# Example — Founder Business Review

## Input

> Help me prepare a founder business review for this month. Our top-of-funnel traffic improved after a partnership push, but trial-to-paid conversion is still weak and retention is uneven. Investors are asking for a stronger growth story, the team wants to add more visible AI features, and sales says enterprise interest is promising but not yet repeatable. I need a founder-grade read, not a motivational summary.

## Output

# Founder Business Review

## 1. Current business situation

- **Review period:** this month
- **Company / product stage:** early growth-stage AI product with pressure to show momentum while still stabilizing product value
- **Main business pressure:** growth narrative is improving faster than monetization quality and repeatable commercial traction

## 2. Bottom line

- **What is actually improving:** top-of-funnel traffic and market attention both improved, which means narrative reach is strengthening
- **What looks better than it really is:** traffic growth is not yet turning into durable revenue quality because trial-to-paid conversion remains weak and retention is uneven
- **What is the main business call now:** do not confuse narrative momentum with business maturity; the next period should prioritize conversion quality and retention durability over adding more surface-level AI spectacle

## 3. Growth / retention / monetization signal view

### Positive signals

- Partnership activity is bringing more prospects into the top of the funnel
- Enterprise interest suggests there may be a higher-value segment worth shaping for

### Warning signals

- Trial-to-paid conversion remains weak, which means we are not consistently converting curiosity into monetizable value
- Retention is uneven, which suggests product value is still unreliable after initial adoption
- Visible AI feature pressure is increasing before the business fundamentals are stable

### What the signal pattern likely means

- The market is willing to look, but the product-business system is not yet consistently convincing users to stay and pay. That is a conversion-quality problem, not a traffic problem.

## 4. Strategic diagnosis

### Product truth

- The product still needs to prove more durable repeat value, not just stronger first impression.

### Growth truth

- Top-of-funnel expansion is currently outrunning downstream quality. More acquisition without stronger conversion and retention will likely create noisier metrics, not healthier growth.

### Commercial / monetization truth

- Enterprise demand may become meaningful, but right now it sounds more like signal than repeatable revenue engine.

### Operating constraint

- The team is at risk of splitting focus across investor narrative, flashy feature pressure, and enterprise shaping before the core economic loop is stronger.

## 5. Decision choices for the founder

1. Treat the next period as a conversion-quality sprint, not a top-line growth victory lap.
2. Decide whether enterprise shaping is strategic enough to deserve one narrow lane now or should remain exploratory.
3. Resist adding highly visible AI features unless they can clearly improve conversion, retention, or commercial trust.

## 6. Recommended next-period focus

### Double down on

- Improve the trial-to-paid path and reduce the biggest trust or activation leaks.
- Strengthen retention in the user segment already showing the best product pull.
- Keep enterprise work tightly scoped to the few strongest commercial signals.

### Deliberately avoid / delay

- Broad “AI wow” feature expansion for narrative value alone.
- Large-scale acquisition amplification before conversion quality improves.
- Overcommitting to enterprise breadth before repeatability is clearer.

## 7. Main business risks

- **Risk:** top-of-funnel growth keeps rising while paid conversion stays weak
  - **Why it matters:** this creates a dangerous illusion of momentum without improving business fundamentals
  - **Leading signal to track:** trial-to-paid conversion by acquisition source, activation-to-paid lag, funnel leakage points

- **Risk:** investor narrative pressure distorts roadmap choices
  - **Why it matters:** this could push the team into spectacle-led shipping instead of business-strengthening work
  - **Leading signal to track:** share of roadmap tied to narrative optics versus conversion / retention / repeatable revenue impact

## 8. Founder ask / decision

- **Decision needed:** align the next period around conversion quality + retention durability as the main business objective
- **Resource or trade-off implication:** keep enterprise exploration narrow and avoid broad AI-feature expansion unless it serves economic quality directly
- **Next review checkpoint:** next monthly review, with explicit readout on trial-to-paid improvement, retention consistency, and enterprise signal quality
