sales-skills/sales-cresh

Cresh Platform Help

Cresh (cresh.me — the live product; the backlog's cresh.ai does not resolve) is a multi-agent AI startup/business-idea validator. You describe an idea in a guided wizard (problem, solution, audience, competition, business model) and it returns a structured report scoring the idea across 33 metrics organized into 6 groups — Market & Competition, Business Model & Revenue, Customer Need & Problem Fit, Product & Technology, Go-to-Market, and Feasibility & Risks. Each metric gets a score, a plain-language explanation, and improvement suggestions, and Cresh markets a per-metric web search that pulls "real sources and real data" behind each score. A full run takes ~3–6 minutes and exports a PDF to share with a co-founder or investor.

It's a fast, structured second opinion — not a substitute for real demand validation — the report is an AI opinion, the "sources" are disputed (reviewers report no visible citation trail), and it has no public API (UI tool).

Step 1 — Gather context

If references/learnings.md exists, read it first for accumulated platform knowledge.

Ask only what you can't infer:

1. What do you want from Cresh?
   • A) Run an idea through it and interpret the report — the 33 metrics, the 6 group scores, or a section
   • B) Understand the credit-based Cresh Coins pricing and the free-tier metric limit (~5–6 of 33)
   • C) Judge whether its cited "real sources" can be trusted, or export/share the PDF
   • D) Automate or export programmatically (API reality)
2. What's the real question — "is this idea worth building?" or "how do I use this tool?" If it's the go/no-go decision, that's /sales-idea-validation (a score is not demand) — route in Step 2.
3. Are you the target user? Cresh's self-serve tier is for solo founders / indie hackers; its separate enterprise "decision intelligence" tier (InnoScore, €500–€10k/mo) is for innovation teams — don't send a solo founder to the enterprise offer.

Skip-ahead: if the user wants the validate-before-building method or to compare validators across the market, route to /sales-idea-validation immediately.

Step 2 — Route or answer directly

| If the user's question is about… | Route to | |---|---| | The validate-before-building method, or the go/no-go decision itself | /sales-idea-validation {question} | | Comparing Cresh against other validators (Preuve, DimeADozen, IdeaScore, Validator AI…) | /sales-idea-validation {question} | | Building the smoke-test / fake-door landing page to test real demand | /sales-funnel {question} | | Growing a pre-launch waitlist / capturing real demand | /sales-audience-growth {question} | | Turning the report's market/audience sections into a real content program | /sales-content {question} |

When routing, give the exact command: "This is a {domain} question — run: /sales-idea-validation {original question}"

Otherwise, answer Cresh-specific questions using Step 3.

Step 3 — Cresh platform reference

Read references/platform-guide.md for the full reference — the wizard input, the 6 metric groups and 33 metrics (with the labels marketing uses), the per-metric explanation/improvement structure, the "deep search per metric" claim and why its source transparency is disputed, the 6-metric free snapshot vs the full 33-metric paid report + PDF, the credit-based Cresh Coins model and the best-effort price points, the enterprise "decision intelligence" tier (and why it's off-target for a solo founder), and the no-public-API automation reality.

Answer using only the relevant section — don't dump the full reference.

Step 4 — Actionable guidance

• Treat the 33-metric score as a directional gut check, not demand. The whole report is an LLM opinion generated from a short idea description — the group scores, the market sizing, and the competitor set are AI estimates, not measured demand. Tell the user to keep the structured outputs (the flagged weak metrics, competitor read, risks, improvement tips) to sharpen the pitch, and take the go/no-go from real behavior — a smoke test or pre-sale — not from a high Cresh score. Route the real test to /sales-idea-validation.
• Don't over-trust the "real sources / real data" claim — verify the citations yourself. Cresh's differentiator is a per-metric web search that supposedly cites real sources, but reviewers report no visible citation trail and market/retention numbers you can't trace. Before quoting any figure or "sourced" claim, open the underlying source (if one is shown) and sanity-check it against a primary reference — treat unsourced numbers as AI estimates. This is the report-auditing discipline in /sales-idea-validation, applied to Cresh.
• Do the credit math on Cresh Coins, and flag the pricing as unsettled. Cresh runs on credit-based "Cresh Coins": a free tier shows only ~5–6 of 33 metrics (a snapshot), and the full 33-metric report + PDF costs coins. Best-effort at research (sources conflict): ~$3 per analysis in some reviews, or roughly $9 / $19 / $29 monthly for 1 / 3 / 5 analyses in others. Always tell the user to confirm current pricing on cresh.me and to finalize the idea framing before spending a coin — garbage-in, garbage-out, and each pivot re-run costs again.
• Match the tier to the user — don't send a solo founder to the enterprise offer. The self-serve product is for indie founders; the enterprise "decision intelligence" / InnoScore tier (€500/mo pilot → €2k–€10k/mo + a large implementation fee, for 200–5,000-employee innovation teams) is a different product. A solopreneur validating one idea wants the self-serve tier.
• There's no public API — don't plan an integration around it. If asked to automate, batch, or pipe reports elsewhere, say plainly there's no documented public API, no webhooks, no Zapier/Make, no MCP. The only way to get a report out is the PDF export (or copy/screenshot from the browser) — there is no supported programmatic or batch path. The thing worth automating is the real signal (landing-page conversions), not the generated score — route that to /sales-idea-validation and /sales-funnel.

If you discover a gotcha or tip not in references/learnings.md, append it there with today's date.

Gotchas

Best-effort from research (2026-07) — Cresh's pricing, credit terms, metric groups, and source claims move; verify at cresh.me.

