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Onwards Labs
WHAT YOU'RE BUILDING TOWARD

Not a prototype.
A product with a pulse.

Real users logging in, real revenue climbing — six weeks builds it, and the months after are the point. This is the shape of what you're building toward.

app.yourproduct.com/dashboard
LIVE
Northwind
Dashboard
Customers
Revenue
Activity
Settings
SM
Sarah M.
Pro plan
OVERVIEW
Good morning, Sarah
Last 6 months ▾
Export
MRR
$24.8k
▲ 18% MoM
Active users
2,412
▲ 7% MoM
New trials
86
▲ 12% MoM
Churn
1.9%
▼ 0.4%
Revenue
$24,800 this month
LAUNCHM2 · first paying usersM4M6 · first hire
ILLUSTRATIVE PRODUCT & TRAJECTORY — REPLACE WITH A REAL CLIENT DASHBOARD AND NUMBERS WHEN YOU HAVE THEM.
02 / DEFINITION OF DONE

We don't sell MVPs. We sell revenue-ready.

"MVP" is the marketplace's word — it can mean anything, which is the point. Our word is checkable: done means a stranger can sign up, pay, and use it, without you in the room.

Payments live

Stripe in production. Real money can move on day one.

Auth & accounts

Sign-up, login, reset — the boring 30% where DIY tools stall.

Deployed

On your infrastructure — not a preview link in someone's sandbox.

Analytics wired

You see what users actually do, from the first session.

Terms & privacy

The legal pages real customers — and app stores — expect.

Onboarding

A stranger reaches value without a demo call from you.

Payments live
Stripe in production. Real money moves day one.
Auth & accounts
The boring 30% where DIY tools stall.
Deployed
Your infrastructure — not a sandbox link.
Analytics wired
See what users do from the first session.
Terms & privacy
The legal pages real customers expect.
Onboarding
A stranger reaches value without a demo call.
03 / HOW IT WORKS

Sprint first. Build only if it's worth building.

Most founders spend $50k+ finding out what they should have built. The sprint answers that question first — and the deliverable doubles as your build plan, whether you build with us or not.

PHASE 01 · TWO WEEKS
Build Readiness Sprint

Two weeks of engineering judgment applied to your idea: what to build, what it really costs, and whether it's worth building at all — before you spend $50k finding out.

— Scoped product spec
— Stack decision
— Real budget & timeline
— Build-vs-buy calls
— Risk map
Billed in sixths as stages clear — never prepaid past the gate you're at. No viable build path inside your budget? Full refund.
PHASE 02 · SIX TO EIGHT WEEKS
The Build

A senior delivery pod builds to the sprint spec, with Ryan as your fractional CTO making every technical decision. Weekly demos, billed stage by stage at each gate.

— Revenue-ready product
— Your repo, your infra
— Docs + handover video
— 60-day defect warranty
Fixed scope, fixed date. Every week we run late, you're credited $1,000.
PHASE 03 · ONGOING
Fractional CTO

After launch: iteration sprints driven by what the analytics say, infrastructure that scales with you, and engineering resource on tap — part-time from us, or dedicated staff we help you hire.

— Post-launch iteration sprints
— Infrastructure & security
— Part-time or dedicated engineers
— Hiring & team guidance
A CTO's judgment on retainer — without giving up co-founder equity.
THE DELIVERY LEDGER

Six stages. Six things in your hands.

De-risked by design: every stage ends with an artifact you can hold and a gate you control. Billing follows the same rhythm — one-sixth of the fee per stage, never a dollar past the gate you're at.

