1. Purpose and scope
Most chip startups begin with a technical insight: a new architecture, a circuit technique, a way of moving data or saving power that the founders believe is better than what exists. The purpose of this stage is to find out whether that insight solves a problem that someone will pay to have solved, and whether a chip is the right way to solve it. The test is the customer's own words, not the founders' enthusiasm.
A chip is slow and expensive to build, and a thesis that is wrong at the start is rarely rescued by good engineering later. This stage is therefore cheap on purpose. It uses conversations, public data, simple models and the founders' own expertise, and it ends with a written thesis that the founders are prepared to defend to investors, to future hires and to themselves.
In scope: the problem statement, customer discovery, market sizing from stated sources, the competitive landscape, a technical feasibility assessment and the founders' decision to form a company. Out of scope: legal formation, founder equity and fund raising, which belong to Founding Team & Company Formation and later stages, and any detailed architecture or prototype work, which belongs to Proof of Concept (Simulation & FPGA Prototype).
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