minimalist-review

Minimalist Review is a decision-support skill that acts as a business advisor to review any business decision, plan, or strategy through the lens of The Minimalist Entrepreneur by Sahil Lavingia. It solves the problem of founders making complex, expensive, or ego-driven decisions by providing a fast, principled gut-check that pushes toward simplicity, profitability, and closeness to customers.

The skill evaluates whatever the user presents against eight principles: Community First, Start Manual then Automate, Build as Little as Possible, Sell Before You Scale, Spend Time Before Money, Profitability is the Goal, Grow at the Speed of Your Customers, and Build the House You Want to Live In. It provides a structured decision framework as a checklist of questions (does this serve my customers, is this the simplest approach, does it improve profitability, is it reversible, am I spending time or money, have customers asked for this, does it align with my values, will I still want this in a year) alongside memorable maxims such as hire when it hurts and don't launch until you have your first 100 customers.

The target users are solo founders and small-business owners weighing a specific choice, wanting to simplify their approach, or deciding between options. The output gives the user a clear recommendation (do it, don't do it, or simplify it), a description of the minimalist version of their plan, the biggest risk to watch for, and one concrete thing to try that week to validate the decision.