VALK Mapping Matrix

Platform Engineering Skills → Startup Decisions

What is the VALK? The VC Abstraction Layer Knowledge translates your platform engineering experience into founder decisions. You already think like a VC—you just need the translation layer.

Core Translation: You're Already a VC

| What VCs Do | What You Do | The Translation |

Key Insight: VCs invest money. You invest TIME—more valuable.

VALK Component #1: Due Diligence → Customer Validation

Platform Engineering

Tool evaluation: Research competitors, compare features
POC/Pilot: Test with small team before rollout
Success metrics: Uptime, latency, adoption rate
Stakeholder buy-in: Get engineering leadership approval

Startup Translation

Customer discovery: 50+ conversations in 30 days
The Mom Test: Talk about their life, not your idea
Validation metrics: LOIs, pre-orders, pilot commitments
Paying customers: Money talks, opinions don't

Monday Action: List 20 people to talk to THIS WEEK

VALK Component #2: Investment Memo → Pitch Deck

Platform Engineering

Tech DD: Architecture review, security audit, scalability analysis
User personas: Developer profiles, team workflows
Success metrics: SLOs, error budgets, MTTR
Rollout plan: Phased deployment, feature flags, rollback strategy

Startup Translation

Pitch deck: 10 slides, problem-first approach
ICP (Ideal Customer Profile): Budget + Urgency + Authority
Unit economics: CAC, LTV, burn multiple
GTM strategy: Channel strategy, sales motion, partnerships

Key Difference: VCs fund pain relief, not technology. Lead with the problem.

VALK Component #3: Portfolio → Scaling Yourself

Platform Engineering

Build platforms: So others can build on them
Automate yourself: Infrastructure as code, self-service
Knowledge sharing: Docs, runbooks, training
Delegate ownership: Distributed responsibility model

Startup Translation

Give away your LEGOs: Hire when you're the bottleneck
Every 3-6 months: Hand off your job to grow
Contract-to-hire: Staging environment for humans
Interview test: "Explain this complex thing"

Platform Parallel: You already build systems that scale without you.

Market Validation Checklist

Use this to validate whether your platform tool could be a business:

1. Market Size (TAM/SAM/SOM)

[ ] TAM: Total addressable market ≥ $1B (everyone who could buy)
[ ] SAM: Serviceable market ≥ $100M (who you can reach)
[ ] SOM: Serviceable obtainable ≥ realistic first customers

Platform parallel: All incidents → My team's incidents → This sprint's fixes

2. Your Moat (Defensibility)

[ ] Proprietary data: You have unique insights competitors don't
[ ] Network effects: Product gets better with more users
[ ] Switching costs: Hard to move once adopted
[ ] Brand/expertise: You're known for solving this

Platform parallel: Your internal tool's unique advantages

3. Access (Can You Reach Buyers?)

[ ] Champions: People who will advocate for you
[ ] Distribution channel: How you'll reach customers
[ ] Sales motion: PLG, sales-led, partner-led
[ ] Warm intros: Network into target companies

Platform parallel: Internal stakeholders who adopted your tool

4. Painkiller vs. Vitamin

[ ] Painkiller: System down = revenue stops (PagerDuty)
[ ] Vitamin: Nice to have, can wait til Monday (analytics dashboard)

Build painkillers, not vitamins. Painkillers get budgets.

Validation Timeline

Week 1-4: VALIDATE

50+ conversations: Learn the patterns
Questions to ask:
"Walk me through your last deploy. What broke?"
"What's the most painful part of your workflow?"
"When did this problem cost you the most?"
Red flags: "This sounds great" = polite no
Green flags: "When can we start?" = commitment

Week 5-8: MEASURE

12 PAYING pilots: Money committed
Install SLOs: Define success criteria
Extract commitments: LOIs, pre-orders, pilot agreements
Track metrics: Usage, retention, feedback velocity

Week 9-12: SCALE

5 MORE customers: Prove repeatability
Metrics dashboard: Board-ready reporting
Decide: Raise capital or fix product
Document learnings: What works, what doesn't

Critical: Repeatability precedes scalability. VCs fund the repeatability signal.

Red Flags (Stop and Pivot)

<30% retention: They churn—product doesn't solve real pain
CAC > LTV: Burning $5 to get $1—unsustainable unit economics
90-day ghosting: No feedback loop—customers don't care enough
"Let me think about it": No urgency = not a painkiller

Green Flags (Keep Going)

90%+ retention: Customers stay—you're solving real pain
LTV:CAC ≥ 3:1: Healthy unit economics
Customers asking for more: Feature requests = engagement
Warm referrals: Customers introducing you to others

Resources

The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick: Customer validation without lying
Cold Start Problem by Andrew Chen: Network effects and growth
First Round Review: Tactical startup advice (review.firstround.com)

Download all 12 templates: sanscourier.ai/qconsf-2025

*From the QCon SF 2025 talk: "From Staff Platform Engineer to a16z Founder: What I Wish I'd Known" by Gonzalo (Glo) Maldonado*