KILL MY STARTUP

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Free interactive tool

The Kill Score

Stress-test your pitch before an investor does. A pitch is a stress test of your business model, not a performance. Score the stress first, and walk into the room ready for the worst-case questions.

How it works

Ten blocks. Thirty questions. One Kill Score.

Nine of the questions come straight from the Business Model Canvas, one block at a time. The tenth is the pitch itself. Each is framed as the question an investor will actually ask. Answer with the option closest to the truth, not the one closest to the pitch. The top option adds nothing to your Kill Score. The bottom option adds the most, because that is the answer that gets you killed in the room.

One question per screen, about five minutes. Scripting off? Give the top answer 0 points and the bottom 3, add up all thirty, divide by 90 and multiply by 100. That is your Kill Score. Everything runs on your own device, and nothing you enter is sent to a server.

01 · Customer SegmentsQ1 / 30How specific is the customer you are raising to serve?Who exactly pays.
01 · Customer SegmentsQ2 / 30How painful is the problem for them today?Who exactly pays.
01 · Customer SegmentsQ3 / 30Can you size the market bottom-up, buyers times price?Who exactly pays.
02 · Value PropositionsQ4 / 30Painkiller or vitamin?The job you finish better.
02 · Value PropositionsQ5 / 30Can you state the value in one sentence, no adjectives?The job you finish better.
02 · Value PropositionsQ6 / 30Do you name the real alternative, including doing nothing?The job you finish better.
03 · ChannelsQ7 / 30Do you have one repeatable channel that reaches them?How they find and buy.
03 · ChannelsQ8 / 30Do you know your cost to acquire a customer?How they find and buy.
03 · ChannelsQ9 / 30How well do you know the path from stranger to paying?How they find and buy.
04 · Customer RelationshipsQ10 / 30Do customers come back or keep paying?How you keep them.
04 · Customer RelationshipsQ11 / 30Do you know your churn or repeat rate as a number?How you keep them.
04 · Customer RelationshipsQ12 / 30Over time, does an account expand or leak?How you keep them.
05 · Revenue StreamsQ13 / 30Has anyone paid you real money for this?How money arrives.
05 · Revenue StreamsQ14 / 30Is your price tested, not a placeholder?How money arrives.
05 · Revenue StreamsQ15 / 30Do you know willingness to pay for this segment?How money arrives.
06 · Key ResourcesQ16 / 30If a funded team copied you next quarter, what stops them?What you own that can't be rented.
06 · Key ResourcesQ17 / 30Is this team the reason this company wins?What you own that can't be rented.
06 · Key ResourcesQ18 / 30The one asset that would stop the business if it vanished, do you own it?What you own that can't be rented.
07 · Key ActivitiesQ19 / 30Your single hardest proof this is working?What you've proven.
07 · Key ActivitiesQ20 / 30Are you focused on one metric that matters?What you've proven.
07 · Key ActivitiesQ21 / 30Can you show momentum over time, not a snapshot?What you've proven.
08 · Key PartnershipsQ22 / 30Do key partners give leverage or a single point of failure?Leverage and dependency risk.
08 · Key PartnershipsQ23 / 30If you build on someone else's platform or model, what is your exposure?Leverage and dependency risk.
08 · Key PartnershipsQ24 / 30Is any single customer more than a quarter of revenue?Leverage and dependency risk.
09 · Cost StructureQ25 / 30Default alive or default dead?Cost, burn, and the ask.
09 · Cost StructureQ26 / 30Is your ask specific: how much, for what milestone, how many months?Cost, burn, and the ask.
09 · Cost StructureQ27 / 30Do revenue and cost net out per customer?Cost, burn, and the ask.
10 · Delivery & Q&AQ28 / 30Can you tell the whole story in three minutes without slides?Surviving the room.
10 · Delivery & Q&AQ29 / 30Have you rehearsed the hard questions with real answers?Surviving the room.
10 · Delivery & Q&AQ30 / 30When you do not know an answer, what do you do?Surviving the room.

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