Cycle #1 — Now accepting applications

Tiny venture cycles,
fully visible.

We run small, time-boxed venture experiments. Sponsors get real products. Observer-investors get a front-row seat to the entire build — from first interview to revenue.

1 Venture per cycle
8-12 Week build window
100% Transparent access
Live Cycle #1

Current snapshot

Stage Problem validation
Focus Recruitment tool for teachers
Participants 1 sponsor · 10–20 observers

We're running a single, tightly scoped micro-venture cycle to prove this model in public.

We don't bet on ideas.
We run cycles.

One problem. One venture. One clear outcome in under three months.

01

Pick a problem, not a pitch

We start from a painful, narrow problem – usually from a sponsor business. No fantasy TAM slides. If we can't see a clear path to value, we don't start.

02

Design and run experiments

Interviews, landing pages, fake-door tests, simple offers. Every assumption is written down and tested. You see each experiment and its outcome in the portal.

03

Build the smallest useful product

If the signal is there, we ship a focused product in weeks using our existing stack – SvelteKit, MongoDB and reusable components. No overbuilt v1s.

04

Launch, iterate or kill

We either launch and keep scaling, hand off to an operator-founder, or kill it with a clean write-up on what we learned. No zombie projects.

See early-stage
without the theatre.

You're not wiring money into a black box. In Cycle #1, you pay for access: to the real experiments, real numbers and real decisions behind one micro-venture.

Full build-along access

Weekly updates and live sessions. Experiment board with hypotheses, tests and outcomes. Decision log on why we doubled down or killed ideas.

Concrete learning, not fluff

Real interview notes (sanitized), landing pages, outreach scripts and email sequences. Templates you can reuse in your own deals.

Optional path to invest later

Cycle #1 is not a fund. If a venture clears our traction bar and we later formalise investment vehicles, observers get priority invitations.

Who this is for

Operator-angels, small investors and founders who want to see how disciplined early-stage work actually happens, not just read about it.

One focused build,
not another fuzzy project.

You bring a sharp, revenue-linked problem. We dedicate a full cycle to exploring, validating and building around it. At the end, you get either a product with traction or a clear reason to stop.

What you get
  • A focused 8–12 week build around your problem
  • A real product or a documented decision not to proceed
  • Access to the same portal our observers see
  • Weekly progress updates with full transparency
What we expect
  • Access to users or customers for interviews and tests
  • A problem owner who can say "yes" or "no" quickly
  • A real budget or commercial intent behind the problem
  • Willingness to kill ideas when the data says so

Radical transparency
is not a slogan. It's a UI.

Every cycle lives inside a shared portal – sponsors and observers see the same experiments, metrics and decisions.

app.variantrocket.com/cycle-1
Live experiment log Hypotheses, tests & outcomes
Metrics that matter Leads, users, revenue, spend
Weekly decision memos What we did, learned, changed

What a cycle
actually looks like.

One cycle. One venture. One clear decision.

Weeks 1-2

Problem & user discovery

10–15 interviews, simple landing pages, first signal checks. Kill criteria agreed before we fall in love with any idea.

Weeks 3-5

Experiments & prototype

Offer and pricing tests, clickable prototypes or internal tools. Real users touching something concrete as early as possible.

Weeks 6-8

Build & first revenue

Smallest shippable product using our existing components. Onboard pilot or paying users. Instrument everything from day one.

Weeks 9-10

Decision & next steps

Launch plan and continued build, or a clean shutdown report. No endless 'maybe someday' projects – we commit or we stop.

Built by people
who actually ship.

Variant Rocket is the micro-venture arm of Variant Work. We've shipped multiple web products and single-feature tools for small businesses — from conversational CRMs and booking flows to education and referral tracking tools.

Our stack is boring on purpose: SvelteKit, MongoDB and a library of battle-tested modules we reuse across ventures. No pitch theatre. Just short cycles, clear gates and hard decisions.

Why do a cycle with us?

  • You want evidence, not opinions.
  • You prefer small, fast bets over one giant moonshot.
  • You're comfortable killing ideas when the data says so.
  • You care more about real users and revenue than slide decks.

Frequently asked
awkward questions.

If you're not sure whether Cycle #1 is for you, these cover most of the first calls we'd have anyway.

Cycle #1 is the test.
Join it.

We're running a single, tightly scoped micro-venture cycle. 1 sponsor. One venture. A limited number of observer seats.

No spam, no hype. We'll send you the Cycle #1 one-pager and a short form.