Find the kill criteria before a VC does.
The same diligence a partner will run on you. With the memo first.
Most ideas die because no one named the kill criteria early enough to redesign them.
Tuaha and Farzan, on the thesis behind Verdikt
Four moments it pays for itself.
The specific weeks where a structured outside read changes the next move.
- Gut-check before you quit your jobDoes the idea have the bones to become a company. Structured, not vibes.
- Find the kill criteria before a VC doesEvery partner asks the same three questions. We surface them in writing, cited.
- Prep for the partner meetingRiskiest assumption. Strongest counter. Comp set framing the round.
- Align cofounders on what to build firstA third voice. No equity stake. 40 sources behind every claim.
Nine minutes. The twelve questions a partner would ask anyway.
We do not want a deck. We want what you actually know.
- 01The pitch in one sentenceWhat you would say in an elevator. We pull the thesis from there.
- 02Who you have talked toFive users, zero users, your mom. We weight evidence by what is real.
- 03What is already builtCode, a Figma, a Stripe link, a spreadsheet. Or nothing yet, which is fine.
- 04What scares you mostThe thing you do not put in the deck. We pressure-test it first.
- 05Capital, runway, geographyConstraints shape the kill criteria. We need yours to set them.
You start the brief on the train. One sentence. The pitch you would say out loud.
You finish. The pipeline starts. You go back to whatever you were doing.
A memo lands in your inbox. Verdict, kill criteria, sources, share link. Same day.
Nothing in the brief is throwaway. Every answer routes a different branch of the pipeline.
A memo, a roadmap, a share link.
Not a chat log. Not a vibe check. A document you can forward to your cofounder and they will know exactly what to do next.
Verdict to ship-or-kill in 12 weeks.
“Ship the lite version in 60 days. Charge from day one.”
- WK 02Single-carrier P&L
- WK 04Paid beta · 10 design partners
- WK 09Public launch · Product Hunt
- WK 12Decision gate
- 01Verdict on the front pageBuild, Pivot, or Kill. Decision-grade. Never a maybe.
- 02Kill criteria, named in plain EnglishThe two or three facts that would reverse the call. Defended with sources.
- 03A twelve-week execution pathMilestones, kill-or-continue gates, the experiment that resolves the riskiest assumption first.
- 04A share link your cofounder can argue withEvery claim cited. Every source in the library. No login wall.
The same hour, two ways.
- Six weeks of scattered customer calls.
- A deck no one reads twice.
- Kill criteria show up live, in the partner meeting, for the first time.
- You leave with a no and three follow-up questions you cannot answer.
- One hour. A cited memo waiting in your inbox.
- Kill criteria named in writing, before the meeting.
- Three counters drafted, sources attached, ready to walk in with.
- You leave with a yes, a no with reasons, or a kept rejection.
Three reasons not to run a verdict.
Better to disqualify yourself now than be disappointed later.
- 01You have already raisedA verdict aligns expectations before the term sheet. After it, the kill criteria are someone else's job.
- 02You want a 60-competitor databaseWe name the live ones and the dead ones with sources. We do not build market maps.
- 03You want validation you are rightWe surface what could kill the idea. If that is not what you came for, keep the $49.99.
How Verdikt compares to other startup-idea tools.
The honest read on IdeaProof, Evalyze, and ValidatorAI. Where each fits, where Verdikt wins, and where it doesn't.
Get your verdict.
One sentence in. A defensible memo out. $49.99. Refund or re-run if it's not defensible.