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FTLABBefore

A founder decision resource

A calm record for founder decisions that are hard to undo.

Before you accept an investor, sign terms, split equity, build, spend against money that has not arrived, or give another quarter to the same plan.

Not legal advice. Evidence is labelled and dated. Verify locally with a lawyer before you sign, pay, or promise.

Community In a survey of 607 early-stage European founders in early 2025, fundraising was a top concern for 58.1 percent, revenue growth for 52.8 percent, and customer acquisition for about 50 percent. Slush Startup Struggle Survey 2025.

Describe it in ordinary language. Before matches your words to a guide. Nothing is stored on a server unless you have configured the optional router.

12 situations. Guides 1 and 2 are written in full. The rest are mapped so you can start a note.

Four states of a commitment

Considering it, making it, managing it, and responding when it has already gone wrong.

All twelve

Considering a commitment

Nothing is signed, paid, or handed over. The work is to see the decision before it hardens.

  1. 03Before committing to a cofounderEvidence from working together, before a title or a public promise.Mapped
  2. 05Before committing to a major buildA map of customer evidence, and the next test that could stop the work.Mapped
  3. 06Before assuming the product will sell itselfThe path from a named buyer to money that has been collected.Mapped
  4. 12When work exceeds founder capacityWhat only you can do, and what the pace is costing.Mapped

Making a commitment

A signature, a payment, or a grant of equity or access is close.

  1. 01Before accepting an investorWho is really offering the money, the introduction, or the service, and what remains unchecked.Full
  2. 02Before signing a term sheetWhat this document actually binds, and what it does to ownership, control, and the close.Full
  3. 04Before agreeing founder equityA promise in a chat is not a grant. Write the difference.Mapped
  4. 08Before signing a major customer contractDelivery, liability, rights, and when you actually get paid.Mapped
  5. 09Before paying others to buildWho will own the work, and who can still log in next year.Mapped

Managing a commitment

The promise is live. Cash, a conversation you have avoided, or another quarter still has to be faced.

  1. 07Before commitments against uncertain cashContracted, invoiced, collected, and merely hoped for, kept apart.Mapped
  2. 10Before an avoided conversation becomes a disputeName the conversation while it is still a conversation.Mapped
  3. 11Before another quarter on the same planThe assumption you are renewing, and the criterion that would stop it.Mapped

Responding when it goes wrong

You have already signed, paid, or lost access. The paths below are separate, and more than one can apply at the same time.

I have already signed, paid or lost accessSeparate paths for suspected payment fraud, account compromise, contractual non-performance, an ownership or control dispute, and a possible inability to pay debts. More than one can apply. The output is a resolution brief.

Map

Twenty-one areas

Question counts and a depth label: substantial, targeted, or only mapped.

Practices, not labels

Founder qualities

Ten practices. Each one is a question and an exercise, not a score of who you are.