Racine Business Plan

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The Lived Business Plan

Racine, as it's actually being built

Most business plans are written to raise money, so they show only conclusions. This one shows what's actually been proven and what hasn't — each section built from a decision you can go back and read.

1 · The thesis — why Racine, why now, why Romane

Captures the problem, the wedge, the timing, and the founder's distinctive right to solve it.

A wager that provenance is structural, not decorative — and a founder whose decade inside a scale manufacturer taught her exactly what a label doesn't say.

Reached through The Decision Before the Decision, Finding the Ground and What Holds When You're Not There — all free to read.

2 · Who it's for — customer segments

Captures the specific buyers who value provenance over lowest price — and who it deliberately doesn't serve.

Empty because Racine doesn't have defined customer segments yet. Nothing to say about who this is for until real customers say so themselves.

3 · The value proposition — what Racine offers, why they switch

Captures the provenance/trust/craftsmanship value, mapped to real customer jobs, pains, and gains (VPC).

Empty because the value proposition hasn't been tested against real customers yet. Nothing to say about why they'd switch until it has.

4 · How it reaches them — channels & relationships

Captures discovery, purchase, fulfilment, and how trust/loyalty are built and kept.

Empty because Racine's channels and customer relationships haven't taken shape yet. Nothing to say about how this reaches anyone until they do.

5 · The producer network & operations — partnerships, resources, activities

Captures the artisan-producer relationships (the moat), the strategic resources, and the differentiating work — producer discovery, quality verification, curation, storytelling.

The producers are the moat — inherited through one relationship, and run for fifteen years from the far side of a phone.

Reached through The Decision Before the Decision, Finding the Ground, Writing in Someone Else's Voice, What the Network Costs and What Holds When You're Not There — all free to read.

6 · The economic engine — revenue, cost, unit economics

Captures how money comes in, the major costs, and whether the per-customer/per-unit economics actually work.

Racine's best year returned its material cost and a year of overhead, and stopped. What that reveals is not a margin problem — it is a calendar.

Reached through Finding the Ground, Writing in Someone Else's Voice, What the Network Costs, What Holds When You're Not There and The Order of the List — all free to read.

7 · What's proven so far — evidence & traction

Captures the real customer/product/behavioural proof accumulated to date.

A real B2B traction curve, one paying customer at a time — and the reorder data that revealed what was actually driving it.

Reached through Finding the Ground, Writing in Someone Else's Voice, What the Network Costs and What Holds When You're Not There — all free to read.

8 · The team — founder-market fit & gaps

Captures why this founder discovered and can build this, complementary capabilities, honest gaps, and the hiring plan.

Empty because Racine's team hasn't taken real shape yet. Nothing to say about who joins, or why, until they do.

9 · The ask, ownership & return logic — milestones, capital, cap table, scale

Captures what must be proven next, the capital to reach it, the financial logic behind it, who owns and controls the upside, and an honest account of what Racine could become.

The friendly money is spent. What replaced it could only be borrowed against what Racine is owed, because there is nothing else to borrow against.

Reached through The Decision Before the Decision, Writing in Someone Else's Voice, What Holds When You're Not There and The Order of the List — all free to read.

10 · What could break it — risks & disconfirming evidence

Captures the few assumptions that could actually kill the company.

Racine's value is real. Whether its position can hold that value under pressure is the question the plan doesn't dodge.

Reached through Finding the Ground, Writing in Someone Else's Voice, What the Network Costs, What Holds When You're Not There and The Order of the List — all free to read.

That's the whole plan, as it stands today. Subscribe to see it fill in.