Strategic Plan

MyBetterRates — Strategic Plan v2.1 (2026-07-15)

Companion: SWOT-Report. Predecessor idea inventory: Filter+Focus. The 2026-04-03 technical phase plan is preserved and updated in the Product Workstream appendix below. v2.1 integrates Talbot’s 2026-07-09/15 feedback: Mission SSOT, behavioural-solutions KSF, debt-first framing, talbotstevens.com dependency.

Mission

SSOT: Mission (Strategy/Identity/Mission.md):

myBetterRates helps people Benefit Financially F.A.S.T. from Better Rates and untaught strategies. Through our Cancer50Pledge — donating at least 50% of all profits to research — we fuel win-win-wins for individuals, companies, and society.

North Star for the next 12 months: 100 delighted users, 1 anchor partnership, first referral revenue flowing — before the Chilton and open-banking windows close.

Situation (July 2026, honest)

Built and running: rate intelligence engine (17 scrapers / 98 products / 43 institutions, daily, tested, anomaly-gated), hassle threshold engine (built, unwired), referral engine (built, test mode), benefit-snapshot widget (live), ops dashboard (live), rates table (live at mbr-site.pages.dev/rates).

Missing: users, revenue, live custom domain, alert delivery, any initiated partnership conversation. All top-ranked relationship rocks (Chilton #6, Wealthsimple #12, brokers #14) untouched since April.

Market (sized 2026-07-15, sourced): $3.25T Canadian household credit market debt (StatCan national balance sheet, Q1 2026); 179.6% debt-to-income — highest in the G7 (~103% of GDP); ~60% of all mortgages renewing 2025–26, 1.5M households already renewed higher in 2025 (CMHC); average credit-card balance $4,300+, an Equifax record. Every basis point of unnecessary interest on that base is recurring recoverable benefit; the pool persists because of the behaviour gap. Same figures anchor the pitch deck’s Market slide — keep the two in sync.

Diagnosis: the constraint is market contact, not product. The plan below is deliberately a subtraction plan.

Core Strategy — three bets, everything else deferred

The Wedge: “Worth It” alerts with the personalized hassle threshold and a radically simple offer. One free promise (“We’ll tell you when switching is worth it — fewer than 3 alerts a year”), one paid promise later. Positioning leads with debt (2026-07-15 reframe): the debt market is far larger ($3.25T household credit, StatCan Q1 2026) and the pain far deeper (179.6% debt-to-income, ~60% of mortgages renewing 2025–26) than the savings side, which benefits mainly those with excess cash. Execution sequencing is unchanged — savings alerts remain the first shippable wedge (the engine is built, referral rails exist, no licensing friction), with mortgage-renewal as wedge #2 — but all messaging, the pitch deck, and the brand promise now frame mBR debt-first.
The Distribution Bet: partnerships and centres of influence — never ongoing content marketing. Chilton, Wealthsimple, TFF, advisor network, then one WealthCare 50 corporate anchor. One-off media set-pieces (RRSP-season data report, podcast appearances) are allowed; recurring content commitments are not.
The Mission Brand: Cancer50Pledge as the structurally uncopyable differentiator, launched with Founding Pledgers (Chilton as #1 target) — not as a side project but as the door-opener for every partnership conversation.

Value-migration principle (answer to the AI question): rate information commoditizes; mBR’s durable value = verified live data (sellable to AI assistants as API), trusted execution, distribution relationships, and the pledge. Build accordingly.

Behavioural-solutions principle (KSF/USP — added 2026-07-15): two foundational barriers keep people from benefiting financially: knowledge and behaviour. Financial literacy is a crowded field; the harder, overlooked, more valuable barrier is behaviour — the “knowing-doing gap.” This is mBR’s unique focus: all analysis and communication centres on behavioural realities and practical solutions, because no one benefits until people act. F.A.S.T. is itself a behavioural design (busy, distracted people need fast, simple, tailored action). Canonical examples of behaviour dominating strategy math: invest-vs-paydown, rent-vs-buy, and RRSP-refund comparisons all assume 100% disciplined reinvestment of freed-up cash — which almost never happens. The research playbook (19 strategies — Thaler, Kahneman, Fogg, Milkman et al.) lives in BehaviourBarrierStrategies; Rock 2’s offer copy deploys its top three from day one: loss-aversion framing (“every month you delay costs $X”), smart defaults, and temporal reframing (“$3.28/day”).

