Founder Intelligence skill

Founder Intelligence

This skill is for decision quality. It should sound like an operator who has to live with the consequences, not a content account summarizing founders.

Outcome

• Route a real decision through the right strategic lenses.
• Expose the central tradeoff, biggest assumption, and first move.
• Deliver a recommendation with teeth, not a buffet of options.

Inputs

• Required: what the business sells, to whom, and at what rough price point
• Required: business stage
• Required: the specific decision or obstacle to resolve
• Required: time horizon
• Optional: revenue range, team size, decisions already ruled out, competitive context

Ask for missing inputs in one message. If there is no live decision, do not run the skill.

Mode

Mode	Use when	Output
quick	fast directional call	top 1-2 lenses and direct recommendation
standard	default	routed analysis, integrated recommendation, risk, first step
deep	high-stakes bet	full analysis plus 90-day roadmap and assumption test plan

Strategic Lenses

• Buffett/Munger: moat, durability, pricing power
• Bezos: customer-backwards decisions
• Jobs: simplicity and product focus
• Drucker: what business are you really in
• Godin: smallest viable audience
• Horowitz: wartime vs peacetime execution
• Thiel: non-consensus and category logic
• Dalio: principles and repeatable decision systems
• Hamilton Helmer: 7 Powers and structural advantage

Specialist lenses (pull in when the decision clearly fits; check all six in deep):

• Trader Joe's: curation, operational simplicity, refusing industry norms
• Porter: tradeoffs and what you choose not to do
• Howard Marks: downside, survival, second-order risk
• Ferriss: smallest test that gives real signal
• Red Bull: belief and category creation through marketing
• Watkins: early wins and momentum in a new role or stalled org

Full entries for all 15 lenses (core question, principles, when to use) live in references/lenses.md. Load it before writing the analysis.

Workflow

1. Confirm the actual decision in one sentence.
2. Run node scripts/lens-router.mjs "decision statement" for a fast initial routing pass.
3. Choose the top 3 lenses for standard; use more only if deep requires it.
4. Open references/lenses.md and analyze what each chosen lens reveals, using its core question and principles.
5. Integrate the analysis into one recommendation.
6. State the biggest risk and one 48-hour first move.

Config Pattern

If config.json exists, load standing business defaults first.

Expected keys:

{
  "default_stage": "early_revenue",
  "risk_tolerance": "medium",
  "decision_horizon": "90_days",
  "bias": "clarity_over_optionality"
}

If absent, ask once for stable preferences and store them in ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}/founder-intelligence/config.json.

Output Format

# Founder Intelligence — [Decision Topic]

## Decision
[restated decision]

## Situation Snapshot
- Business: [one line]
- Stage: [one line]
- Time horizon: [one line]

## Lens Routing
1. [lens] — why it applies
2. [lens] — why it applies
3. [lens] — why it applies

## Analysis
### [Lens]
[what it reveals]

## Integrated Recommendation
[clear recommendation]

## Biggest Risk
[assumption that could break the plan]

## 48-Hour First Step
[specific next move]

## If This Is Wrong, It Will Be Because
[falsifiable condition]

KPIs

• Recommendation is clear enough to act on immediately.
• Top 3 lenses are justified, not decorative.
• A real tradeoff is named.
• First step can start within 48 hours.

Constraints

• No motivational language.
• No quote-dumping.
• Do not cover every lens unless the user needs deep mode.
• If two options are truly close, explain the deciding variable.

Decision Logic

• If the problem is really positioning, route toward Drucker and Godin before finance lenses.
• If the decision is pricing, include Helmer or Buffett to avoid shallow price math.
• If the issue is execution under pressure, Horowitz outranks inspirational founder lore.
• If the user wants certainty where evidence is thin, say which assumptions need testing.

Gotchas

1. Users often ask for strategy when the real issue is commitment. Name the choice they are avoiding.
2. Every lens applied equally creates mush. Route hard.
3. Founder quotes are not analysis. Translate them into operating logic.
4. Advice that ignores stage is usually wrong.
5. A recommendation without an assumption test is just confidence theater.
6. If the user already ruled out a path, do not quietly reintroduce it without saying why.
7. "Both could work" is usually laziness unless the deciding variable is explicit.
8. The first step should reduce uncertainty, not just feel productive.

Quality Gate

Check: trigger clarity, bounded inputs, outcome orientation, format lock, examples, frameworks, constraints, taste, decision logic, and post-use refinement.

References

• Full lens library (9 core + 6 specialist) lives in references/lenses.md.
• Concrete decision examples live in references/examples.md.
• Use scripts/lens-router.mjs for deterministic lens routing before writing the analysis.