KERNEL. FOR TECHNICAL FOUNDERS WITHOUT A COMMERCIAL CO-FOUNDER.
Kernel tells you what a commercial co-founder would do next, and in what order.
Give it your site's address and in about four minutes it reads your public pages, writes the 34 things a product marketer would decide, marks each one proven, assumed or unknown, and shows you the one step to do now.
FREE. NO EMAIL. READS YOUR PUBLIC PAGES.
Why now
Seed rounds crossed to majority $10m+ in 2025. Crunchbase, read 18 Sep.
PROVEN
Stale 17 Dec 2026
Buying committee
"Founders and CEOs, with exceptions for co-founders holding marketing titles."
ASSUMED
Stale 17 Nov 2026
Trust metrics
Nobody has checked whether customers would be very disappointed without you.
UNKNOWN
Checked never
01 · WHAT THEY DO INSTEAD
In the 155 funded companies we looked at, 119 had no product marketer, so the technical founder does it, between everything else.
TEN PUBLIC BUYERS OF SIMILAR HELP, READ SEPTEMBER 2026 · ■ SAID IT · □ NOBODY SAID IT
"I can't do both."
"Their productivity is low, they don't have time to understand the business, product, team, etc."
02 · THE ORDER A COMMERCIAL CO-FOUNDER WORKS IN
Buyer conversations come before positioning, positioning before messaging, messaging before the launch plan, and most technical founders do it backwards.
RESEARCH
YOU ARE HERE.
COMPETE
POSITION
MESSAGE
LAUNCH
MEASURE
34 OUTPUTS · SIX STAGES · KERNEL SHOWS THE ONE TO DO NOW
03 · THE RECORD
1 · GIVE IT YOUR SITE
public pages, pricing, docs, listings
nobody talks to you first
2 · READ YOUR RECORD
34 outputs
three marks, a date on each
provenassumedunknown
3 · CORRECT TWENTY ANSWERS
yes · no · partly
the record updates
only evidence turns a claim proven
4 · DO THE STEP IN FRONT OF YOU
Kernel names it
re-reads your pages monthly
moves the dates
■ PROVEN · EVIDENCE EXISTS, A STRANGER COULD CHECK IT ◧ ASSUMED · SOMEBODY SAYS IT, NOTHING BEHIND IT YET □ UNKNOWN · NOBODY HAS CHECKED, STAYS BLANK UNTIL SOMEBODY DOES
04 · TWO THINGS STAY YOURS
"You can't delegate it until you've done it yourself."
That is right for two of the 34, the conversations with your buyers and the bet on how you are different, so Kernel writes the interview guide and the candidates, you run the calls and place the bet, and Kernel writes the other 32 for you to correct.
05 · READ ON THEIR PAGES, 17 AND 18 SEPTEMBER 2026
| OCTAVE | THE GTM CO-FOUNDER | PMA SKILL STACK | KERNEL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starts from | your sales tools | a brief you fill in by hand | a context file you write | your public pages |
| Reads your site before you speak | ||||
| Marks a claim assumed | ||||
| Marks a claim unknown | ||||
| A date on each claim | ||||
| Works in an order | ||||
| A person reads it with you | dedicated CSM, top plan | third package | ||
| Price | from $1,500 a month, annual | free | free | not set |
■ THEY SAY THEY DO IT · □ LOOKED ON THEIR PAGES, COULDN'T FIND IT
The GTM Co-Founder is the closest, free, and works in an order with assumption tags, so what Kernel adds over it is the reading of your pages, the unknown mark, the date, and the person.
06 · RUN ON KERNEL FIRST
12
PROVEN
7
ASSUMED
15
UNKNOWN
BEFORE ANY ANSWER · 17 SEP 2026
Fifteen things about our own company nobody had checked, six of them wrong within a day of looking, and the next step it named was six buyer conversations.
"You defined positioning, built a PMM team, and introduced a systematic approach. It reduced internal friction."
07 · THREE WAYS IN
THE MAP
20 of 34, from public pages
free · no email
FREE
KERNEL
the app
all 34 · three marks · dates
your twenty answers
the next step
re-read every month
PRICE NOT SET
KERNEL, WITH A READING
everything in the app
45 minutes a month with the person who built this function three times
readout names the three cells to fix first
PRICE NOT SET
YOU DON'T NEED THIS IF
You already have a product marketer, or a commercial co-founder who owns go-to-market.
08 · WHAT THIS PAGE CAN'T TELL YOU
whether a founder other than us finishes the twenty answers
nobody has yet
what it costs
not set
whether the order helps
a readout today, not a screen
Kernel reads your site and names the next step. About four minutes.
FREE. NO EMAIL. THE RECORD FOLLOWS IF YOU WANT IT.