Eidos

Your thesis, your plans, and why you said no, in one place.

One page for the thesis, each idea you are weighing, each plan, each round, and each call you made, with the reasons. Draw how they connect, see which pages still have gaps, and keep the ideas you killed where the next person who suggests them will find out why.

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A canvas for a fictional restaurant-software startup: the thesis and runway, three ideas (one active, one parked, one killed), a plan and the pre-seed round, with arrows labelled pays for, proves, tests the bet, and killed by, and a sticky note about investors who ask about the killed idea.
The bet on one page: what the round pays for, what each plan proves, and the idea that was killed, linked to the decision that killed it.

Sound familiar?

The deck says one thing, the plan another, and nobody remembers why.

  1. The deck drifted

    The price changed, the team grew, and the deck still tells last quarter’s story. Every investor meeting starts with a weekend of slides.

  2. The reasons are gone

    You killed an idea in March. In September an advisor pitches it back to you, and the reasons are buried in a chat thread nobody can find.

  3. Every update starts from zero

    The monthly investor update means digging through emails and spreadsheets, because the numbers and the plans live in five places.

How it fits

Every idea, plan, round, and call gets a page.

Start from the Venture framework and the business gets a shape: four pages that say what it is, and a page for everything you weigh against them. Ideas, plans, and rounds each carry a decide-by date, the day you owe yourself a call.

The Business
Four pages: the thesis, the market, how it makes money, and the runway. Every idea, plan, and deal is read against them.
Ideas
A spark grows into a case: the problem, who pays, the numbers, and what would kill it. A killed idea stays, marked Killed.
Plans
Grouped by line of business: the goal, the moves, the milestones, and what would stop it early.
Investments
A round you raise or a cheque you write: the amount, the terms, and what it should return.
Decisions
What was going on, what you could have done, what you did, and what would reopen it.
Pitch, Roadmap, Team
One page each: the business in thirty seconds, the next twelve months, and the seats still empty.
The Ideas of a fictional startup as a table: each with a one-line summary, whether it is a spark or a full case, its status (Killed, Parked, Active, or Draft), its tags, and the date a call is due.

What you will use most

The tools that keep the story straight.

  • Blueprints

    Gaps, flagged

    The health check lists every page missing a section its template asks for: the plan without a What Would Stop It section, the idea without What Would Kill It.

  • Canvas

    The bet on one page

    Lay out the thesis, the ideas, the plans, and the round as cards that open their pages, joined by arrows that say what pays for what.

  • Backlog

    The work, pointed at the plan

    The investor update, the supplier sheet, the second angel: tasks on a board, each pointing at the plan, idea, or round it serves.

  • Comments

    Notes from your advisor

    A cofounder or an advisor leaves a note on the exact section it is about, and you close it once it is answered.

  • AI Agent

    A sparring partner, only if you want one

    Nothing happens unless you connect your own Claude Code or Codex and ask. If you do, it can question your thesis one point at a time, or draft the month’s update from the pages for you to edit.

Ideas

Write down what would kill it, before you love it

An idea’s page asks for the case as claims someone could check, what you are taking for granted, what is still to decide, and the evidence that would end it. Leave one of those sections out and the health check lists the page until it is back.

An idea page for supplier price alerts: the case as three numbered claims, what would kill it, what the idea is not, where it fits the thesis, and a dated note.

Decisions

Keep the record of the no

Each call gets a page: what was going on, the options you had, what you did, what it changed, and what would make it worth deciding again. When an investor asks about the idea you dropped, send the page instead of rebuilding the argument.

  • Ideas you kill stay in the table, marked Killed.
  • Any page exports to PDF from its menu, to send on its own.
  • Rename a page and every link to it follows.
A decision page titled Stop the Catering Marketplace: what was going on, three options including doing nothing, what was done and by whom, what it changed, and what would reopen it.

Start here

Start from Venture.

Venture holds the business: The Business (thesis, market, model, and runway), ideas, plans and investments by line of business, and the decisions you made, with the Pitch, the Roadmap, and the Team as one page each. Pick it when you start a new project in the app.

A business as it develops

Venture@The-Virtual-Panda/venture

The thesis, the market, the money, and the runway; ideas, plans, and investments by line; and the decisions made.

  • The Business
  • Ideas
  • Plans
  • Investments
  • Decisions

In the app: New Root, then pick it from the list.

See it in the Registry
A board for a fictional startup: tasks such as sending the October investor update, interviewing chefs, and closing the second angel, each pointing at the plan, idea, or round it serves.

The features in this story

Every use case

Write the thesis down this week.

Download Eidos MD, pick the Venture framework, and fill in the four pages of The Business. It is free, and your pages stay on your computer.

Download freeSee the desktop app

Free for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Your files stay plain text in a folder you own.