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Growth playbook

The candid version: what to build, where to focus, and how it gets automated. The one idea — almost every product wins with the same move: a free, automated assessment as the lead magnet, draft-only outreach, then a paid offer. Build that engine once, point it at each product.

100x ranking

  • 9Parapet Security Free passive external scan → paid continuous monitoring. Engine half-built; most automatable wedge.
  • 8CloseoutAI Free Drawable-Dollars Audit → paid closeout engine, sold through consulting firms. Proof: $2.5B reconciled to the cent.
  • 8US PFAS-Response (new) Free Compliance-Gap Report (EPA 2027/2029 deadlines + grants) → assessment → monitoring. Real tech credibility.
  • 8Mainferret Free Succession-Gap Report → paid SMB-acquisition feed. SBA-funded buyers; output is the magnet.
  • 8Selene Free symptom-tracker → cycle-synced subscription. 60-day tracked-or-free guarantee competitors cannot copy.
  • 8Plot (the address engine) Per-address Property Story + realtor closing-gift B2B. Productize the Windsor archive — $0 today.
  • 7.5Éblouissant Own the booking + membership recurring + automated review velocity. Cash now, low build.
  • 7Riverton Retreat Warm-list rebooking + best-rate guarantee to pull bookings off Airbnb (~12% margin unlock).
  • 7Canary HSA/FSA-funded home diagnostics, sold to providers. Most defensible, slowest (marketplace cold-start).
  • 7Spinout / IP Tracker Free "Spinout Index" (universities amplify it) → high-ticket VC/TTO seats.
  • 6The Boiler Room Free LL97 penalty estimator → sell qualified leads to retrofit contractors. NYC-only but urgent.
  • 6Helian Same engine as Selene, harder category. Win by owning the circadian + measurement wedge, disciplined CAC.
  • 5InspectAI Real iOS moat + report-as-marketing referral loop, but $79 SMB is a CAC grind. Lean on the referral footer.

Where to spend (focus)

Tier 1 — build the engine here first

Parapet, CloseoutAI, US-PFAS, Mainferret. Identical free-audit → paid shape, best economics, most automatable.

Tier 1b — cash now, low build

Éblouissant (own booking + membership + reviews), Riverton (warm-list rebooking), Selene (free tracker + tracked-or-free guarantee).

Tier 2 — compounding bets

Plot (productize per-address), Spinout (the Index magnet), Boiler Room (lead-sales test), Helian (CAC-disciplined).

Tier 3 — not now

Trading Lab, Scout, Sinkco, ATTN:ARB, nLine — features or single-customer markets; park. AtomH2 is a finance deal, not a funnel.

The reusable lead-magnet engine

  • Assessment Generator — a Cloud Run Job per product that produces the signature free report.
  • Target Builder — scheduled enrichment (Apollo/Hunter/public data) building the ICP list with provenance.
  • Draft Outreach Agent — personalized, finding-led drafts into Gmail. Draft-only; a human approves every send.
  • Scheduler — cadence for the generators + a weekly pipeline digest (drafts queued, replies, bounces).
  • Content/SEO Generator — programmatic pages (condition, address, service) on a schedule, human-approved.

Guardrails: draft-only outreach, Parapet passive-recon only, honor exclusion lists, send caps, halt on >5% bounce.

Next 6 months

Q3 (now–Sep)

Build Engine v1 against Parapet. Productize CloseoutAI’s Drawable-Dollars Audit + the case study. Ship Éblouissant booking + membership + auto-reviews. Turn on Riverton warm-list rebooking.

Q4 (Oct–Dec)

Point the engine at CloseoutAI + Mainferret + US-PFAS. Launch Selene free-tracker + 60-day guarantee. Build Plot per-address checkout. Test Boiler Room lead-sales.

2027 Q1

Double down on whichever 1–2 show real pipeline; retire the rest; raise on the leader’s data.

What needs a human

  • Approve / send the drafted outreach (everything is draft-only by design).
  • Any paid-ad spend, and standing up new Cloud Run Jobs / Schedulers.
  • The InspectAI and Canary product calls.
  • The security rotations + history purges tracked separately.

Full detail in steps-bd/GROWTH_PLAYBOOK.md.