solo-founder-skills

Solo Founder Skills

59 expert skills for non-technical founders building SaaS with AI tools (Claude Code, Lovable, Replit, Cursor).

Covers the full lifecycle of planning, building, launching, and growing a software business — actionable guides, checklists, and copy-paste prompts.

Installation

Note: Installation differs by platform. Claude Code or Cursor have built-in plugin marketplaces. Codex and OpenCode require manual setup.

Claude Code (via Plugin Marketplace)

In Claude Code, register the marketplace first:

/plugin marketplace add whawkinsiv/solo-founder-skills

Then install the plugin from this marketplace:

/plugin install solo-founder-skills@solo-founder-skills-marketplace

Upgrading from Solo Founder Superpowers

This plugin was renamed. The old plugin and marketplace names no longer exist, so an existing install stops loading after an update. Remove the old install first:

/plugin uninstall solo-founder-superpowers@solo-founder-superpowers-marketplace
/plugin marketplace remove solo-founder-superpowers-marketplace

Then add the new marketplace and install the plugin with the commands above.

Manual skill invocations also changed. Replace /solo-founder-superpowers:plan with /solo-founder-skills:plan.

Cursor (via Plugin Marketplace)

In Cursor Agent chat, install from marketplace:

/plugin-add solo-founder-skills

Codex (Manual Setup)

Codex discovers skills from .agents/skills/ directories. Clone this repo into your project:

git clone https://github.com/whawkinsiv/solo-founder-skills.git .agents/skills/solo-founder-skills

Or install a single skill using the built-in skill installer:

$skill-installer install https://github.com/whawkinsiv/solo-founder-skills/tree/main/skills/build

Restart Codex after installing. Invoke skills with $skill-name or let Codex select them automatically.

OpenCode (Manual Setup)

OpenCode discovers skills from .opencode/skills/, ~/.config/opencode/skills/, or ~/.agents/skills/. Clone into any of these locations:

git clone https://github.com/whawkinsiv/solo-founder-skills.git .opencode/skills/solo-founder-skills

Skills are loaded on-demand — OpenCode will show available skills and load them when relevant.

Verify Installation

Start a new session in your chosen platform and ask for something that should trigger a skill (for example, "help me validate this idea" or "help me plan this feature"). The agent should automatically invoke the relevant solo-founder-skills skill.

What's Inside

Getting Started (4 skills)

Skill	What It Covers
journey	Where to start, what order to do things, the path from idea to launch
about-me	Founder profile and voice setup so other skills produce personalized output
glossary	Plain-English explanations of 50+ technical terms
next	What to work on next, finding high-value opportunities

Strategy & Validation (8 skills)

Skill	What It Covers
validate	Smoke tests, fake door tests, testing demand before you build
customer-research	User interviews, Jobs-to-be-Done, ideal customer profile
market-research	Market sizing, competitor analysis, TAM/SAM/SOM
translate	Turn professional expertise into a software product
niche-advantage	Use domain expertise as a competitive moat
focus	80/20 analysis, deciding if an activity is worth your time
plan	Turn ideas into buildable specs, MVPs, feature requirements
prioritize	Feature prioritization, roadmaps, RICE scoring

Design & UX (6 skills)

Skill	What It Covers
ux-design	Information architecture, user flows, onboarding, accessibility
ui-patterns	Dashboards, data tables, settings pages, component libraries, dark mode
beautify	Visual hierarchy, whitespace, composition, color, typography
brand-identity-generator	Generates a full BRAND-IDENTITY.md: colors, type, spacing, components
motion-polish	Animations, micro-interactions, smooth transitions
design-review	Design audit and quality gate before you ship

Build & Technical (10 skills)