The Not-Doing List (explicit, until North Star is hit)

Deferred by default — revisit only at quarterly Filter+Focus refresh:

Insurance vertical (watch-and-prepare; CSIO rails ~2027)
Browser extension, Financial IQ Score, Net Worth Thermometer
Full 1-Click concierge / KYC Stage 3–4 (Stage 1 pre-filled forms only)
US market, B2B Rate Intelligence API buildout (keep as pitch line only)
myBetter Sprints / Wizards / Money Minutes as products (ideas bank only)
Most WealthCare 50 tracks (healthcare, teachers, faith, alumni, pharma) — until ONE anchor corporate/association pilot exists
New scraper categories (coverage is already ahead of demand)
myMBR-OS Layer 3+ / CRM implementation / QB Online migration

Rule: anything not in the three rocks below requires displacing something that is.

90-Day Plan (Jul 9 → Oct 9, 2026) — three rocks

Rock 1 — Chilton + partnership sprint (Talbot-led; Claude drafts)

The perishable asset. Target: proposal in Chilton’s hands by end of July.

Chilton proposal: Cancer50Pledge Founding Signatory #1 + light advisory role framed for a retiring legend (legacy, low time, mission). Include the survival-math story and the GIC-brokerage origin echo (his own first business).
Wealthsimple affiliate application (also first revenue rail — overlaps Rock 3)
3–5 Founding Pledger invites from existing network (Bernie, Jeff, Peacehold founder, …)
1 Lunch & Learn pilot booked with a warm corporate contact (W50A seed)
Kill criterion: if Chilton declines, the pledge launches with whoever is #1 — the program does not wait.

Rock 2 — Minimum public product (Claude-led; Talbot approves)

Make the business visible and contactable. Target: live by end of August.

Fix the export/deploy “pending” gap in the daily cron — data trust is non-negotiable (day-1 item)
mybetterrates.com live on the real domain: rate table + benefit snapshot + origin story + Cancer50Pledge + email capture (D1/KV provisioning)
Wire hassle engine → email alert delivery (Resend/SendGrid) for the free promise
Recruit mBR Inner Circle: 10–25 real users from personal network; their behavior answers the pricing/threshold/trust questions Joe raised
Collapse the offer: free Worth-It alerts. Paid tier parked until Inner Circle data justifies a price.

Rock 3 — First revenue proof (Claude-led)

Fintel Connect + Impact.com applications filed (week 1–2)
Referral engine out of test mode; one live tracked conversion (own/family accounts count)
Commission → Cancer50Pledge ledger entry demonstrated end-to-end (the story: “first dollar, first donation”)
Commission the 3 legal opinions (Split-Cart/CRA, guarantee liability, NI 31-103) — cheap insurance that becomes a trust signal

Named dependency — talbotstevens.com refresh (4th workstream, affects all three rocks)

Talbot’s core personal-brand site is the credibility anchor every rock silently checks: Chilton (or anyone he asks) googles Talbot before replying (Rock 1); investors vet the founder the same way (pitch-deck follow-up); and the rebuilt homepage routes visitors to mybetterrates.com via destination cards (Rock 2 traffic surface). Rebuild is already in flight — ongoing project monorepo/sites/ts/ (KB thread: Core/IT/Tasks/monorepo-tscom-rebuild.md): content complete (20+ pages, Astro 7), design direction picked (Quiet Authority + Editorial Legacy books row, 2026-07-09), e-commerce phase 1 shipped. Remaining: full-site restyle → DNS cutover off the legacy IIS host. Sequencing: restyle + cutover land inside the Rock-2 August window, ideally before the Chilton email goes out. Execution SSOT: monorepo/sites/ts/STATUS.md — this plan carries only the strategic framing, not the backlog.

