Each prompt below is designed to feed into Claude or ChatGPT. Run them in order — outputs of earlier prompts feed into later ones. Don't rush the risk register — it's the one that gets skipped and the one that bites.

1. Pre-mortem. "My business as it stands today: [paste M2 verdict + M3 model]. Imagine it's 12 months from now and the business is dead. Write the obituary. What killed it? Generate 8 distinct failure modes — be specific and harsh. Cover: market (demand collapsed, competitor moved), operational (delivery broke, key supplier failed), financial (cash gap, CAC blew out), founder (burnout, family crisis, lost conviction), legal (contract, IP, regulatory). No 'it just didn't take off' generic answers."
2. Risk shortlist + likelihood. "From the 8 failure modes above, score each on (a) likelihood in the next 12 months — low / medium / high, and (b) severity if it hits — recoverable / serious / fatal. Output a 2x3 matrix. Identify the 3-5 in the high-likelihood-or-fatal cells. These are the risks I plan against. The rest I acknowledge and move on."
3. Mitigation that isn't optimism. "For each of the 3-5 risks above, write a mitigation that is an action I can take in the next 30 days, not 'I'll be careful' or 'I'll watch the market'. The mitigation must be either: (a) a specific structural change to the business now, (b) a trigger-and-response plan ('if X happens, I do Y within Z days'), or (c) an early-warning metric I commit to tracking weekly. Reject anything that's just vigilance."
4. Personal runway audit. "My monthly personal burn — rent or mortgage, food, family costs, healthcare, insurance, transport, debt servicing — is [paste]. My liquid savings are $___. Partner income contribution (if applicable) is $___. Calculate three runway numbers: (a) bare survival runway — months I can pay essentials with zero business income, (b) realistic runway — months at current burn including 'I still take the family on one trip' costs, (c) breaking-point runway — months before something has to give (mortgage, school, partner ultimatum). Give me each number in months. Don't comfort me."
5. Business runway from the model. "Pull my M3 numbers [paste unit economics + breakeven + cash-flow stress test]. Calculate business runway under each scenario: (a) hit 60% of forecast, (b) hit forecast on 60-day terms, (c) 20% churn at month 4. State the month the business goes cash-negative in each scenario, and how much capital would bridge to breakeven. Don't assume I can 'just raise' — assume I can't."
6. Emotional runway. "Founder fragility check. Answer honestly for me — based on what I'll paste — how long can I personally absorb the following without breaking: (a) no's from buyers for X weeks straight, (b) working evenings and weekends for Y months while family carries the load, (c) earning less than the lowest-paid person on my old corporate team for Z months. My current state on each [paste self-assessment]. Give me a number in months for each. If any number is under 3, name the structural change I make now — not 'be more resilient'."
7. Entity + tax structure (general scaffolding, not legal advice). "My jurisdiction is [paste — e.g. Australia, NSW]. My business model is [paste M3 structure]. My personal situation: [solo / partner / kids / mortgage / employed elsewhere]. Walk me through the 2-3 entity structures most founders in my position use (sole trader, Pty Ltd, trust structure), and for each: what it protects, what it exposes, the typical setup cost, the ongoing compliance load, and the trigger that says 'time to move up to the next structure'. Caveat clearly — this is scaffolding, not legal advice. I will validate with an accountant before acting."
8. IP + brand frame. "My brand name, product names, and any methodology names I use publicly: [paste]. My jurisdiction(s) of operation and target markets: [paste]. Walk me through: (a) what trademark protection is realistic and proportional at my stage (Australia only? US? Madrid Protocol?), (b) what 'use it before someone else claims it' looks like — domain, trading name registration, basic IP audit, (c) the 3 IP mistakes early founders make that cost the most to fix later. Rank by cost-to-fix-later, not cost-to-do-now."
9. Contracts that protect the founder, not the lawyer. "For my model [paste M3], list the 5-7 contracts I should have in some form within 90 days — even if they're plain-English templates I'll upgrade later. For each: what it protects me from, the bare-minimum clauses that must be in it, and whether a template is fine or I need a lawyer-drafted version. Cover: customer T&Cs, contractor / freelancer agreements, cofounder agreement (if relevant), supplier agreement, IP assignment, NDA (only where it actually matters), website terms + privacy. No theatre — only what protects me if something goes wrong."
10. The one-page frame. "Write my one-page founder frame, suitable to print and stick on the wall. Sections: (1) the 3-5 risks I'm tracking, each with a mitigation and an early-warning metric, (2) my three runways in months — personal, business, emotional — with the trigger date for each, (3) the legal scaffolding status — entity, IP, contracts — with what's done and what's outstanding by date. Plain English. No jargon. Should fit on one A4 page. The page I look at the day I'm scared."