The Setup
Setting the scene
Someone just sent you money — actual money — for the thing you built in your apartment. Your inbox has a signed contract and your hands are shaking slightly.
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Part of this story
The First Customer
→Someone is willing to pay for what you built. Navigate the transition from building to selling without losing your soul or your vision.
Part of the quest
Startup Survival
→The glamour of entrepreneurship meets the reality of runway, rejection, and ramen. Navigate the emotional and strategic challenges of building something from nothing. You'll navigate four escalating scenarios — from the pivot moment to the first customer — practicing the decisions that matter most when the pressure is real and the stakes are personal. This isn't theory. It's practice for the moments that define how this chapter of your life unfolds.
What you'll learn from The Setup
This scenario focuses on Setting the scene — a critical skill inside the broader career domain. You'll face a decision where the instinctive response is often the wrong one. After you make your choice, you'll see exactly what happened in the other person's head and why it mattered. The scenario is part of The First Customer, a full interactive story inside the Startup Survival quest.
Skills you'll build in Startup Survival
More scenarios in this quest
The customer wants three features you never planned. Saying yes means pivoting your roadmap — saying no might mean losing the only revenue you have.
Your first customer tells a friend, and now there are two. But the second one wants something completely different, and your team of four cannot build for both.
You are no longer just a builder — you are a seller, a supporter, a promise-keeper. The product is live, the customers are real, and every decision now has someone else's business riding on it.
Ready to practice Setting the scene?
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