Idea Sprint

Interview → necessity gate → 3 candidates → score → go/no-go. Output is a decision, not a brainstorm.

Context handoff

• At start: read .claude/context/idea.md and .claude/context/build.md if present — resume from prior state instead of re-interviewing.
• On completion: write/update .claude/context/idea.md with the chosen idea, scores, validation evidence, and open risks. Downstream skills (pitch-deck, hackathon) read it.

Workflow

1. Blunt interview

No flattery. Short, pointed questions, one at a time, until three things are explicit:

• Edge — what the founder knows/can do that most can't (domain, distribution, tech)
• Constraint — time, money, team, chain commitments
• Wedge — the niche entry point, not the end-state vision

Push back on vague answers. "DeFi for everyone" is not a wedge. Full question bank: interview-framework.md.

2. Crypto-necessity gate

Kill question: "What gets worse if I remove the blockchain?" If the answer is vague, aesthetic, or marketing-driven — redirect the idea before scoring it. Pass criteria and redirect patterns: crypto-necessity-test.md.

3. Exactly 3 candidates

Generate three diverse candidates (different mechanisms/markets, not three flavors of one idea). For each:

• One-line pitch + target user
• Winner case — what's true in 18 months if it works
• Bear case — the most likely way it dies

Seed from datasets + live landscape (below), then combine with fresh research. Datasets are inspiration, not constraints.

4. Score /15

Each candidate, 0–3 per dimension (full anchors: scoring-rubric.md):

Dimension	3 means
Founder fit	unfair advantage
MVP speed	shippable in under a week
Distribution	first ten users are obvious
Market pull	people already paying for bad alternatives
Revenue path	clear monetization story

5. Validate + go/no-go

Check demand signals against customer-signal-rubric.md — manual workarounds, active forks, bounties, on-chain activity = real; likes and "cool idea" replies = noise. Sprint structure: validation-framework.md.

• ≥ 8/15 → go. Write idea.md, suggest /scaffold next.
• 6–7 → conditional: name the one dimension to de-risk first.
• < 6 → strong no-go. Every no-go gets a pivot suggestion — use pivot-or-persist.md.

6. Write .claude/context/idea.md

Chosen idea, wedge, scores table, demand evidence, bear case, next step.

Idea datasets (inert JSON, ~515 entries)

In ../ext/solana-new/skills/data/ideas/:

• web3-ideas-combined.json — master list (summary)
• a16z-big-ideas-2025.json, a16z-state-of-crypto-2025.json
• yc-requests-for-startups.json, yc-crypto-companies.json
• alliance-ideas.json, superteam-ideas.json
• rwa-defi-2026-ideas.json, yash-defi-2024-ideas.json

Idea-source guides (markdown commentary on the same sources): ../ext/solana-new/skills/data/guides/ — plus source-map.md and research-playbook.md for where/how to research live.

Live hackathon landscape

ext/colosseum — 5,400+ Colosseum submissions for crowdedness checks, winner patterns, and gap analysis (requires COLOSSEUM_COPILOT_PAT).

Output format

Report spec (3 ranked candidates, scores, decision): output-spec.md.