STAGE — 1/6 OF FEE EACH
WHAT HAPPENS
IN YOUR HANDS / THE GATE
THE ARTIFACT
01 — SPRINT · WK 1
Draft & alignment
The idea becomes a written structure: scope, user flows, what's in, what's out — argued over with you until it's right.
A draft spec you can read, mark up and tear apart.
GATE: SCOPE SIGN-OFF — NOTHING IS DESIGNED UNTIL THE WORDS ARE RIGHT.
SPEC — DRAFT v0.1
IN SCOPE
OUT
02 — SPRINT · WK 1–2
Working concepts
Your core screens, designed for real — so you react to something concrete, not a description.
Concept designs of the screens that matter.
GATE: YOU PICK THE DIRECTION.
03 — SPRINT · WK 2
Clickable prototype
A prototype you can tap through and put in front of real customers — before a dollar of build budget is committed.
A prototype link + the full dossier: spec, stack, budget, timeline, risk.
GATE: BUILD / DON'T BUILD — YOUR CALL, WITH REAL NUMBERS.
04 — BUILD · WK 1–6
The build
The senior pod builds to the signed spec. A staging link is live from week one; demos every Friday.
Working software you can click, every single week.
GATE: DEFINITION-OF-DONE CHECKLIST, ITEM BY ITEM.
staging.app · wk 3
deploy ok
05 — BUILD · FINAL WK
Test
Tested the way a stranger uses it: sign up, pay, reach value. You and your first users run it before launch — defects die here, not in production.
A passed launch checklist, in writing.
GATE: IT SHIPS WHEN IT PASSES — NOT WHEN THE CALENDAR SAYS.
LAUNCH CHECKLIST
06 — ONGOING
Maintain
Sixty days of defect cover, monitoring from day one, then iteration sprints driven by what the analytics say — with resourcing that scales: part-time engineering from us, or dedicated staff embedded in your team.
A live product with warranty in writing — repo and infra in your name.
GATE: MONTH TO MONTH. WALK AWAY ANYTIME; YOU OWN EVERYTHING.
UPTIME · 30D
99.9%
MON ● LIVE
ANY GATE CAN SAY STOP — AND EVERYTHING PRODUCED UP TO THAT POINT WALKS WITH YOU.
START AT STAGE 01 →
THE SPRINT DELIVERABLE

You walk away holding the plan.

The sprint output is a build-ready dossier: the spec, the stack, the budget, the timeline and the risk map — priced and sequenced. It doubles as our proposal if we build, and as a brief any competent team could execute if we don't.

Either way, you stop guessing.

APPENDIX B — RISK MAP
ONWARDS LABSCONFIDENTIAL
Build Readiness Report
SPEC · STACK · BUDGET · TIMELINE · RISK
BUILD WINDOW
6–8 WEEKS
DECISION
BUILD / DON'T
FILM_02 — WHAT THE SPRINT DELIVERABLE ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE 01:30
90s screen-record walkthrough of the real sprint dossier — 16:9
05 / IN WRITING

The mechanics nobody else will put in a contract.

G-01 / LATE PENALTY
If we're late, we pay.

$1,000 credited back for every week past the delivery date. The deadline isn't a hope — it's a clause.

G-02 / WARRANTY
60 days of cover.

Any defect in the first 60 days after launch gets fixed at our cost. Marketplaces hand you code and vanish; we stay.

G-03 / OWNERSHIP
You own everything.

Your repository, your infrastructure, documented, with a recorded handover video. No hostage code, no lock-in.

G-04 / SPRINT GUARANTEE
No path, no fee.

If the sprint can't define a build path inside your budget, the sprint is free. We'd rather refund you than build the wrong thing.

G-05 / WALK-AWAY CLAUSE
Leave at any gate, take everything.

Billing tracks the six stages — one-sixth of the fee each. Stop at the clickable prototype? You've paid for three stages, and the spec, the concepts and the prototype leave with you. No exit fees, no haggling.

EVERY CARD ABOVE IS A CONTRACT CLAUSE, NOT A MARKETING LINE.
BOOK A BRAINSTORM CALL →
THE OUTCOME

You don't end with code.
You end with a business.

The build is the smallest part of it. What you actually walk away holding is everything a company needs to keep running — the product, the people, the proof and the ownership, all signed over.

HANDOVER MANIFEST — WHAT'S YOURS AT THE END
TRANSFERRED TO — YOU
01
The product
A live, revenue-ready product in production — not a prototype, not a demo. Customers can sign up and pay today.
02
The people
Engineering capacity that doesn't evaporate at launch — part-time from our pod, or dedicated staff embedded in your team, scaling to whatever comes next.
03
The ownership
Repository, infrastructure, accounts and IP — all in your name from day one. Nothing is hostage to us.
04
The clarity
The full dossier, documentation and a recorded handover walkthrough — every decision on the record, so you and any future team know exactly what was built and why.
05
The proof
Monitoring, analytics and a passed launch test from day one — so you know it works before your customers ever find out it doesn't.
06
Whatever's next
A CTO's judgment on call for the decisions that come after launch — pricing, scaling, hiring, the next build. The business, not just the codebase.
Code is the easy part. You leave with the business around it.
SIGNED OVER — IN FULL