From pmf-superpowers
Use when a founder is articulating why their company should exist, defining their unfair advantage, evaluating category fit, mapping competition, or deciding what to refuse to build. The first Terrifying Question from the Sequoia Arc framework. Resolves only when the founder is "ready to marry the idea for the next decade-plus."
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/pmf-superpowers:arc-q1-right-to-existThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
The first Terrifying Question (Sequoia Arc framework, sequoiacap.com/article/pmf-framework-2). Q1 is the bedrock — without a resolved Q1, every downstream question is built on sand. Pivots, even significant ones, mean regression to Q1.
The first Terrifying Question (Sequoia Arc framework, sequoiacap.com/article/pmf-framework-2). Q1 is the bedrock — without a resolved Q1, every downstream question is built on sand. Pivots, even significant ones, mean regression to Q1.
Resolution criterion (Sequoia, verbatim): "Ready to marry the idea for the next decade-plus."
This is not a vibes test. It's a written articulation the founder is willing to defend in any room for ten years.
Requires archetype-detection resolved. The Q1 evidence bar tunes per archetype:
A Q1-resolved founder can answer all four in writing, without hedging:
Question: Why are you the right founder for this problem, in this moment?
Resolution evidence:
Refusal triggers:
Question: What category are you in (from the buyer's perspective), and what are the dynamics of that category at present?
Resolution evidence:
Refusal triggers:
Question: Who is the competition, named?
Resolution evidence:
Refusal triggers:
archetype-detection should have caught this) and the competition is the existing inferior reality.founder-rationalization-defense entry #15).Question: What's the asymmetric thing you have that competitors can't easily replicate?
Resolution evidence:
Refusal triggers:
Q1 resolution requires the founder name what they refuse to build. Specifically:
Without the anti-roadmap, Q1 is not resolved. The anti-roadmap is what makes "marry the idea for a decade-plus" testable.
Q1 Resolution
=============
Founder-market fit: <2-3 sentence claim + named evidence>
Category: <named category + named dynamic shift>
Competition: <3-5 named competitors, direct and indirect>
Unfair advantage: <pick one, substantiate>
Anti-roadmap:
- Won't build: <3 named adjacent problems>
- Won't sell to: <3 named buyer-cohorts>
- Shutdown condition: <the named failure>
Marry-the-idea statement: <one paragraph, defendable for 10 years>
Resolved: <date>
This goes in the session record. refuse-below-threshold reads it whenever Q1-related claims arrive.
When invoked:
archetype-detection.founder-rationalization-defense to find the matching pattern.arc-q2-do-people-care.Nubank (David Vélez, Brazil, ~2013). Pressure-tested Brazilian banking disruption broadly, then identified credit cards specifically as the wedge. Founder-market fit: Vélez had personal Brazilian banking pain + Sequoia background. Category: financial services / consumer credit (named category, not "fintech"). Competition: incumbent Brazilian banks (named: Itaú, Bradesco, Santander). Unfair advantage: regulatory-arbitrage timing window + customer-experience wedge. Anti-roadmap: refused to be a full retail bank in v1; refused to expand outside Brazil in the first 3 years.
The wedge — credit cards specifically, not "banking" generally — is what made Q1 resolvable. "Disrupt Brazilian banking" is not a marry-the-idea statement; "give Brazilians credit cards that don't suck" is.
Cross-reference founder-rationalization-defense for the full table. High-frequency at Q1:
archetype-detection (prerequisite).refuse-below-threshold (gate enforcer).founder-rationalization-defense (the rationalization table).arc-q2-do-people-care (the next stage gate).corpus-retrieval (more iconic cases).Generated v0.1.0: hand-authored from canonical sources (Sequoia Arc framework article 2 at sequoiacap.com/article/pmf-framework-2; Nubank case from same article). v0.2.0 will be regenerated via EnactSkill /generate with full PDF source ingestion.
Provides behavioral guidelines to reduce common LLM coding mistakes, focusing on simplicity, surgical changes, assumption surfacing, and verifiable success criteria.
Searches, retrieves, and installs Agent Skills from prompts.chat registry using MCP tools like search_skills and get_skill. Activates for finding skills, browsing catalogs, or extending Claude.
Creates, edits, and optimizes skills for Claude Code, including drafting, evaluating with test prompts, iterating on performance, and improving skill descriptions for better triggering accuracy.
npx claudepluginhub pauldabrowski85/pmf-superpowers --plugin pmf-superpowers