This page applies Steve Blank’s customer-development method to House-works: a business plan is a stack of untested assumptions, so we write them down across the nine blocks of the Business Model Canvas and leave the building to replace each guess with evidence — until each is validated, invalidated, or iterated into a better one.
The master hypothesis. One bet carries the venture: value is enhanced when a home’s metadata is transferred with the asset. A property that carries a structured, transferable record — documents, plans, decisions, intentions — across the ownership handoff is worth more to the next owner than one where that record is absent or left behind. Structure is table stakes; it is the transfer that creates and realises the uplift. This is tested first (VP1).
The value is two-layered. A today-tool — documentation generation and organisation, planning, management — earns daily use and drives adoption now, independent of any sale. A forward prize — the asset-value uplift — is the headline for owners (you are building transferable equity) and for investors (the venture’s big prize). The combination is what makes House-works both adoptable and investable.
Who, and when. Customers sit at the intersection of a role (asset owner, buyer, agent, builder, lender, renter…) and a context (active search, new-build handoff, planning / mid / post-renovation, compliance, near-sale, probate — essentially the lifecycle phases). The beachhead is a role × context cell, to be found by test — narrowed to three clusters: the transaction cluster (owner / agent / buyer around a sale), the renovation cluster (where the record is generated), and the new-build handoff (a clean-slate route to the first owner).
The grid below is the curated view — the venture-critical Leap of Faith bets and the strongest supporting assumptions. The left column holds the assumption; the right holds the proof, or what would settle it. Most cells start Untested — the value is in watching them change.
Status key: Validated · Testing · Untested · Iterating · Invalidated
Risk tier: Leap of Faith (venture-fatal if wrong — test first) · High (reshapes the model) · Med (matters, but downstream)
1 · Customer segments
| Assumption | Proof point / evidence | Status |
|---|
| CS1Leap of FaithHomeowners hold a latent metadata asset — documents plus the plans, ideas and intentions for the home — that today is absent, fragmented, or trapped in forms that cannot transfer with the property. | Untested. Proven by: interviews showing owners hold this material but in forms that neither structure it nor transfer with the property. | Untested |
| CS2HighThe beachhead is a role × context cell — owner near-sale, mid-renovation owner, buyer in active search, builder at new-build handoff — and which leads is to be determined by test, not assumed. | Untested. Proven by: running the proposition past each candidate cell and comparing where it lands hardest. | Untested |
| CS7HighBuyer-side demand pull: house-hunters wanting to see the record move sellers to produce it — a two-sided flywheel and a cold-start answer. | Untested. Proven by: buyer demand for the record measurably moving sellers to adopt. | Untested |
2 · Value propositions
| Assumption | Proof point / evidence | Status |
|---|
| VP1Leap of FaithValue is enhanced when the metadata is transferred with the asset: a property that carries its structured record across the handoff is worth more to the next owner than one without. Transferability is the crux. (The master hypothesis.) | Untested — the venture's primary test. Proven by: a measurable transfer premium — higher price, faster sale, or greater buyer confidence — for a property that comes with the record. | Untested |
| VP2Leap of FaithDocumentation generation and organisation is a compelling today-value that drives adoption independent of any sale — House-works generates and structures the record, not merely stores it. | Untested — the core adoption hypothesis. Proven by: users completing the generate-and-organise flow and returning to it unprompted. | Testing |
| VP4HighOne documentation context is the stronger entry wedge — renovation documentation (generated at works) versus sales/transaction documentation (assembled at sale). | Untested. Proven by: comparing adoption and willingness-to-pay across the two wedges. | Untested |
| VP6HighThe two layers combine into one proposition: the forward prize carries the marketing and investor conversations while the today-tool sustains usage. The combination beats either layer alone. | Untested. Proven by: the forward-value message lifting owner conversion and resonating with investors, while the tool sustains use. | Untested |
