The Founder Field Guide
A living document covering the operational realities of going from idea to pre-seed company. Not theory. Concrete steps, hard-learned lessons, and AI prompts you can use right now.
Why I wrote this
Most founder guides are written by people who have never founded anything. This one is different. It is built from the operational reality of going from zero to pre-seed — the hard-learned lessons around entity structure, banking limitations, family dynamics, and the security threats that hit before you even have revenue.
This guide covers what I know through the pre-seed stage. I will add chapters as I go further. Use it as a reference, not a checklist. These are principles from lived experience, not a syllabus.
Who this is really for
The first few chapters cover what someone needs before they start. The later chapters — channel strategy, content-led growth, co-founder dynamics, AI as operational infrastructure, the first 90 days — are for the founder who is already in motion. Doing everything simultaneously. Pre-revenue, post-conviction.
The path is not linear. You are forming your entity, pitching investors, building the product, and generating content in the same week. This guide tries to reflect that reality.
Each chapter ends with prompts you can paste directly into your AI tool of choice. Modify the variables in brackets. The goal is to compress operational tasks that eat founder time — not to replace judgment, but to accelerate execution.