Consulting · Commercial Opportunity Assessment
Prove the business case before you fund the build.
Most platforms fail commercially, not technically. We put your venture through the same commercial due diligence an investor would run — value model, market sizing, commercial model, GO/NO-GO. Fixed price for a fixed scope, agreed in writing before work starts.
No retainer. No open-ended scope. One fixed price, one clear answer.
The short answer
What is a Commercial Opportunity Assessment?
A Commercial Opportunity Assessment is a fixed-price commercial due diligence engagement that establishes whether a software venture is worth building, before any development budget is committed. MVP1 Ventures delivers it across four working sessions, at a fixed price scoped and agreed before work starts.
The assessment defines how the platform creates value, identifies who pays and how much, sizes the addressable market across Australia, New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, and produces a five to ten year commercial model in Excel with a transparent assumptions register. It closes with a one-page GO or NO-GO recommendation.
Roughly 2–5% of founders build a sustainable platform business, and the ones who do tend to follow a process rather than an instinct. This assessment exists to establish early and cheaply, on evidence rather than conviction, whether a given venture is one of them.
Built for founders at idea stage, and for teams holding an AI-built prototype who intend to invest in product engineering.
The expensive mistake
You are not at risk of building the wrong software. You are at risk of building the wrong business.
Capital gets committed to design and development before anyone confirms whether the market will pay, how the business actually makes money, or whether the unit economics survive contact with reality. There are two ways this ends, and we see both every month.
Build first, validate never
A six-figure sum goes into development. The product launches and it works. Users don't convert, pricing doesn't cover the cost to serve, and the roadmap has no priority logic. Six months later the runway is gone and the product works technically while failing commercially.
Validate first, then build blind
The commercial case checks out and confidence is high. But development starts from a feature wish list instead of a locked scope. Scope expands weekly, the timeline blows out, budget follows it, and what ships is not the product the market validated.
Both failures cost the same money
Both are avoidable in under six weeks. Neither is avoidable once the first line of code is written.
What the engagement covers
Four working sessions. One decision you can defend to a board.
Problem validation and the value model
Problem validation, a press-release narrative that stress-tests the positioning, three customer personas in jobs-to-be-done format, the value exchange model across every stakeholder group, monetisation strategy and baseline pricing.
Market sizing and competitive landscape
AI-assisted market sizing across Australia, New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. TAM, SAM and SOM with cited sources and confidence ratings, plus a competitor map and pricing benchmarks.
The commercial model
A five to ten year model in Excel: assumptions register, revenue forecast, acquisition and conversion metrics, gross and net margin, breakeven, and the cash the plan needs before it turns. Change one input and watch the outputs move.
GO / NO-GO and debrief
A one-page decision framework and an independent recommendation: proceed, pause, validate further, pivot, partner — or stop. We are paid for the assessment, not for the answer.
Governance: a structured intake pack is completed within three business days, every session is recorded, status is written weekly, and nothing proceeds past a quality gate without your sign-off.
Deliverables you own
Assets you can take to your board, your leadership team, or any development team.
You own the outputs on payment. Our licence-back covers our methodology only — never your venture concept, business model, customer insight, financial assumptions or commercial analysis.
The commercial model
Excel, not a PDF. A transparent assumptions register drives every forward number, and scenarios switch from a single cell. Built so you can defend the logic line by line.
The value exchange model
Every stakeholder mapped two ways — what they receive, and what the platform captures in return. Skip this and you build a charity with a pricing page.
Market & competitive research
TAM, SAM and SOM with cited sources across five jurisdictions, a competitor map, pricing benchmarks, and an honest read on where you actually sit.
Monetisation & pricing strategy
How the platform makes money, who pays, and what they'll pay — supported by independent, defensible pricing methodologies rather than a single guess.
Business model canvas
The whole commercial picture on one page, in a format an investor or a board will recognise immediately.
The GO / NO-GO decision
One page. An independent recommendation to proceed, pause, validate, pivot, partner or stop, with the reasoning documented.
Put it in perspective
Assessment first, or build first.
The comparison founders rarely run before they commit capital.
| Assessment first | Build first, validate later | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost to find out | A fixed assessment fee, scoped and agreed up front | A six-figure build budget |
| If the answer is no | Capital preserved, rationale documented | Capital spent, runway gone |
| What you hold at the end | Commercial model, market research, pricing strategy, board-ready decision | Software that works and does not sell |
| Decision-readiness | Artefacts a board will accept | A product story without a model behind it |
| Scope discipline | Scope locked against a validated model | Feature wish list, expanding weekly |
In practice
How one question changed the whole business.