Skill	What It Covers
build	AI-assisted dev workflows, tool selection (Claude Code, Lovable, Replit, Cursor)
database	Schema design, Supabase setup, Row Level Security, migrations
integrations	APIs, OAuth, webhooks, connecting third-party services
ai-features	LLM APIs, RAG, AI assistants, cost management
secure	Authentication, data protection, API security, vulnerability checks
test	Test scenarios, edge cases, cross-browser testing
debug	Systematic debugging, error interpretation, diagnostics
dry	Find and remove duplication across code, schema, and workflows
optimize	Speed, bundle size, database, and hosting cost optimization
compliance	HIPAA, SOC 2, GDPR, PCI, FERPA for regulated industries

Ship & Operate (4 skills)

Skill	What It Covers
go-live	Pre-launch go/no-go checklist — the gate before you deploy
deploy	Hosting selection, custom domains, DNS, environment variables
monitor	Production monitoring, error alerts, incident response
analytics	Event tracking, funnels, key metrics, data quality

Launch & Growth (9 skills)

Skill	What It Covers
launch	Product Hunt, waitlists, beta programs, go-to-market sequencing
landing-page	Page structure, above-the-fold copy, conversion elements
growth	Product-led growth, viral loops, activation metrics
conversion	Funnel analysis, friction reduction, A/B testing
sales	Cold outreach, prospect lists, landing the first 100 customers
ads	Google Ads, ad copy, keyword selection, CAC/LTV
email	Onboarding drips, welcome sequences, behavioral triggers
social-media	Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Reddit, founder brand building
community	Discord and Slack communities, forums, community-led growth

Content & SEO (8 skills)

Skill	What It Covers
seo	Keyword research, content calendars, search intent mapping
seo-content	Blog posts, comparison pages, how-to guides built to rank
seo-audit	Codebase SEO audit with a prioritized fix-it plan
technical-seo	Meta tags, schema markup, Core Web Vitals, GEO for AI search
content	Content strategy, build in public, audience building, distribution
copywriting	Headlines, CTAs, button text, error messages, UI copy
prose-writing	Founder essays, blog posts, About pages, origin stories
humanize	Remove AI writing patterns so copy reads as human-written

Customers & Retention (3 skills)

Skill	What It Covers
retention	Churn prevention, win-back campaigns, expansion revenue
support	Help docs, knowledge bases, self-serve support
feedback	Surveys, NPS, feature requests, closing the feedback loop

Business & Money (6 skills)

Skill	What It Covers
pricing	Pricing tiers, value metrics, psychology, monetization
payments	Stripe setup, subscriptions, billing, failed payments, tax
finances	Financial models, unit economics, MRR/ARR/churn, burn rate
accounting	Bookkeeping, expense tracking, quarterly taxes, invoicing
legal	Entity formation, Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, compliance
hiring	Developer sourcing, vetting contractors, briefs, management

Meta (1 skill)

Skill	What It Covers
improve	Autonomously improves any other skill in this plugin through A/B evaluation

Commands

Command	What It Does
improve-prompt	Transforms vague coding requests into detailed, specific prompts

How to Use

Skills are invoked automatically when Claude Code detects a relevant request, or manually:

/solo-founder-skills:plan
/solo-founder-skills:launch
/solo-founder-skills:payments

Recommended workflow for a new product

0. Orient    — journey, about-me, glossary
1. Validate  — validate, customer-research, market-research, focus
2. Plan      — plan, prioritize, pricing, finances
3. Design    — brand-identity-generator, ux-design, ui-patterns, beautify
4. Build     — build, database, integrations, secure, test, debug
5. Ship      — design-review, go-live, deploy, payments
6. Launch    — launch, landing-page, copywriting, humanize
7. Grow      — growth, content, seo, seo-content, email, ads, social-media
8. Retain    — retention, support, feedback, conversion
9. Scale     — optimize, dry, monitor, analytics, ai-features, hiring

Design Philosophy

These skills assume Claude's intelligence — they focus on:

• Non-technical founder perspective and common mistakes
• Tool selection criteria (when to use Lovable vs Claude Code vs Replit)
• Actionable checklists and "Tell AI:" copy-paste prompts
• What's out of scope (preventing premature optimization)
• Concise, actionable content that avoids explaining concepts Claude already knows

Author

Will Hawkins (@whawkinsiv)