How to use Scafflow

Welcome to Scafflow. This guide walks you through everything the product does, from your first login to landing your first customers. If you are brand new, start here.

1. Create your account

Go to the sign-up page, enter your email and a password, and verify your email address using the link we send you. Verifying your email keeps your account secure and makes sure you receive important reminders.

2. Complete onboarding

The first time you log in, Scafflow asks a few quick questions — your industry, your location (state), and your business type. This takes about two minutes. Your answers are what let Scafflow build a checklist tailored to your exact situation instead of a generic to-do list.

3. Meet your dashboard

Once onboarding is complete, you land on your dashboard: your home base. From here you can see your overall progress, jump to your next task, and navigate to every part of the app using the sidebar.

Tip: You can revisit and update your business details later from Settings. If your plans change — a new state, a different business type — update them and your checklist adjusts.

Your dashboard is designed to answer one question the moment you open it: what should I do next? It brings together four things at a glance.

Launch readiness

A single headline score tells you how launch-ready you are, and a breakdown by workstream — legal, payments, web presence, marketing, funding, and operations — shows exactly where the gaps are. The tasks blocking your launch are always surfaced first. (See the Launch readiness section below for how the score works.)

Momentum

Your streak, your recent pace, and the milestone badges you have earned live here. Every task you complete keeps your streak alive and unlocks a business insight — small, consistent progress is what gets a business launched.

What's next

A short digest recaps your recent progress and points you to your highest-leverage next moves, so you never have to decide where to begin. Click any task to jump straight into its detail, complete with instructions and tools.

Getting around

Use the sidebar to move between your Tasks, Funding Center, Growth (first-customers engine), Financials, Playbook, Motivation, and Settings. Everything you do is saved automatically as you go.

Launch readiness turns your long checklist into one clear, prioritized picture of where you stand — so an overwhelming to-do list becomes a plan.

How the score works

Every task belongs to a workstream — legal, payments, web presence, marketing, funding, or operations — and carries a weight based on how important it is. Your score for each workstream is a weighted measure of how much of it you have completed, and your overall readiness rolls those up, weighted for what matters most to a business like yours. A task counts for more once it is fully documented than when it is marked done with the documentation skipped.

Blocking gaps first

Must-do tasks that are still incomplete are shown as blocking gaps at the top, so you always know the few things standing between you and launch. Optional items are tucked away so they don't paralyze you.

Free vs. Pro

Everyone sees their overall score and top blocker. On Pro and Founder Pro you get the full per-workstream breakdown and a model weighted to your specific business.

Tasks are the heart of Scafflow. Your personalized checklist breaks the entire journey of starting a business into clear, ordered steps so nothing important slips past.

Browsing your checklist

Open Tasks from the sidebar to see your full checklist, grouped by category. Tasks are ordered so that earlier steps unlock later ones — for example, you will register your business before opening a business bank account.

Inside a task

Click any task to open its detail view. Every task includes:

• The why — a short explanation of what this step is and why it matters, so you are never doing busywork.
• The how — clear, plain-language instructions for completing it.
• Vetted tools — recommended services and links to help you get it done faster.
• Evidence — a place to upload proof that you completed the step.
• Let the agent do it — many tasks have a "do this for me" button where an AI agent drafts the document or sets up the tool for you. You stay in control and approve the result.

Marking a task complete

When you finish a task, mark it complete. Your progress and launch readiness update instantly, and you unlock a business insight — one real principle tied to what you just did, which gets added to your Playbook. You can always reopen a task if you need to revisit it.

Tip: You do not have to do tasks strictly in order, but following the recommended sequence keeps dependencies from tripping you up.

Starting a business is a marathon, and the hardest part is not stalling. Scafflow builds in momentum so progress feels good and compounds.

Streaks and badges

Complete at least one task on a given day and your streak grows. Your dashboard shows your current and longest streak, your recent pace, and the milestone badges you earn as you finish workstreams and hit readiness milestones.

Insights, one per task

Every task you complete reveals one business principle tied to exactly what you just did — from pricing on value to doing things that don't scale. It's what turns a checklist into an education in running a business.

Your Playbook

Open the Playbook tab to see the insights you have unlocked. Insights stay hidden until you complete their task, so your Playbook fills in as you build — a personal operating manual you earn one task at a time. Finish more tasks to reveal more.

The Founder MBA is the 20% of a business degree that actually moves a small business — distilled into short, plain-English lessons with zero jargon.

What's inside

Twelve modules cover the essentials: what a business really is, marketing, sales, delivering value, finance and accounting, pricing and unit economics, cash flow, strategy, growth and retention, managing yourself, leadership, and negotiation. Each lesson gives you the concept, why it matters, how it shows up in a small business, one action to take, and its source — so you can genuinely finish the course in a weekend.

Track your progress

Mark lessons complete as you go and watch your course progress fill in, all the way to graduating.

Apply it to your business

On Pro and Founder Pro, each module has an "Apply this to my business" button. An AI tutor takes the module's concepts and shows you exactly how they apply to your specific industry and situation — like office hours on demand. Module 1 is free to preview on any plan.