A founder arrived with a community-powered civic justice platform: real audience, early product, and a freemium consumer subscription aimed at true-crime enthusiasts. The audience was genuine. The business model was not.
Our value exchange analysis asked the question the founder hadn't: when a cold case is resolved, who receives the most value? Not the enthusiast. The government agency whose resource ceiling created the backlog in the first place.
That single reframe moved the venture from a consumer subscription play chasing thousands of small payments to a business-to-government civic technology platform priced against police and justice budgets — with the community repositioned as the operational engine, paid rather than charged. Same product, same community, same founder, an addressable opportunity two orders of magnitude larger.
Found during the assessment. Found after the build, it would have cost the business.
Qualification
This is not for everyone. Deliberately.
Engage us if
- You have budget allocated and refuse to deploy it on an assumption
- Your idea came from lived industry pain, not a brainstorm
- You need artefacts a board or procurement team will accept
- You have a vibe-coded prototype and want the commercial case tested before you invest in engineering
- You want a partner who will tell you to stop if stopping is the right call
Don't engage us if
- You want validation of a decision you have already made
- You want a development quote without a defined scope
- You cannot commit a named decision-maker to live sessions
- You are looking for the cheapest development shop rather than the right commercial answer
- You want legal or accounting advice — our projections are indicative, not financial advice
What comes next
A GO decision is the start of the methodology, not the end of it.
The assessment is Track 1 of the Founder's Accelerator Program. Once the commercial case holds, the next question changes from should we build this to what exactly are we building — and that is a different engagement.
Product Discovery, Design, Prototype & Market Validation
Scope lock and design lock before a developer is briefed. User journeys, a full product requirements document, wireframes, a clickable prototype, and real customer validation — so demand is proven before you commit a build budget.
- A clickable prototype covering the full journey
- Real customer conversations and a validation campaign
- A GO / NO-GO on development, backed by evidence
The Founder's Accelerator Program
All five stages, from due diligence through discovery, design and validation, into development and launch. Three entry points, depending on how much conviction you already have.
- See where the assessment sits in the wider journey
- Compare all three entry tracks side by side
- Understand the validation gates between stages
Already have a working prototype that needs hardening rather than validating? Vibe-coded to production is the shorter path.
Straight answers
Questions founders actually ask.
What happens if the assessment says no?
You exit informed, with capital preserved and a documented rationale you can show a board or a co-founder. We are paid for the rigour of the assessment, not for a particular answer. A no delivered during the assessment is a better outcome than the same conclusion reached after a six-figure build.
How is the assessment priced?
Every engagement is scoped first and priced second. You get a fixed price for a fixed scope, confirmed in writing before you commit — not a rate card, and not an hourly rate that turns into a blank cheque. No additional charges are required to complete the agreed scope. Book a fit call and we will scope it and quote it. For context, a first build that fails commercially typically costs a six-figure sum, and the founder time that went with it.
What does the engagement ask of me?
Four live working sessions plus a structured intake pack. We agree the schedule with you when we scope the engagement, and your lead keeps you posted on progress and deliverables throughout. Expect roughly six to eight hours of your own time. You bring domain expertise, industry knowledge and competitor awareness; we do the modelling, research and production between sessions.
Who owns the deliverables and the IP?
You do, on payment. The assessment outputs and all venture-specific material are yours. The licence back to us covers our own methodologies and frameworks only, and expressly excludes your confidential information, venture concept, business model, customer insight, financial assumptions and commercial analysis. Any public reference to you or your venture requires your prior written approval.
Is the commercial model something I can actually use?
Yes. It is a live Excel model, not a PDF. A distinct assumptions register drives every downstream calculation, scenarios switch from a single cell, and the logic is transparent enough to defend line by line in a board meeting. It is built so you understand the drivers of your own business, not to impress you. Projections are indicative and are not financial advice.
Can you build the platform afterwards?
Yes, but there is no obligation. Design, development, launch and ongoing support are separate engagements, quoted against a completed scope rather than a guess. The handover package is deliberately built so any competent development team can build from it — you are never dependent on the firm that holds the documentation.
Do I need this if I already have a prototype?
Often yes. A working prototype proves the software can be built; it does not prove anyone will pay for it, or that the unit economics survive contact with the market. Teams arriving with a vibe-coded build from ChatGPT, Claude, Lovable, Manus or Replit are a common case — the code exists, the commercial case has never been tested. The assessment tests the business, not the build.
What happens if scope changes mid-engagement?
Nothing happens without your written approval and an updated proposal. Scope questions are raised inside 48 hours, and no work proceeds past a quality gate without sign-off. That governance is as much the product as the deliverables are.