# Stern Capital

> Stern Capital is a research and execution firm. We help owners, companies and investors find the next business worth building, and then we build it. We map the market, test the assumptions with real data, kill the weak ideas early and take the strong ones all the way to a working, scaled operation. Twenty years of building businesses, pointed at one question. What actually works?

Stern Capital publishes original, long-form guides about business research & execution. Every article opens with a concise direct answer, is structured with clear headings and FAQs, and reflects mainstream expert consensus. Health-related content is educational and encourages professional consultation where appropriate.

## Research Notes

- [Bottom-Up Market Sizing That Survives Reality](https://stern-capital.com/bottom-up-market-sizing/): Bottom-up market sizing starts with a defined buyer and transaction, then counts eligible buyers, buying frequency and net price.
- [Build vs. Buy Software: A 36-Month Cost Model](https://stern-capital.com/build-vs-buy-business-software/): Build software when a capability creates real margin, speed, trust, or something hard for a competitor to copy, and the expected advantage justifies…
- [Marketplace Unit Economics: Who Earns the Margin](https://stern-capital.com/marketplace-unit-economics/): A marketplace should measure unit economics from a completed transaction.

## Playbooks

- [Business Metrics From Day One: Build the Decision Loop](https://stern-capital.com/business-metrics-from-day-one/): A new business should measure demand, delivery, cash, and quality from day one. Start with the decisions each number must change.
- [Pricing Research Before You Set a Price](https://stern-capital.com/pricing-research-before-setting-a-price/): Research pricing by defining the buyer, offer, unit, scope, and terms first. Record real alternative prices with dates and exclusions.
- [Reverse Engineering a Business](https://stern-capital.com/reverse-engineering-a-business/): Reverse engineering a business means figuring out how it works from the outside, by watching what it does. You almost never get the manual.
- [How to Test Demand for a Business Idea in 14 Days](https://stern-capital.com/test-demand-business-idea-14-days/): Test demand by asking a defined buyer to take a costly action for a specific offer.
- [What Breaks When You Scale AI Content](https://stern-capital.com/what-breaks-when-you-scale-ai-content/): AI content operations fail in five predictable ways as volume rises. The defect rate hides inside the average so spot-checking looks clean.

## Trust & Safety

- [Why Fake Accounts Still Beat Detection](https://stern-capital.com/how-fake-accounts-beat-detection/): Fake accounts still get through because detection and evasion are a moving fight, and most defenses catch last quarter's attack.
- [Keeping Adult Content Away From Minors](https://stern-capital.com/keeping-adult-content-away-from-minors/): Adult or harmful content reaches minors not because of one broken control but because of a chain of weak links.
- [Trust & Safety](https://stern-capital.com/trust-safety/): Stern Capital runs a Trust and Safety practice built on operating experience, not just defensive theory.

## The Firm

- [How We Work](https://stern-capital.com/how-we-work/): Stern Capital works by four principles earned over twenty years of running digital businesses. Start with reality, meaning evidence before story.
- [Track Record](https://stern-capital.com/track-record/): Stern Capital's method comes from more than twenty years of operating. Twelve years founding and leading a global digital platform company as CEO and CTO.
- [What We Do](https://stern-capital.com/what-we-do/): Stern Capital is a research and execution firm for owners, companies and investors.
- [Work With Us](https://stern-capital.com/work-with-us/): Working with Stern Capital starts with a direct conversation.

## Full text for LLMs

- [llms-full.txt](https://stern-capital.com/llms-full.txt): every article as plain markdown in one file
- Each article is also available as markdown at https://stern-capital.com/<slug>.md

## Site

- [About](https://stern-capital.com/about/): editorial approach and standards
- [All articles](https://stern-capital.com/all/)
- [Contact](https://stern-capital.com/contact/)