The questions people actually ask.
How do I know which path I'm on?
That is what the Readiness Sprint is for. Most teams think they need an MVP when they need a prototype, or a rebuild when they need to scale what they have. We pressure-test the idea, the demand, and the technical reality first, then recommend the smallest next step that earns the one after it.
Do I have to start at Prototype?
No. If your idea is already validated and you have real users waiting, we start at MVP. If you have a working product buckling under growth, we start at Scale. The Readiness Sprint places you on the right rung so you are not paying for stages you have already cleared.
Why not just build the whole thing at once?
Because the expensive mistakes happen when you commit to a full build before the core bet is proven. Each stage is a decision gate: you only fund the next one once the current one has earned it. That keeps the risk small and reversible while the product is still finding its footing.
Hasn't AI made building software trivial?
AI made writing code faster, not deciding what to build. The hard part was never typing. It was knowing which version to ship, how far to take it, and when to stop. That judgment is exactly what these stages are built around.
What happens between stages?
A real decision, with real evidence. We do not roll one phase into the next automatically. At each gate you see what the stage produced, what it cost, and what the next one would take. Then you decide whether to advance, hold, or stop.