Stuck-to-Scale asks one question per stage: Define asks whether there is a named buyer and a stated bet specific enough to be wrong. Build asks whether a working version of the thesis exists, even roughly. Validate asks whether anyone outside the founding team has paid, or committed to pay. Repeat asks whether the same buyer type has paid more than once, without a founder in the room. Systemise asks whether the venture runs without the founder personally closing every deal. Scale asks whether adding budget reliably adds revenue, at a known cost.
A team with a working prototype and a handful of friendly design partners often describes itself as validating product-market fit — the Repeat-stage language — when the evidence only supports a Build-stage read.
The most common misdiagnosis is a team reading its stage from ambition rather than evidence. The framework’s value is forcing the answer to come from what actually happened, not from momentum or how the round is being pitched.
To run it, have every founder and lead answer the six questions independently before discussing as a group. The disagreement inside the room, usually, is the most useful output of the exercise — more useful than the stage label itself.