3 · Channels
| Assumption | Proof point / evidence | Status |
|---|
| CH1HighThe intermediary / embedded channel works, with the set contingent on the wedge — transaction intermediaries, renovation trades, or new-build developers. | Untested. Proven by: an embedded channel producing sign-ups at a cost below the value of a customer. | Untested |
| CH3HighTransfer-as-acquisition: when a property carrying a record is sold or handed over, the next owner is acquired at near-zero cost as the record transfers with the asset — a compounding, self-propagating growth mechanic. | Untested. Proven by: a meaningful share of new owners of record-carrying properties activating at near-zero acquisition cost. | Untested |
4 · Customer relationships
| Assumption | Proof point / evidence | Status |
|---|
| CR1Leap of FaithOwners keep the record current across the long gaps — not from diligence, but because tool-utility and the equity incentive make it worthwhile. | Untested — the retention question. Proven by: a cohort still updating records 6+ months on, at a sustainable prompting cost. | Untested |
| CR3HighThe relationship transfers: at handoff it can carry to the next owner, making retention per-asset across the chain of ownership, not just per-user. | Untested. Proven by: an incoming owner continuing the relationship across a transfer. | Untested |
| CR4HighTrust and data-integrity: owners trust the record enough to rely on it and let it represent their asset's value — accuracy is a precondition of the relationship. | Untested. Proven by: users relying on the record for real decisions, not merely storing documents in it. | Untested |
5 · Revenue streams
| Assumption | Proof point / evidence | Status |
|---|
| RS1Leap of FaithSomeone in the chain will pay — owner or intermediary. Willingness-to-pay exists. | Untested. Proven by: a willingness-to-pay signal — a letter of intent, pre-order, or paid pilot. | Untested |
| RS3HighThe payer need not be the user: an intermediary (builder, developer, agent) pays while the owner uses it free — aligning payment with the handoff and solving the quiet-gap problem. | Untested. Proven by: an intermediary committing to pay on owners' behalf. | Untested |
6 · Key resources
| Assumption | Proof point / evidence | Status |
|---|
| KR1HighDefensibility rests on the structured, transferable record, compounding per-property across owners — a moat a flat document store cannot replicate. | Untested. Proven by: per-property history that raises replication and switching cost over time. | Untested |
| KR6MedStandard-setting: House-works' format can become the de-facto transferable property-record standard — a category-defining resource. | Untested. Proven by: an intermediary or institutional body treating the format as the expected way records travel. | Untested |
7 · Key activities
| Assumption | Proof point / evidence | Status |
|---|
| KA1HighDocumentation generation and organisation — ingest, generate and auto-categorise into a transferable structure — accurate enough that users trust it rather than re-doing it by hand. | Untested. Proven by: generation-and-organisation accuracy high enough that users stop correcting it. | Untested |
| KA2HighThe transfer mechanism can be built: records move between owners at handoff reliably, securely and verifiably — making the transfer premium, the acquisition flywheel and relationship continuity real. | Untested. Proven by: a live handoff where the incoming owner receives a complete, verifiable record with trust intact. | Untested |
8 · Key partnerships
| Assumption | Proof point / evidence | Status |
|---|
| KP3HighValue-recognition partners — lenders, insurers, valuers — will price off or endorse the record: the strongest external proof of the transfer premium. | Untested. Proven by: a lender or insurer treating the record as pricing-relevant. | Untested |
| KP4HighStandard-setting partners — RICS, NHBC, Law Society, trade bodies — will legitimise the format toward a standard. | Untested. Proven by: an institutional body interested in endorsing or shaping the format. | Untested |
9 · Cost structure
| Assumption | Proof point / evidence | Status |
|---|
| CO4MedBlended acquisition cost falls over time as transfer-as-acquisition adds near-zero-cost inherited owners — the cost structure compounds favourably with scale. | Untested. Proven by: blended CAC declining as transferred and inherited owners enter the base. | Untested |