Final synthesis

The Bottom Line The room converged decisively: your distribution moat is real and rare, but it is not yet a business — every agent agreed that proving paid conversion and retention is the prerequisite to fundraising, YC, or meaningful product expansion. The single load-bearing claim is that getting even five calculator leads to pay for V1 transforms the story from 'promising project' to 'venture-scale bet.' The biggest unresolved question is whether to raise a small pre-seed now to extend runway while proving those metrics, or wait until the proof exists and negotiate from strength. Where They Agree Prove conversion and retention before fundraising — traffic and lead volume alone are insufficient signals for investors (The Growth Hacker, The Operator, The Strategist, The Investor, The Skeptic, The PM) Product discipline must be anchored to a single, measurable on-site metric (activation rate, minutes saved, hours reduced) and ruthlessly cut low-usage features (The Growth Hacker, The Operator, The Strategist, The PM) YC application should wait until revenue, retention, and a clear conversion funnel from traffic to paid users are demonstrated (The Growth Hacker, The Operator, The Skeptic, The PM) Equity given to design partners is a cap table risk — combined equity must stay minimal or be replaced with discounts/pilots to avoid deterring institutional investors (The Investor, The Skeptic, The PM) The zero-CAC distribution wedge via construction calculators is a genuine and rare strategic asset that meaningfully improves the startup's odds (The Growth Hacker, The Investor, The Strategist) Where They Clash Whether to raise a pre-seed round now or wait until conversion and retention are fully proven — The Strategist: Raise a tight $750k–$1.25m pre-seed SAFE within 60 days to buy runway while proving retention — capital efficiency beats waiting • The Growth Hacker: Raising now is premature and based on vanity metrics; run a 60-day activation experiment first before approaching any investors • The Operator: Hard no on raising until $3–5k MRR and week-2 retention are demonstrated; investor pressure without PMF burns founders • The Skeptic: Wait 90 days to prove conversion; better terms and clarity will result from patience over urgency How to structure the four GC design partner relationships going forward — The Operator: Treat the four GCs as a product constitution — their workflows are the filter for every feature decision • The Skeptic: Four equity partners with differing workflows risk fragmenting product focus and wasting resources on non-core features • The PM: Convert the GCs to paid pilots with discounted annual prepay to prove conversion and retention, replacing equity logic with revenue logic What You Should Do Run a focused 60-day experiment targeting at least one paid conversion from your existing GC design partners or calculator leads — this single data point unlocks your fundraising story. Pick one North Star metric tied to on-site impact (e.g., minutes saved per foreman per week) and gate every product decision against it; kill any feature below 30% weekly active usage. If you raise, cap it at $750k–$1.25m on a SAFE from angels with construction or E&C exit experience — enough runway to hit retention milestones without over-diluting pre-traction. Restructure design partner relationships toward paid pilots with discounts rather than equity; combined advisor equity above 2–3% will raise red flags with institutional investors at Series A. Apply to YC only after you can show paying customers, week-over-week retention growth, and a clear conversion funnel from calculator traffic to paid SaaS — narrative alone will not pass the bar. The ONE Thing to Remember Convert one GC to a paid pilot this month — that single transaction turns your distribution asset into a fundable business.