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Research Appendix

The prioritized bibliography and research task list behind this course's design. Be honest about what this is: sources and tasks identified in the PRD, to be validated before anything here is cited in learner-facing content. Items below informed design decisions; none of them is a license to state a fact in a mission without checking the source first (see the Content Governance Policy).

Last reviewed: 2026-07. See the Content Refresh Cadence doc for the review schedule.

How to read this appendix

Each entry is either a source (something to read and verify) or a task (research to perform and document). Priorities:

  • P1 — blocks content accuracy or core design decisions; do first.
  • P2 — shapes go-to-market and pricing; do before launch.
  • P3 — improves quality; do opportunistically.

P1 — Domain accuracy sources (finance & legal)

Learner-facing definitions of legal and finance terms must match primary sources. Verify against:

  • Y Combinator SAFE documents. YC publishes the SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) instruments and explanatory materials. Primary source for how SAFEs, valuation caps, and discounts actually work. Task: extract vetted definitions for the ontology's safe node and the term-sheet missions.
  • SEC materials and glossaries. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission publishes filings, investor-education materials, and definitions. Primary source for securities terminology (e.g. what a Series A financing legally involves, accredited-investor rules). Task: anchor every securities-related definition in strategy-funding content to SEC or equivalent primary material.
  • Standard venture financing documents. For terms like liquidation preference, option pool, and pro rata, verify against published model documents from reputable sources (e.g. YC's materials; widely used model term sheets from established venture law resources). Task: build a checked glossary before the term-sheet-anatomy and cap-table-basics missions ship.

P1 — Pedagogy sources

The course's learning design leans on these bodies of work. Validate the specific claims we rely on:

  • Richard Mayer's multimedia learning principles. A well-established body of research on how people learn from words and pictures: dual-channel processing, segmenting/chunking, conversational tone, avoiding redundancy, human-like narration. The PRD applies these directly to micro-lesson design. Task: confirm the specific principles we cite (segmenting, redundancy, personalization, voice) against Mayer's published work before naming them in content.
  • Active recall and spaced repetition. A substantial research literature supports testing and spaced practice as effective for retention; the course's spaced reappearance of concepts (e.g. conversion rate across e-commerce, SaaS, and cap-table contexts) is built on it. Task: select 2–3 citable studies or reviews for any learner-facing claims about why the course repeats concepts.
  • Gamification and social learning. Points, streaks, badges, cohorts, and peer accountability are used by products like Duolingo and Khan Academy; the PRD asserts engagement benefits. Task: separate what the research supports from what is product folklore before we make claims about it.
  • The PRD's retention claim. The PRD states interactive content "can boost retention by ~60% vs passive formats," citing industry reports on interactive formats. We attribute that figure to the PRD's research summary. Task (blocking for learner-facing use): find and verify the underlying report; until then the figure does not appear in course content.

P1 — Competitor analysis tasks

Survey the products the PRD names, plus the broader field. For each: feature set, content depth, pricing, and gaps we can exploit.

  • GoPractice — PM simulator built as an "interactive story" with real analytics data and no lectures. Closest analogue to our simulator mode. Task: document its mission structure, pacing, and pricing.
  • ProductDo — hands-on PM courses where learners use real analytics tools, call APIs, and prompt LLMs. Validates our authentic-tool-use direction. Task: document which real tools they integrate and how.
  • SimVenture (Validate / Evolution) — higher-ed business simulations for testing startup ideas (Validate) and running virtual companies over multiple terms (Evolution). Task: document how they structure long-running simulations and align to curricula.
  • StartupSim (TechSoft) — web-based startup simulation for courses: pricing, R&D, and financial decisions with real-time feedback and facilitator controls. Task: document scenario configurability and facilitator features.
  • Coursera / MOOC PM courses — the passive-format baseline we differentiate against. Task: catalogue completion-model weaknesses and certificate positioning.
  • Interactive LMS platforms and gamified apps (LearnWorlds, TalentLMS, Duolingo, Khan Academy) — engagement mechanics: embedded quizzes, badges, polls, communities. Task: shortlist mechanics worth adopting, with evidence for each.

Output: a feature/gap matrix and a one-page differentiation statement.

P2 — Market sizing and pricing benchmark tasks

  • Market sizing. Estimate the addressable audience: aspiring founders, PMs in tech, bootcamp graduates, MBA-adjacent learners, indie makers. Method: triangulate from bootcamp enrollment data, PM job counts, and comparable platforms' disclosed user numbers. Output: TAM/SAM/SOM estimate with stated assumptions (and use our own tam-sam-som calculator to model it).
  • Pricing benchmarks. Research current pricing of comparable products — LinkedIn Learning, MasterClass, Coursera Plus, GoPractice, cohort-based courses, bootcamps — to position the $20/$50 tiers. Prices change; collect them fresh rather than from memory. Output: benchmark table feeding the pricing experiments in the Business Model & Pricing doc.
  • Willingness-to-pay. Identify published WTP data for professional upskilling, or plan primary research (surveys/interviews with target learners). Output: WTP range per segment (individual vs. employer-paid).

P2 — Technical feasibility tasks

  • TTS/ASR quality and cost for AI-narrated lessons and voice office hours (commercial APIs vs. open-source). Output: recommendation with per-minute cost model.
  • LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, and open alternatives) for tutoring, Socratic coaching, and content generation: capability, latency, cost per session. Output: provider matrix and fallback strategy (the codebase already supports a local model via Ollama plus a deterministic mock).
  • AI video generation (e.g. Synthesia-class tools) for visual explainers: quality, cost, licensing of generated assets. Output: go/no-go for v1.
  • Charting — real-time interactive charts for simulators and dashboards (the repo uses Recharts; validate it covers funnel/KPI-tree/cap-table visuals or scope custom D3 work).

P3 — Content licensing tasks

  • Open-license seed content. Identify public-domain and Creative Commons material usable as seed examples: MIT OpenCourseWare, openly licensed case studies and datasets (e.g. Kaggle datasets with permissive licenses), YC's published startup materials where terms permit. Output: an approved-sources list with license terms per source.
  • Compliance check. Confirm each seed source's license permits adaptation and commercial use, and define the attribution format. Note: many well-known business case studies (e.g. Harvard's) are not open-licensed — verify, don't assume. Output: licensing checklist wired into the content review flow.
  • Open courseware platforms. Review Open edX and MOOC content models for reusable structures and interoperability lessons (LTI). Output: notes for the enterprise integration roadmap.

PRD-referenced bibliography (to verify)

The PRD's own reference list. These informed the PRD's claims; verify each before citing downstream:

  1. Mayer — multimedia learning principles (body of published research; verify specific principles cited).
  2. Lara-Gresty, "How Interactive Learning Platforms Increase Engagement" (industry blog post cited by the PRD; verify existence and claims).
  3. LearnWorlds — interactive LMS guidance on retention, interactive video, polls, communities (vendor material; treat as directional).
  4. GoPractice — product site and simulator methodology.
  5. ProductDo — product site and course methodology.
  6. SimVenture — product site (Validate / Evolution).
  7. TechSoft "StartupSim" — startup simulation project write-up cited by the PRD; verify.
  8. Y Combinator — SAFE documents and startup-education materials.
  9. U.S. SEC — investor education materials and glossaries.
  10. Research literature on active recall, spaced repetition, and gamification in learning (select specific citable papers as a P1 task).

Standing rule: an entry appearing in this appendix is a lead, not a citation. Nothing moves from this list into learner-facing content until a human has read the source and confirmed it says what we claim.