• Right domain: cresh.me. The live validator is at cresh.me; the backlog's cresh.ai does not resolve — don't route users there.
• The 33-metric score is an AI opinion, not demand. A high aggregate score generated from a short description validates nothing on its own — follow it with a real-behavior test (smoke test / pre-sale).
• "Real sources" is disputed. Cresh markets per-metric web search with real data, but reviewers report no visible citation trail; verify any sourced figure against a primary reference before quoting it.
• Garbage-in, garbage-out. Output quality tracks input specificity — a vague idea yields a generic report, and each pivoted re-run spends another credit. Sharpen the customer + problem + differentiation first.
• It can overlook adjacent segments. Reviewers note Cresh anchors on the segment you describe and can miss adjacent buyers — don't treat its market read as exhaustive.
• Pricing is credit-based and unsettled. Cresh Coins fund each run; the free tier shows only ~5–6 of 33 metrics, and quoted prices (per-analysis vs monthly) conflict across sources — confirm on cresh.me.
• Enterprise tier is a different product. The €500–€10k/mo "decision intelligence" / InnoScore tier targets corporate innovation teams, not solo founders — don't conflate it with the self-serve validator.
• No public API, no webhooks, no Zapier/Make/MCP. It's a UI tool; the report leaves only as a PDF — there's no supported way to script, batch, or export programmatically.

Related skills

• /sales-idea-validation — The tool-agnostic validate-before-building method + the full validator landscape (use this to actually decide build-or-not; a score is not demand)
• /sales-preuve — Preuve AI platform help (the source-linked validator that cites every claim across 50+ live sources — the credible counterpart to Cresh's disputed "real sources" claim)
• /sales-ideascore — IdeaScore platform help (a lean, letter-graded triage validator; contrast its terse "decision-ready" output against Cresh's fuller 33-metric report)
• /sales-dimeadozen — DimeADozen platform help (a one-time 200+ page report validator; contrast its depth + disputed citations against Cresh's 33-metric report)
• /sales-funnel — Build the smoke-test / fake-door landing page the real demand test runs on
• /sales-audience-growth — Grow a pre-launch waitlist and capture real demand
• /sales-do — Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill. Install: npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-do -a claude-code

Examples

Example 1: "Cresh scored my idea high across the 33 metrics — should I build it?"

User says: "Cresh gave my SaaS idea strong scores across most of its 33 metrics and a good overall read. Is that validated — should I start building?" Skill does: Explains the 33-metric report is an LLM opinion generated from a short description — the scores, market sizing, and competitor set are AI estimates, not demand. Tells the user to keep the structured parts (weak-metric flags, competitor read, risks, improvement tips) to sharpen the pitch, then route the real go/no-go to /sales-idea-validation — a smoke test or pre-sale where a stranger takes an action — rather than trusting the score. Result: The founder earns a real demand signal before building, using Cresh's structure, not its score.

Example 2: How Cresh Coins pricing and the free tier work

User says: "How much does Cresh cost? The free run only showed me a handful of metrics — how do I get the full 33 and the PDF, and is it a subscription?" Skill does: Explains Cresh is credit-based Cresh Coins — the free tier shows only ~5–6 of 33 metrics (a snapshot), and the full 33-metric report + PDF costs coins. Gives the best-effort price points (~$3/analysis in some reviews vs ~$9/$19/$29 monthly for 1/3/5 in others), flags them as conflicting/unsettled to confirm on cresh.me, and advises finalizing the idea framing before spending a coin since each pivot re-run costs again. Result: The user understands the metric gate and credit model and confirms live prices before paying.

Example 3: Can I export or automate Cresh reports via API? (developer/automation)

User says: "I want to run ideas through Cresh automatically and pull the reports into my own dashboard via an API or Zapier. How do I set that up?" Skill does: States plainly there's no documented public API, no webhooks, no Zapier/Make, no MCP — it's a UI tool whose only data-out is the PDF export (or copy/screenshot), so there's no supported way to batch or export programmatically. Suggests a tool built for programmatic validation if a pipeline is required, and notes the thing worth automating is a real demand signal (landing-page conversions), not a generated score — pointing to /sales-idea-validation and /sales-funnel. Result: The user avoids building on a non-existent API and picks a workable path.

Troubleshooting

The scores feel generous / it never really tells me to stop

Symptom: The 33-metric report reads encouraging even for a weak idea. Cause: The report is a short-prompt LLM output — it pattern-matches to plausible-sounding encouragement and can invent supporting "facts" (market size, demand, sources). Solution: Stop treating the score as the decision. Keep the structured outputs (weak-metric flags, competitor read, risks, improvement tips) and run a real demand test — smoke test or pre-sale — via /sales-idea-validation. Treat a low group score as a cheap early filter, not the go/no-go.

I can't find the "real sources" behind the metrics

Symptom: Cresh markets per-metric web search with real data, but you can't see or open the citations. Cause: Reviewers report no visible citation trail — the "sources" claim isn't consistently backed by traceable references in the report. Solution: Treat any figure as an AI estimate until you verify it. Where a source is shown, open it and check it against a primary reference; if you need genuinely cited validation, use a source-linked validator (/sales-preuve cites every claim). Never quote a Cresh number you can't trace.

I want an API or a way to export/automate

Symptom: Want to script Cresh or pull reports into another system. Cause: Cresh has no documented public API, webhooks, or iPaaS connectors; it's a web tool whose only data-out is the PDF. Solution: There's no supported programmatic path — export the PDF (or copy from the browser) and parse it if you must. Use a tool intended for programmatic use if you need a pipeline, and automate a real demand signal (landing-page analytics) instead. See /sales-idea-validation and /sales-funnel.