Pre

What do they actually do

Pre is a live, paid web app for startup founders. You pick a single 10‑week North Star goal, break it into weekly milestones and goals, connect your tools, and mark progress (Done/Partial/Pending). The product generates weekly progress reports and accountability emails you can share with your chosen circle. The website shows a paid plan at $84/month and a self‑serve signup/login flow (source).

Pre uses your stated goals and connected data to focus on outcomes rather than hours spent. Its AI “execution & accountability advisor” produces nudges, flags when you slip, and compiles outcome‑based weekly updates (source, YC profile). The company is a Summer 2024 YC startup with a small founding team, so this is an early‑stage, founder‑focused SaaS product (YC profile).

Who are their target customer(s)

• First-time founders turning an idea into traction: They lack an execution rhythm and struggle to translate long-term goals into concrete weekly steps, causing progress to stall without external structure or prompts (source).
• Founders in a pivot or in early PMF search: They run many small experiments but can’t reliably measure outcomes across tools or turn missed experiments into corrective next steps, slowing learning (source).
• Founders or small teams who just raised: They need predictable, outcome-focused updates for investors and cofounders but don’t have time to compile reports manually (source).
• Solo or technical founders without PM/ops support: Tracking, follow-ups, and prioritization add overhead that distracts from high-impact work; they also lack regular accountability to stay focused.
• Product/growth leads at early-stage startups: They juggle multiple metrics and tools and need a single place that ties outcomes to weekly goals and suggests recovery actions when targets slip (source).

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Onboard founders from the team’s network (YC peers, personal contacts, early signups) with free or discounted access and a 30–60 minute concierge session to set a 10‑week goal and connect one tool; capture testimonials and usability notes.
• First 50: Run targeted outreach in founder communities (YC alumni lists, Indie Hackers, HN, LinkedIn/Twitter groups) and offer a short paid pilot or cohort with shared accountability emails; batch onboard and produce 5–10 concrete case studies.
• First 100: Lean into the best-performing channels, add one or two high-signal integrations (e.g., Stripe or GitHub) to improve activation, launch a simple referral for founders who bring a paying team, and test small, targeted paid campaigns to founder job titles on LinkedIn/Twitter.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

If every U.S. firm in Professional, Scientific & Technical Services and Information paid Pre’s listed $84/mo, TAM is about $5.0B/year (4.94M firms × $1,008/yr) using SBA counts and site pricing (SBA 2023 profile, Pre pricing).

Bottom-up calculation:

A focused U.S. SAM based on new employer businesses is ~520k teams/year × $1,008 ≈ $524M/year, using 5.5M applications and ~9.5% becoming employer firms (U.S. Chamber, Census BFS). Early SOM targets at 0.1–1% penetration of this SAM imply ~$0.5M–$5M ARR.

Assumptions:

• Revenue per customer ≈ $1,008/year based on $84/month list price (Pre).
• ~9.5% of new business applications become employer firms (historical projection) (U.S. Chamber, Census BFS).
• One subscription per founding team in year one; U.S.-only scope for SAM.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Tability: Lightweight OKR and goal-tracking with weekly check-ins, AI assistance, and integrations; overlaps with Pre on outcome tracking and recurring accountability (source).
• Quantive (formerly Gtmhub): Enterprise strategy execution and OKR platform with extensive integrations and AI; a heavyweight option for teams that want formal OKR programs and dashboards (source).
• Visible: Founder/investor hub for KPI dashboards, investor updates, and fundraising workflows; relevant for Pre’s investor-style reporting and update use case (source).
• Motion: AI work platform that schedules and prioritizes tasks/projects automatically; adjacent for founders seeking AI-driven planning and execution structure (source).
• Focusmate: Virtual coworking/body-doubling for accountability via live sessions; an alternative accountability approach vs. Pre’s data- and goal-driven automation (source).