The Startup Survival Blueprint: 10 Critical Steps for Founders in Year One

Why mindset first (or nothing else works)

Year one is noisy. Without a resilient mindset and simple weekly cadence, strategy collapses into firefighting. Anchor yourself: extreme ownership, long-termism, antifragility, humility + hunger. Then run this blueprint.

The 10 Critical Steps (in a sequence that works)

1) Know your runway (and extend it)

• Calculate months of runway = cash / net burn.
• Cut nice-to-haves; negotiate everything; move to monthly payment plans.
• Set a Revenue Rescue Number (e.g., “£25k MRR in 90 days”) and aim everything at it.
  

Coach help: Cash triage and pricing resets are faster with an experienced mentor. → Find a Ninja Coach now.

2) Define the sharp problem & buyer

• Nail the pain, payer, priority. Who loses money/time today without you?
• Create a one-line value prop: “We help [ICP] solve [pain] by [mechanism], resulting in [result].”
  AI assist: Generate 10 variants of your value prop; test with real prospects.

3) Build an MLP (Minimum Lovable Product), not perfection

• Ship the smallest thing that proves value.
• Remove features that don’t move the outcome.
• Set success criteria for the first 5–10 customers.
  Coach help: Avoid scope creep; stay outcome-obsessed with a weekly accountability call.

4) Price for survival (and value)

• Start with outcome pricing or tiered value pricing.
• Raise early if demand is strong; underpricing kills runway.
  AI assist: Draft tier tables, offer pages, and objection handling.

5) Craft a simple offer & promise

• Promise a specific, measurable outcome (or transformation).
• Define scope, timeline, and proof.
• Add risk-reversal (pilot, milestone billing, or guarantee where appropriate).

6) Build a manual distribution engine

• 50 founder-led outreach messages/week to ICP.
• 3–5 warm intros/week from your network.
• Weekly value posts on LinkedIn; invite DMs.
  AI assist: Draft outreach scripts, first-touch emails, and follow-ups; you personalise.

7) Install a basic sales process

• Simple pipeline: New → Qualified → Proposal → Won/Lost.
• Standard discovery call, proposal template, and close checklist.
• Track win rate, cycle length, average deal size.
  Coach help: A sales coach will spot leaks you can’t see from inside the deal.

8) Create 3 core SOPs

• Lead capture → first reply under 15 minutes.
• Onboarding checklist for new customers.
• Weekly ops review (metrics, blockers, next actions).
  AI assist: Turn your ad-hoc tasks into SOP drafts in minutes.

9) Hire with a “mission + metrics” brief

• Hire for outcomes, not tasks.
• Clear 90-day scorecard per role; WIP limit to protect focus.
• Contractor > full-time until the signal is strong.

10) Run the cadence (the operating rhythm)

• Daily Power Hour on the single revenue-moving task.
• Weekly Clarity Review: what mattered/blocked, next week’s top 3.
• Monthly Retro: pricing, pipeline, product feedback, runway.

30-60-90 implementation plan

• Days 1–30: cash triage, ICP/pain clarity, MLP shipped to first 5 users, 200 targeted outreaches.
• Days 31–60: raise price, formalise sales process, 3 SOPs live, first hire/contractor onboarded.
• Days 61–90: tighten delivery metrics, expand outreach channels, referral engine, customer stories.

Avoid these year-one traps

Underpricing, shipping late, building without users, busywork, lone-wolfing, ignoring cash, dodging hard conversations.

Use AI to move twice as fast

• Draft SOPs, proposals, and outreach at speed.
• Summarise customer calls into action plans.

Brainstorm experiments; you validate with data.