signal

A business no one hears about does not exist. This skill plans how the first customers hear about it, using what the rest of the pack already learned instead of a generic playbook.

Read ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../receipts/rules.md first. Every claim in public copy must be one the ledger allows for a public audience:

python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../receipts/ledger.py" gate --audience public

Step 1: read the evidence

• founder/evidence/calls/ and founder/evidence/claims.md: what real people said. Real words beat panel words; use them first.
• founder/panel/results.md: who buys, who doesn't, and why (simulated). The segments with the highest buy rate are the first audience to test, not a known audience. The top objections are what the marketing must answer.
• founder/competitors.md: how competitors position themselves (so you do not sound like them) and the gap.
• founder/offer.md and founder/pricing.md: what is being sold, at what price.
• founder/numbers.json: what a customer is worth, which caps what you can spend to win one.

If none of these exist, say what is missing and offer to run /truth-serum --quick first. Do not invent an audience.

Step 2: positioning

One line, then the reasons:

For <the segment that buys most>, who <their problem in their words>,
<business> is the <category> that <the gap>, unlike <the nearest alternative>.

Give three versions, recommend one, and say which panel evidence supports it.

Step 3: channels

Where comes before what. A plain ad in the place the buyers already are beats a brilliant one in the wrong place (Ready, Fire, Aim, rule 11 in rules.md). Start from where competitors keep advertising (founder/competitors.md, "how they sell"): copy the medium that works, then be different in one thing. Do not spend on making the company known (a brand campaign, a brochure, a launch party); sell the product.

List where the first audience actually spends attention, specific to the business type and place: foot traffic and window signage, Google Maps, Instagram and TikTok, local creators, neighbourhood groups, partnerships with nearby businesses, email, paid search, paid social. For each: why it fits this buyer, rough cost, and how you will know it worked. Pick two or three to start; say what you are not doing and why.

Step 4: the 30-day campaign

founder/marketing.md gets a dated calendar from launch minus 14 days to launch plus 16: what goes out each day, on which channel, with the message. Include:

• Ten hooks, each answering one panel objection or using one buyer reason, written for the format (a 3-second opening line for video, a headline for an ad, a sign in the window).
• The main ad on four legs: one big idea (a single idea, not five), the big benefit to the buyer (about them, not the company), the big promise that joins the two in one line, and the proof. Proof comes only from claims ledger.py gate --audience public prints; if there is none yet, the ad says what the buyer can try at no risk instead of claiming results.
• Two versions to test against each other in week one (two headlines, two offers or two prices), with the number that picks the winner.
• The launch-week offer from founder/pricing.md and when it ends.
• What to post when there is nothing new to say (behind the scenes, the making of).

Step 5: budget and numbers

• The budget split across the chosen channels.
• The most you can pay to win a customer: "What one customer is worth" in founder/cfo.md (first order plus the back end). Give marketing one target: a number of new customers by a date, each won for less than that.
• The three numbers to watch weekly and the level that means "change something". Write the kill line too: the number after 30 days that means the channel, or the idea, is not working.

Rules

• No fake reviews, follower counts, testimonials, before/afters or "as seen on".
• Panel quotes are research; never use them as customer quotes in ads.
• A result the business has not delivered yet ("3x faster", "save 15 hours") goes in copy as a promise or a goal with its terms, never as a result. Nothing PLANNED or SIMULATED is written as proof.
• Treat buyers the way you would want to be treated: no pressure, no tricks, no talking about them as targets.
• Disclose paid partnerships. Follow the advertising rules for claims in the user's market (health and earnings claims especially). Not legal advice.

Output

founder/marketing.md, opening with The hard truth: the biggest reason the first audience may not hear or care. Next: /straight-talk, then /prove-it.