startup-strategy
A comprehensive skill for building and scaling startups — covering lean methodology, product-market fit, growth frameworks, fundraising strategy, team building, and common pitfalls that kill young companies.
Profile →npx skills add cosmicstack-labs/mercury-agent-skills --skill startup-strategy --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Startup Strategy Skill ## Core Principles Startups are not smaller versions of big companies. They are temporary organizations designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. Until you find product-market fit, everything is an experiment. After you find it, everything is about execution and growth. ### The Five Commandments of Startup Strategy 1. **Build something people want.** This sounds obvious, yet most startups fail because they build something nobody needs. Everything else is secondary. 2. **Speed is your only advantage.** Big companies have resources, brand, distribution, and talent. Your only edge is the ability to move faster, iterate, and learn. 3. **Measure what matters.** Vanity metrics (page views, registered users) feel good but lie. Actionable metrics (retention, revenue, activation) tell the truth. 4. **Founder-market fit is non-negotiable.** You must deeply understand the problem and the customer. Outsiders can't build what insiders can see. 5. **Fundraising is a means, not an end.** Raising money is not a milestone. It's fuel. The destination is a sustainable, scalable business. ## Startup Maturity Model | Stage | Name | Key Question | Duration
- Core Principles
- The Five Commandments of Startup Strategy
- Startup Maturity Model
- Lean Methodology
- Build-Measure-Learn Loop
- MVP — Minimum Viable Product
- Validated Learning
- Product-Market Fit
- Signs of PMF
- The Supergraphic / Sean Ellis Test
- Measuring Retention
- Growth Frameworks
- AARRR / Pirate Metrics
- Loops vs. Funnels
What does the startup-strategy skill do?
A comprehensive skill for building and scaling startups — covering lean methodology, product-market fit, growth frameworks, fundraising strategy, team building, and common pitfalls that kill young companies.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add cosmicstack-labs/mercury-agent-skills --skill startup-strategy --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From cosmicstack-labs/mercury-agent-skills, a repository with 364 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.