90-Day Sprint: Stage 3 — Growth to Scale-Ready

> Prerequisite: Complete Stage 0–2 sprints in ninety-day-sprints.md first.

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Stage 3: Growth — 90 Days to Scale-Ready

Goal: Go from "repeatable sales" to "systems, team, and metrics that are ready for investment or aggressive growth."

Weeks 1-2: Systems Audit

Deliverables:

• Audit of all manual processes (list everything you do by hand)
• Top 5 processes to automate or systematize
• Tool stack finalized (CRM, billing, support, analytics)
• SOPs written for top 3 recurring tasks

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Weeks 3-4: Team Buildout Plan

Deliverables:

• Org chart for next 12 months (who you need, when)
• Job descriptions for next 2 hires
• Compensation research for each role
• Recruiting pipeline started (job posts live, outreach begun)

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Weeks 5-6: Unit Economics Lock-In

Deliverables:

• Fully calculated unit economics: CAC, LTV, payback period, gross margin
• Break-even analysis: revenue needed to cover all costs
• Scenario model: what happens at 2x, 5x, 10x current customers?
• Pricing adjusted if unit economics don't work

Unit economics template:

Revenue per customer/month:     $[___]
Cost to acquire (CAC):          $[___]
Cost to serve/month:            $[___]
Gross margin per customer:      $[___]
Months to payback CAC:          [___]
Expected customer lifespan:     [___] months
Lifetime value (LTV):           $[___]
LTV:CAC ratio:                  [___]:1    (target: 3:1+)

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Weeks 7-8: Fundraising Prep (if applicable)

Deliverables:

• Investor one-pager updated with real metrics
• 10-slide pitch deck drafted
• Financial model: 12-month projection with assumptions
• Target investor list: 30 names with warm intro paths

Skip this if bootstrapping. Instead, use Weeks 7-8 for:

• Profitability plan: path to covering all costs from revenue
• Reinvestment plan: how profits get deployed for growth
• Cash reserve target: 3-6 months of operating expenses

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Weeks 9-10: Growth Experiments

Deliverables:

• 3 growth experiments designed and launched
• Each experiment has: hypothesis, metric, timeline, success criteria
• Budget allocated per experiment
• Weekly check-in on experiment progress

Experiment format:

Hypothesis: If we [action], then [metric] will [change] by [amount].
Metric: [specific number we're measuring]
Timeline: [2-4 weeks]
Budget: $[amount]
Success criteria: [specific threshold]
Failure criteria: [when to kill it]

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Weeks 11-12: Scale-Ready Assessment

Deliverables:

• Scale-readiness scorecard completed
• Board or advisor update sent
• Next 90-day plan drafted (growth, fundraise, or optimize)
• Stage 3 retrospective

Scale-readiness scorecard:

4+ Ready = scale. 3+ Not Ready = optimize before growing.

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Weekly Checkpoint Template

Use this every Friday. Takes 15 minutes.

WEEKLY CHECKPOINT — Week [#] of 12

Stage: [0 / 1 / 2 / 3]
Date: [DATE]

TARGETS THIS WEEK:
1. [Target] — [Hit / Missed / In Progress]
2. [Target] — [Hit / Missed / In Progress]
3. [Target] — [Hit / Missed / In Progress]

KEY NUMBERS:
- Conversations this week: [#]
- New customers/signups: [#]
- Revenue this week: $[#]
- Pipeline (active leads): [#]

WHAT WORKED:
- [1 thing]

WHAT DIDN'T:
- [1 thing]

BIGGEST BLOCKER:
- [1 thing — and what you'll do about it]

NEXT WEEK'S TOP 3:
1. [Action + deliverable]
2. [Action + deliverable]
3. [Action + deliverable]

GUT CHECK (1-10):
- Confidence in the idea: [#]
- Energy level: [#]
- Pace (am I moving fast enough?): [#]

If your confidence drops below 5 for two weeks in a row, stop sprinting and revisit your assumptions.

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> Disclaimer: This playbook provides educational frameworks for startup planning. Timelines and targets vary by industry, market, and founder circumstances. Adjust targets to your specific context. This is not professional business advice.