The launch funnel and its gates
Gates decide when to spend more on acquisition. No percentage gate is read until its cohort has 20 or more accounts (or the minimum shown). Below that, report counts, judge each account individually, and keep the gate shut.
| Stage | Target | Gate before scaling spend | Minimum sample |
|---|---|---|---|
| Soft launch to founders' network | Personal message to every warm contact; first-call next-step rate near 100% | The founders' Phase 0 launch gates | 20 first calls |
| Waiting or warm list, private window | 10% to 25% pay within 30 days | Under 5% after 14 days: fix the offer or message before paid promotion | 20 people |
| Pricing page, warm traffic | 3% or more of visitors pay | Seats-remaining figure from billing only; copy checked against the claims register | 500 tracked visitors |
| Set-up, days 0 to 2 | 80% or more connect LinkedIn within 48 hours | A person on hand for every Spark account and every account of 3 or more seats | 20 accounts |
| Activation by day 14 | 40% per weekly cohort | No paid acquisition at scale until two consecutive weekly cohorts reach 40% and month-one churn is 6% or less | 20 accounts per cohort |
| Habit, days 60 to 90 | A majority of paid seats | Customer success contact across the whole window | 20 seats |
| Month 1 | Logo churn 6% or less; cancellation or refund requests 10% or less | Over 8% churn or 15% requests: pause promotion, fix onboarding | 20 accounts past month 1 |
| Months 2 to 6 | Three-month retention 85% or more; monthly cancellations under 3% by month 6 | Case studies only from accounts that met their agreed success criteria, with written consent | 20 accounts per cohort |
Only the first row comes from the CRM. The rest need billing (list, pricing page, churn, retention; the pricing page also needs web analytics), product analytics (set-up, activation, habit) and the support inbox (cancellation requests). Alongside it runs the sales-led funnel: qualified conversations per week; first-call next-step rate; Discovery done to Demo done to Proposal to Won to Active. Coaching uses the weakest conversion. Input standard: each founder who sells holds two strong, qualified conversations a week. Label every account with its founding band, because we found no published data on whether lower-priced cohorts retain differently.