out within the limits you set; one approval rule on a class such as send makes every action in it wait for you, and going over a limit always asks. How your agents act names every class.

Good looks likeCopy Anchor Link

Connect these firstCopy Anchor Link

Plays it runsCopy Anchor Link

ReferenceCopy Anchor Link