diff --git a/docs/strategy/BUSINESS_PLAN.md b/docs/strategy/BUSINESS_PLAN.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1496f7b --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/strategy/BUSINESS_PLAN.md @@ -0,0 +1,117 @@ +# geolocal.io — Business Plan (working draft) + +**Branch:** `planning-rev2` +**Status:** In progress — conversation checkpoint, not final +**Purpose:** One durable place for the clean plan. Existing docs on `main` are raw material; this file is what we iterate. + +**How we work this file** +- Checkpoint here after every few solid decisions (or when a phrase must not be lost). +- Prefer revising this over spawning parallel strategy docs. +- Mark unknowns as open questions. Do not invent market numbers here. + +--- + +## 1. North star (wording still open) + +**Intent (stable):** Enable local businesses to be discovered and recommended by AI assistants. + +Still wordsmithing the exact sentence. The job does not change while the phrasing does. + +--- + +## 2. What the company is + +Infrastructure — not a consumer destination. + +- Host structured business truth so AI assistants can discover, understand, and recommend local businesses (services and local retail with real-world presence). +- Give the business a simple way to point at that truth (no servers for them to run). +- Orchestrate booking / payment / related partners where needed; do not rebuild Calendly or Shopify. +- Stay invisible to end consumers; win by being useful to agents and trustworthy to owners. + +**Not:** another Yelp/Google for human browsing attention. + +--- + +## 3. Who we serve + +**Primary customer:** the business owner. + +By extension: +- Someone in their organization acting for them +- A partner they already trust (agency, SEO, chamber, tourism board) + +Partners are a **path to the owner**, not a different product. + +--- + +## 4. How demand shows up (two moments) + +1. **Presence for other AIs** — When a consumer’s assistant asks for a local plumber / salon / store, structured geolocal data can be consulted and acted on. +2. **Owner (or their AI) asks for help** — Emerging path: “How do we help our business be discovered by AI?” Geolocal should invest in scenarios where the owner’s own AI can diagnose and set that up — not only human sales through agencies. + +Same north star; different moments of truth. + +--- + +## 5. Wedge and flywheel (direction agreed) + +**Preferred wedge:** a free AI-visibility checkup. + +Why: +- Shows immediate value / need +- Builds critical mass +- Small free actions amplify adoption + +**Long-term reputation bet:** become so useful and dense that AI systems default to checking geolocal for local-class queries — analogous to how they lean on Yelp or Foursquare today. + +**Strategic read (not pricing gimmick):** free usefulness → coverage → agent trust → more local queries resolved via geolocal → more owners want in → denser graph. + +### Open — first free win after checkup + +Unresolved on purpose (checkpoint before answering): + +- **A.** Free checkup *plus* a small durable win (e.g. basic presence live, structured hours, minimal genre pack) +- **B.** Diagnosis only, with a clear line on what paid unlocks + +Lean toward **A** if the goal is critical mass and “AI knows to check geolocal,” because empty scores do not densify the graph. Final call: Ty. + +--- + +## 6. Business plan audience (still open) + +Clarify what this document must optimize for first: +- Internal clarity (founders / operators) +- Investors +- Partners / channels + +Can serve more than one later; pick the primary reader for v1 structure. + +--- + +## 7. Source material (do not duplicate blindly) + +Treat as inputs, not competing sources of truth while this draft is live: + +- `NORTH_STAR.md` +- `docs/strategy/CANONICAL_STRATEGY.md` +- `docs/gtm/`, `docs/investors/`, `docs/product/` +- `docs/archive/` — historical only + +If something here conflicts with `CANONICAL_STRATEGY.md`, resolve on purpose in a later pass — do not silently fork forever. + +--- + +## 8. Checkpoint log + +| When | What landed | +| :--- | :--- | +| 2026-09-15 | North star intent; owner-first buyer; partners as extension; agent-mediated “get discovered” path; free checkup wedge; reputation / critical-mass flywheel; open question on free durable win vs diagnosis-only | + +--- + +## Next conversation topics + +1. Decide free win after checkup (A vs B above) +2. Primary reader for v1 of this plan +3. Offer / packaging (free vs paid) without inventing numbers +4. 90-day proof: what “reputable enough that AI checks us” requires in coverage and quality diff --git a/docs/strategy/README.md b/docs/strategy/README.md index 19c6623..6a096d5 100644 --- a/docs/strategy/README.md +++ b/docs/strategy/README.md @@ -2,11 +2,12 @@ | Doc | Role | |-----|------| -| **[CANONICAL_STRATEGY.md](./CANONICAL_STRATEGY.md)** | Final-draft operating strategy — team plans, builds, and sells against this | +| **[BUSINESS_PLAN.md](./BUSINESS_PLAN.md)** | Working business plan on `planning-rev2` — iterate here; checkpoint conversation decisions | +| **[CANONICAL_STRATEGY.md](./CANONICAL_STRATEGY.md)** | Prior operating strategy draft — raw material until the business plan supersedes or merges it | ## Companion product specs - [Product overview](../product/overview.md) - [Use cases](../product/use-cases/) -If another doc conflicts with the canonical strategy, update that doc or deliberately revise the strategy. Do not leave both live. +If another doc conflicts with the active plan on this branch, update that doc or deliberately revise the plan. Do not leave both live as competing truth.