FoundStep

FoundStep's thesis is that the problem with solo developer side projects isn't a lack of tools — it's too much flexibility. Notion, Linear, and Trello let you configure anything, which means you can always spend another evening reorganizing your board instead of shipping. FoundStep closes that door with a fixed five-stage lifecycle: capture, validate, lock scope, build, ship. The validation stage is the most opinionated piece. Before any build work unlocks, you run an AI validation across six dimensions — Market Demand, Competition, Pricing, Reach, Founder Fit, and Buildability — and you must issue a written verdict: Build, Wait, or Kill. That gate is what stops the pattern of 'I had an idea, so I built the whole thing, and nobody wanted it.' Scope locking is the second structural piece. Features are hard-capped at 7 per version, and features and todos lock independently. Adding anything after locking requires a written reason that gets timestamped permanently in the Shame History and surfaced on your public Ship Card. Cutting scope is frictionless — the tool actively encourages it. The asymmetry is deliberate: it should be easier to remove than to add. That single design decision is what most flexible boards get exactly backwards. Where FoundStep fits: solo devs with 10+ unfinished side projects, solo founders who jump straight to coding without validating, and builders who want a public, timestamped record of shipped work. The AI Next Action — which surfaces the single most important task — is the kind of nudge that keeps a stalled project moving. Auto-advancing to Ready to Ship when all todos complete gives you a clean finish line. Where it doesn't fit: teams. FoundStep is strictly single-user, with no role-based access and no collaborative board. Enterprises needing customizable workflows should look elsewhere. Non-technical PMs who expect a Kanban board they can reshape will find the fixed lifecycle confining. And developers who want to add features freely without writing a justification will resent the Shame History model — though that resentment is arguably the product working as intended. One caveat to keep in mind: a dedicated mobile app is in development, so today the experience is browser-based across any modern browser, including on mobile. AI MVP Planner runs on Starter are limited to 5 per workspace. Workspaces beyond your plan limit go read-only rather than being deleted, so downgrading or canceling doesn't destroy anything. Starter covers up to 10 active workspaces; Builder unlocks unlimited plus AI credits. Every feature is available on both plans — the difference is capacity, not capability.