Write the kill date before you write the code.
The rule. A kill gate is written before the work starts, states its thresholds in numbers and dates, and on the verdict date is read, not negotiated. Everything else is decoration.
The seven parts every gate needs
- Day 0 definition. The clock starts when strangers can use or buy the thing. Not approval day.
- Metrics allowlist. Only metrics you can already read for free, today. Off the list means inadmissible.
- Thresholds in numbers. "Traction" is an adjective. "10 payers by day 90" is a threshold.
- A date, in a calendar. A gate nobody re-reads is a diary entry.
- Fair-test prerequisites. Pricing final, links live, launch batch fired, listing iterated, before a failure counts.
- What KILL executes. Jobs unloaded, keys revoked, repo archived, post-mortem written, same week.
- Standing triggers. Blown time budget, an upheld platform strike, or an honest version that is not worth making.
The four ways founders cheat their own gates
- Metric theater: citing numbers the allowlist cannot measure.
- Retroactive softening: editing thresholds once the data looks bad. The lesson goes into the next gate.
- Zombie kills: declaring death and leaving everything running.
- Clock restarts: "the real launch was the relaunch." Day 0 exists to make this impossible.
The five gate templates
| Gate | For | Shape |
|---|---|---|
| App / product | A consumer app or product launch | Day-60 checkpoint, day-90 verdict on a metrics allowlist; kill if proceeds, payers, and impressions all miss their floors. |
| Content channel | YouTube, newsletter, podcast, blog | Staged: craft at unit 10, audience at month 4, business binary at month 6. Time budget capped in the gate. |
| Marketplace experiment | Etsy, app stores, plugin registries | Capped cash, fixed verdict date, pass floors on sales, gross, and conversion; auto-kill on policy flags. |
| Acquisition / pause | Buying a small product or business | Sourcing pause after N misses; post-purchase stabilize-and-sell if revenue drops or time overruns. |
| Compliance product | Regulated, deadline-driven markets | Early wedge gate and later scale-or-wind-down gate, both pinned to the external regulatory deadline. |
Proof. A paper-trading system with 626 passing tests and a six-week P&L of minus $7,758 read 6/6 FAIL on its pre-registered scorecard and was killed the same week. The tests were green. The gate was the only document that told the truth.
Full method: forgehavenlabs.com/method · Editable templates: the Kill-Gate Pack · Applied ledger: forgehavenlabs.com/receipts