Educational rules of thumb only. Not financial, legal, or business advice. Full disclaimer
Free founder scorecard · no login
Four quick checks for a business or idea: score it on margin, operations, advantage, and market size, find out whether your close rate says you're underpriced, see if each customer funds the next, and estimate what an old customer list could bring in. Everything runs in your browser.
Score your idea 1–10
1 = thin or negative · 5 = about 15% net · 10 = 40%+ net
1 = it's a job, you do everything · 10 = runs without you
1 = anyone can copy it tomorrow · 10 = edge others can't buy
1 = tiny or shrinking · 10 = large, growing, already spending
Three quick checks
MOAT score 20 / 40
Worth it only if you fix the weak spot first.
Margin 5 · Operations 5 · Advantage 5 · TAM 5. 30 or more is fund it, 20 to 29 is fix it, under 20 is flee it.
Weakest: Margin. Raise prices or cut delivery cost until net margin is at least about 15%.
A small slice of buyers holds most of the spending. Businesses and affluent niches pay more, complain less, and decide faster.
Get your first 5 to 10 results, even for free, then sell with real before-and-after stories instead of claims.
Code, content, data, and an email list keep working after you stop. Turn the income you earn now into those.
Profit lives where people want more than you can deliver. A waitlist and a higher price beat discounting.
Idea score: the four MOAT scores add up to 40. 30 or more is fund it, 20 to 29 is fix it, under 20 is flee it.
Price headroom: close rates of 80% or more suggest 2 to 3× headroom, 60% to 79% suggest 1.5 to 2×, 40% to 59% about 30% to 50% more, and around 30% is priced about right. New profit compares (kept customers × (new price − cost)) to today's profit, with costs scaling per customer.
30-day cash: cash collected in a customer's first 30 days divided by the cost to get and serve them. 2× or more is self-funding.
Old list: contacts × reachable % × your buy rate × average order, shown at half and double your buy rate.
Built on frameworks Codie Sanchez (MOAT), Alex Hormozi (close-rate pricing and 30-day cash), and Daniel Priestley (pain, money, passion) shared on The Diary of a CEO. Not affiliated with or endorsed by them or the show. Nothing you type is stored.