One page. Six months. Everything the founder needs to know about what to do and when.
This is the single-page summary version of the War Calendar. Print it. Put it on your desk. Review it every Monday morning.
| Month | Date | User Target | Meetings/Week | Primary Focus | Non-Negotiable | Success Gate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month 1 | Apr 2026 | 500 users | 10/week | Manual curation + connector recruitment | NPS ≥35, female ratio ≥50% | 500 users, 20 connectors live |
| Month 2 | May 2026 | 1,500 users | 30/week | Referral engine + influencer content | Referral rate ≥20%, D30 retention ≥22% | PMF app gate: all 4 metrics green |
| Month 3 | Jun 2026 | 3,000 users | 50/week | First 3 offline events | Event NPS ≥45, event fill rate ≥80% | 3 events run, female referral rate ≥30% |
| Month 4 | Jul 2026 | 5,000 users | 100/week | Event momentum + WOM engine | 8+ events/month, WOM ≥30% of installs | Tipping point reached |
| Month 5 | Aug 2026 | 8,000–12,000 | 200/week | PMF gate evaluation | All 8 PMF metrics green | Scale or pivot decision made |
| Month 6 | Sep 2026 | Scale or pivot | — | Series A or pivot execution | Honest PMF evaluation | Series A deck ready |
What Changes Each Month
The founder's primary activity shifts dramatically across the six months. Understanding this shift is critical — doing Month 1 activities in Month 3 is as damaging as doing Month 3 activities in Month 1.
| Month | The Founder Is... | The Founder Is NOT... |
|---|---|---|
| Month 1 | Chief Matchmaker — personally curating every match | Running paid ads or scaling acquisition |
| Month 2 | Referral Engineer — building the WOM loop | Worrying about revenue or monetisation |
| Month 3 | Event Producer — making every event exceptional | Expanding to new districts or cities |
| Month 4 | Growth Architect — scaling what is working | Manually curating matches (the algorithm does it now) |
| Month 5 | Data Analyst — evaluating PMF with brutal honesty | Ignoring bad metrics or rationalising poor data |
| Month 6 | Fundraiser or Pivot Executor — moving fast | Staying in operational mode |
The Three Phases of Founder Focus
Phase A: Manufacture (Months 1–2). The founder is the product. Every match is personal. Every user is known by name. Growth is manufactured through sheer founder effort. This phase ends when referral rate exceeds 20%.
Phase B: Accelerate (Months 3–4). The founder is the event producer and growth engineer. Events replace manual curation as the primary meeting mechanism. WOM begins to compound. This phase ends when the tipping point (5,000 users) is reached.
Phase C: Evaluate (Months 5–6). The founder is the strategist. The product runs itself. The founder's job is to evaluate PMF honestly and either scale aggressively or pivot decisively. This phase ends with a fundraise or a pivot.
WAR CALENDAR RULE: The most common founder mistake is staying in Phase A mode during Phase B. If you are still manually curating matches in Month 3, something is wrong — either the referral engine is not working, or you are not trusting the system. Fix the engine. Trust the system.