The free thing has to stand on its own

Steps Ventures builds a lot of things. Climate tools, a health product, real-estate software, open research. From the outside that can look scattered. It is not. Almost everything shares one shape, and the shape is what keeps a one-person studio from turning into a pile of half-finished ideas.

One motion

Give someone real value for free first. An automated assessment, a report, a working tool they can use today. Then offer a clear, honest path to go further. Two rules make it work. The free thing has to stand on its own, useful even if the person never pays. And the paid thing has to be the obvious next step, not a bait-and-switch. When both are true, you do not have to push growth. It follows the value.

Where we go deep

We push hardest where we have an unfair advantage. Regulated, deadline-driven markets where the work is real and the buyer has a budget. Disaster recovery and government closeout. PFAS and water treatment. Building decarbonization. External security. Small-business acquisition. And in health, where measurement beats marketing. We would rather own one of those than dabble in ten. Breadth is how we find the deep thing. It is not the goal.

How we build

Smallest working version first. Automate the boring parts, research, monitoring, drafting, so a studio of one moves like a team. Ship the backend before the front end that needs it. And prove something stays in use before we make it pretty. A tool nobody returns to does not deserve polish yet.

The test that keeps us honest

Every product has to answer three questions. Who exactly is this for. What is the one outcome they want. What single channel reaches them. If we cannot answer all three, it is a project, not a business, and we say so out loud. Calling a project a business is the easiest way to waste a year. Naming the difference is how the studio stays pointed at the things that can actually pay their way.

That is the whole thesis. One motion, deep where the buyer has a budget, built smallest-first, and honest about what is real. The longer version is on the thesis page.