01 Founder journey study

Can you find the
right next move?

This guided walkthrough tests whether founders can discover a relevant pathway, understand its timing, and find the right human without assistance.

8
focused tasks
10–15
minutes
0
identity fields

02 Choose a starting point

Use your company—or
borrow a founder journey.

Scenario selection stays in your browser tab and is never sent with study events. Facilitators can assign one journey to test a specific stage.

Scenario 01 · Idea02

Just incorporated

You have an idea-stage company and need to choose an initial architecture while preserving cash.

  • No funding
  • No deployed infrastructure
  • $0 monthly cloud spend
  • No paying customers
Start this journey
Scenario 02 · Pre-seed03

VC-backed pre-seed startup

You have an early SaaS product, a venture investor, and want credits plus a useful provider contact.

  • Venture funded
  • Using AWS
  • Under $500 monthly spend
  • 1–4 paying customers
Start this journey
Scenario 03 · Seed04

Seed-stage AI startup

You are building an AI product and need cloud credits plus model-building resources without slowing the team down.

  • Venture funded
  • Using AWS
  • $2,500–$10,000 monthly spend
  • Selling to enterprise
Start this journey
Scenario 04 · Migration05

Moving a workload from Google Cloud

You are evaluating a move from Google Cloud and need to understand migration help, economics, and technical contacts.

  • Seed stage
  • Using Google Cloud
  • $10,000–$50,000 monthly spend
  • 5–20 paying customers
Start this journey
Scenario 05 · Series A06

Modernizing from on-premises

You have a meaningful on-premises footprint and need a structured migration path with cost and technical support.

  • Series A
  • On-premises infrastructure
  • $50,000+ monthly spend
  • Existing enterprise customers
Start this journey
Scenario 06 · Enterprise07

Enterprise SaaS distribution

You have an established SaaS product and want Marketplace, private-offer, and co-selling paths.

  • Series A
  • Using AWS
  • $10,000–$50,000 monthly spend
  • Existing enterprise customers
Start this journey

03 Facilitator guide

Observe first.
Interpret second.

Let the participant work without coaching. Capture what they do and say before discussing why the interface may have produced that behavior.

  1. 01
    Assign the journey

    Send one scenario link or ask the participant to use their real company.

  2. 02
    Ask them to think aloud

    Do not explain provider terms, statuses, or where controls are located.

  3. 03
    Record evidence separately

    Keep observed behavior and direct language distinct from product interpretation.

  4. 04
    Debrief after completion

    Ask what felt trustworthy, unfamiliar, or valuable enough to bring them back.

THE DATA BOUNDARY

Useful evidence without building a shadow profile.

Recorded

Coarse completion, timing, comprehension, usefulness, and willingness categories with a timestamp.

Never recorded

Scenario, intake answers, company, name, email, phone, cookies, fingerprint, or persistent session identifier.