As you complete tasks, Scafflow gives you a single organized home for all the documents that prove your business is set up correctly — no more hunting through email attachments and downloads folders.

Uploading evidence

On a task's detail page, upload the relevant file — for example, your EIN confirmation letter, your filed formation documents, or a screenshot of your registered business bank account. Everything stays attached to the task it belongs to.

AI evidence checks

For supported tasks, you can run an optional AI check on your uploaded evidence. The AI reviews the document to confirm it looks complete and flags anything that seems missing or off, giving you extra confidence before you move on.

AI checks are there to help, not to replace your judgment. AI output can be imperfect, so treat it as a helpful second set of eyes rather than a final legal or financial verdict.

Why this matters

Keeping clean evidence makes tax time, funding applications, and future audits far easier — and it means that if you ever bring on a partner, accountant, or attorney, everything they need is already organized in one place.

Getting legally set up is only the start — the whole point is paying customers. The first-customers engine, found under Growth, is built to carry you from your first customer to a repeatable way of reaching your hundredth.

Outreach plays

Scafflow gives you proven, founder-led outreach plays — the kinds of things that win real customers by hand early on, like mining your warm network, targeted direct outreach, and community engagement. Each play explains exactly what to do.

Templates

Ready-to-use message templates take the blank-page anxiety out of reaching out. Adapt them to your voice and your prospect, then send.

The outreach tracker

Log who you have contacted, where the conversation stands, and what happened. The tracker helps you stay organized and, just as importantly, shows you which plays are actually producing customers so you can double down on what works.

Tip: Early on, do things that don't scale. Personal, one-to-one outreach converts far better than broadcasts — and it teaches you the exact words your customers use.

The Financials section gives you a simple financial model so you understand your numbers from day one — no accounting background required.

Projecting your business

Enter your expected revenue and costs, and Scafflow projects your profit and your runway — how many months your business can operate before it runs out of cash. Seeing these numbers early helps you price correctly and spot trouble while you still have room to react.

AI financial suggestions

Where available, Scafflow can offer AI-generated suggestions to help you think through your model. As with all AI features, treat these as guidance, not professional financial advice.

Keep it updated

Revisit your financials as real numbers come in. A model you update monthly is one of the most valuable habits you can build as a new owner.

The Funding Center gives you honest, practical guidance on how to actually fund your business — matched to your industry, offering, stage, and risk profile.

Every path, explained

You'll find every realistic option — bootstrapping, friends and family, SBA loans, bank loans and lines of credit, crowdfunding, angel and venture capital, grants, and revenue-based financing. Each one explains what it is, the steps to pursue it, what you'll need, its pros and cons, a realistic timeline, and — importantly — when it's the wrong choice.

Personalized fit scoring

On Pro and Founder Pro, Scafflow scores how well each path fits your specific business and ranks them for you, so you can focus on the options that make sense. We're founder-honest here: most small businesses shouldn't chase venture capital, and we'll say so when a path is wrong for you.

Generate a funding plan

When you're ready, generate a tailored funding plan — how much to raise, which paths fit, and a 30/60/90-day action list — built specifically for your business.

Starting a business is rarely a solo effort. Scafflow lets you bring the people helping you launch into the same workspace.

Inviting people

From your settings, send an invite to a co-founder or teammate by email. They will get a secure link to join your workspace. Team features depend on your plan.

Working together

Once someone joins, you share the same checklist, progress, and evidence — so you can divide up tasks and see who is doing what, instead of coordinating across scattered documents and chats.

The Legal & Registration section is free forever — structure, name registration, EIN, licenses and contracts, with no trial period and no credit card. Everything else in Scafflow is free for 14 days (30 days if an SBDC or SCORE advisor invited you), then needs a plan.

Choosing a plan

Visit the pricing page to compare plans and pick the one that fits your business. Starter covers your personalized checklist, guides, and templates. Pro adds AI evidence checks, the growth engine, your full per-workstream readiness breakdown, your Playbook, the weekly What's-Next digest, and personalized funding guidance. Founder Pro layers on more seats and priority support for your whole team. You can pay monthly or save with annual billing, and upgrade anytime from within the app.

Managing your subscription

From Settings → Billing you can change plans, update your payment method, view invoices, or cancel. Payments are handled securely by Stripe, and Scafflow never stores your full card number.

If you cancel

You keep access to paid features until the end of your current billing period. After that you drop back to the free-forever Legal & Registration section — your data and progress are always preserved, and everything unlocks again if you resubscribe.

You are always in control of your account and your data.

Managing your account

From Settings you can update your business details, profile, and preferences. Changing your business type or location will re-tailor your checklist to match.

Password and security

If you forget your password, use the "Forgot password" link on the login page to reset it securely. We use encryption in transit, hashed passwords, and access controls to protect your account.

Your data

You can update or delete your information at any time from settings. For full details on what we collect and how we use it, see our Privacy Policy and Data Policy.

Getting help

Still stuck? Check the FAQ for quick answers, or email support@tryscafflow.com and our team will help you out.