By rickmanelius
12 battle-tested founder skills from Save Your Startup by Rick Manelius
npx claudepluginhub rickmanelius/skills --plugin save-your-startupWalk through every cost and revenue assumption in your business model using structured checklists. Surfaces hidden risks, flags unknowns, and builds a complete assumptions map.
Identify and break the biggest bottleneck in your startup using a diagnostic loop based on Goldratt's Theory of Constraints. Walk through a five-step process to find what is limiting your throughput and systematically fix it.
Self-assessment across four dimensions — Skills, Experience, Leadership, Doing Hard Things — on a 2x2 of Capability vs. Willingness. From Chapter 2 of Save Your Startup by Rick Manelius.
Break a large goal down into a connected hierarchy from decade-level vision to today's next action. Systematically chunks across seven time horizons so every daily effort connects to the bigger picture.
Work through a hard decision by naming fears, writing mitigations, and rating actual severity. Adapted from Tim Ferriss's fear-setting framework with a numerical rating system by Rick Manelius. From Chapter 7 of Save Your Startup.
Walk through Chris Salter's Five-Finger Pitch framework -- a five-minute verbal pitch where each finger represents one minute of content. The AI guides you through each finger with probing questions and helps you craft a polished pitch script.
Honest behavioral assessment to help founders identify which of three types they are currently operating as -- delusional, pretender, or real deal -- based on what they actually do, not what they believe about themselves.
Define three scope tiers for any project -- LOW (minimum proof of concept), HIGH (dream version), and MEDIUM (best balance of value and cost) -- to make smarter build decisions and avoid over-engineering.
Walk backward from a revenue target to the daily growth you actually need. Five-minute back-of-napkin model that exposes whether your plan adds up -- or whether you are off by an order of magnitude.
Collaborative exercise to create a crystal-clear definition of "done" before any work begins. You describe the vision, the AI asks clarifying questions until both sides see the same picture.
Reclaim 5-15 hours per week by auditing your time and applying the 3 D's — Delete, Delegate, Delay — to every low-value activity. Rick Manelius's original framework from Chapter 8 of Save Your Startup.
Run your product through the seven questions every prospect silently asks before they care. If the customer cannot mentally answer them fast, you will be met with the worst rejection of all -- apathy.
Claude Code skills based on Save Your Startup by Rick Manelius.
In Claude Code:
/plugin marketplace add rickmanelius/skills
/plugin install save-your-startup
That's it — Claude Code will fetch the repo and register all 12 skills automatically.
This book stands on the shoulders of giants. You'll see well cited playbooks in the list below, which I've adapted for startups.
| Skill | Command | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Paint Done | /sys:paint-done | Define "done" before any work begins |
| Chunk | /sys:chunk | Break a 10-year vision into today's next action |
| High Medium Low | /sys:high-medium-low | Define scope tiers so you build the right amount |
| Assumptions Audit | /sys:assumptions-audit | Surface hidden cost and revenue assumptions |
| Napkin Math | /sys:napkin-math | Walk backward from a revenue target to daily growth |
| Capability Willingness Matrix | /sys:capability-willingness-matrix | Assess if you have the skills AND willingness |
| Founder Type Check | /sys:founder-type-check | Honest check — delusional, pretender, or real deal |
| Fear Setting | /sys:fear-setting | Name fears, write mitigations, rate severity |
| WIIFM Check | /sys:wiifm-check | 7 questions every prospect silently asks |
| Five Finger Pitch | /sys:five-finger-pitch | Build a 5-finger, 5-minute verbal pitch |
| Ruthless Elimination | /sys:ruthless-elimination | Reclaim 5-15 hours/week with Delete, Delegate, Delay |
| Break Bottleneck | /sys:break-bottleneck | Find and fix your #1 throughput constraint |
Over 50 candidate skills were identified from the book — these 12 scored highest on universality, power, and AI-transferability. See the full ranking and file an issue if you'd like another one included.
Not sure where to begin? See starter-questions.md for 2-3 sample prompts per skill you can copy-paste to try them out immediately.
Built by Rick Manelius — repeat founder, Techstars All-Star Mentor.
MIT
AI-powered strategic advisor for entrepreneurs. 158 business framework skills, 24 diagnostic triage systems, 21 multi-step playbooks, 48 output templates, 9 industry packs, board simulation, implementation tracking, research guides, and organizational politics navigation. Supports solo mode, Stoic philosophical mode, and multilingual output.
Adversarial thinking partner for founders and executives. Stress-tests plans, prepares for board meetings, navigates hard decisions, and forces honest post-mortems.
🎯 Chief Executive Officer — Strategic Visionary & Ultimate Accountability
Lean agent skills for building, shipping, strategy, and growth — no context bloat.
Editorial "Startup Founder" bundle for Claude Code from Antigravity Awesome Skills.
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Battle-tested Claude Code plugin for engineering teams — 50 agents, 188 skills, 68 legacy command shims, production-ready hooks, and selective install workflows evolved through continuous real-world use
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