1. Purpose of the gate
Thesis drafted is the point at which an idea becomes owned work. Ideas for chips arrive in many ways: a research result, a frustration at a previous employer, a customer who keeps asking for something no supplier offers, or a new process or packaging option that makes an old idea possible. None of these is yet a thesis. This gate does not judge whether the idea is worth a company; that is the job of Thesis accepted at the end of the stage. It decides that the people involved will spend a bounded amount of their time finding out, and that they will do so honestly.
The gate tests five things, which are its criteria in the lifecycle: a draft thesis written in a few sentences, with the problem and the claimed advantage stated; each person's employment or university terms checked in general terms; time set aside by each prospective founder, even if part time; stop criteria agreed, meaning the evidence that would end the work; and a first list of potential buyers, users and experts to speak to. A draft can be rough and still pass. It cannot pass if it describes only a technology, with no one who has the problem, or if nobody has the time to test it.
Every discipline that takes part in Problem & Market Thesis starts on Planned at this gate: its part of the work is scoped and owned, and nothing is tested yet. The founders own the problem and market thesis and will rewrite it as evidence arrives; customer discovery begins, with interviews, market sizing and a map of the competition; counsel, often informally at this point, is asked about prior obligations and who owns the core idea; and the chip architect starts the technical feasibility assessment. The stage closes at Thesis accepted, which judges the result.
10 more sections for registered members.