The Art of Knowing What It Takes
Scope
Scope decides whether vision ships. Ambition is fuel; scope is the map.
I invest pre-revenue, often at ideation, so much of my world lives in stealth and MVPs. A question I like to ask founders is simple: how long to the first dollar? It is not the most important question I ask. It is a test of scope awareness. I want to see whether you have mapped the real route from a neat pitch to a banked invoice.
In one cybersecurity and fintech company I back, that single question separated “license our API to banks” from the work required to earn revenue: regulatory filings, security audits, procurement gates, long sales calendars, and integrations across mixed stacks. On slides it looked clean. In life, scope had layers.
I am patient capital. I think in years, not quarters. Many of the best outcomes come from holding for the long term, often around eight years. I am not fixated on revenue arriving soon. I care that the building blocks are correct so that when revenue does arrive, it is sustainable, predictable, and, most importantly, durable and growing. I want you to understand scope in that context.
A practical scope framework
Technical: MVP core versus later; infrastructure and security; integration surface; known technical debt.
Market: Who buys; how they discover you; what must change in their behaviour; distribution partners.
Regulatory: Which regimes apply; approval steps; renewals and ongoing obligations; sequencing by jurisdiction.
Operational: Team you need and when; support, QA, incident response; vendor dependencies.
Financial: Runway by milestone; time to first dollar; cash conversion assumptions and sensitivities.
Scope math: Time to revenue = Build time + Integration tax + Buyer calendar + Compliance cycle.
Most teams only estimate the first term.
Validate early
Market: 20+ B2B interviews or 100+ B2C; pre-commit letters; price tests.
Technical: One-page spec; a vertical slice that runs end-to-end; external architecture review.
Regulatory: Map the pathway; get a former regulator or bank risk officer to red-team it.
Resources: Identify critical hires and partners with timing; align raise milestones to proof, not vibes.
Adapt as you learn
Start small. Prove the riskiest assumption first. When in doubt, run a Riskiest Assumption Test (RAT) before a full MVP. Use real customer feedback to widen scope deliberately, not emotionally. Stripe is a good pattern: begin with a simple payment API, earn trust, then extend from a solid base.
When scope overruns (it will)
Refine: Cut to the revenue path. Defer prestige features. Simplify architecture.
Reallocate: Change team shape. Partner on non-core work. Reset timelines in the open.
Pivot if needed: Slack, Instagram, and Shopify reframed scope around the value people actually wanted.
Patterns worth remembering
Enterprise and regulated markets punish under-scoping. Procurement and compliance calendars do not care about your sprint plan.
Integrations are where estimates die. Always budget for integration tax.
Consumer plays often mis-scope distribution. CAC reality will rewrite the deck.
Some winners under-estimated scope and willed it into existence. Outsiders often disrupt because insiders respect constraints too much. The art is to be naïve enough to try and disciplined enough to survive.
What I look for as an angel
Realistic milestones tied to proof, not motion.
Adaptive plans that get rewritten as the truth changes.
Resource awareness that is honest about team capacity, cash, and timing.
A long-term plan for durable, compounding revenue, not a quick pop.
Founders, write the scope down. Revisit it every time reality teaches you something. That discipline shortens the road to durable revenue.