Weekly cadence: every Monday, one sentence per rock in STATUS.md. A week with no Rock 1 movement is a red flag by definition.

12-Month Arc

Quarter	Theme	Set-pieces
Q3 2026	The three rocks above	Chilton proposal; site live; first referral fee
Q4 2026	First 100 users + pledge launch	Cancer50Pledge.ca Phase B with Founding Pledgers wall; TFF conversation + Nov–Dec matching window; prep RRSP-season data report; 2–3 podcast one-offs
Q1 2027	RRSP-season authority moment	”Canadian Savings Rate Gap Report” pitched to Carrick/Globe; mortgage-renewal wedge live (broker referral MVP: 5–10 certified client-first brokers); first W50A corporate pilot
Q2 2027	Monetization + open-banking readiness	Paid tier priced from Inner Circle data; Stage-2 KYC; open-banking technical positioning; decide on Rate Intelligence API (AI-assistant supply)

Revenue Model (launch-simple; full model in Revenue-Models)

Now (validate): affiliate referral fees — banking CPA $20–$100, credit cards $50–$300, mortgage leads $30–$150 (CPL), broker channel later ($3k–$7.2k per funded mortgage = the 9x prize). Next (price from data): Guaranteed-Benefit subscription (~$99/yr, guarantee mechanics only after legal opinion). Later: performance-fee concierge (capped $199), W50A PEPM ($3–$5), Rate Intelligence API ($99–$499/mo). Always: ≥50% of profits → Cancer50Pledge, publicly tracked.

Success Metrics & Kill Criteria

Metric	90-day target	12-month target
Partnership conversations initiated	5+ (Chilton in July)	1 anchor signed
Real users (Inner Circle → public)	10–25	100 delighted
Referral revenue	first dollar	recurring monthly
Founding Pledgers	3	15+
Data pipeline integrity	export/deploy green daily	unbroken

Kill/pivot criteria (honesty clause): if by Q1 2027 there are <25 engaged users and zero partnership traction despite executed outreach, the consumer-B2C wedge is wrong — re-center on B2B (W50A / data API) where the founder’s network is strongest. Cheap to test, cheap to admit.

Governance

Quarterly: /filter-focus-refresh re-rank; update this plan’s rocks
Weekly: STATUS.md one-liner per rock (Monday)
Doc hygiene: SWOT-Report and this plan are the strategy SSOT pair; Weaknesses/Threats item files remain as detail; empty Identity stubs (Competitive Analysis, Strengths, Team) retired or filled — no half-documents
Decision log: continues in Filter+Focus Key Decision Log

Appendix — Product Workstream (updated from 2026-04-03 plan)

Phase	Content	Status
A — Rate Intelligence	scrapers, SQLite, exports, widget	✅ complete (expanded 2026-06-18: 98 products/43 institutions)
A→B — Live site + alerts	mybetterrates.com, hassle-engine wiring, email delivery, Cancer50Pledge Phase B	🔶 NOW = Rock 2
B — Action loop	referral engine live, Split-Cart receipts, Stage-1 transfer forms, push notifications	next (Rock 3 starts it)
C — Financial intelligence	Financial IQ, Net Worth Thermometer, Concierge v2	deferred (Not-Doing list)
D — Passive surveillance	browser extension	deferred

Tech decisions unchanged: Python+uv+curl_cffi/Playwright, SQLite insert-only, Astro (site) in monorepo, SvelteKit (apps), Cloudflare Pages, pnpm. Email provider to be selected in Rock 2 (Resend or SendGrid).

Feedback — resolved 2026-07-15

Talbot’s 2026-07-09 feedback, integrated in v2.1:

Mission SSOT → Mission section now quotes Mission verbatim (done above).
Market-validation / MVP-iteration gap — acknowledged as a founder weakness and high-impact improvement area; the operating principles in Progress Acceleration (Biggest Rocks only, Minimum Viable WOW, smallest 2-week experiment, distribution trumps product) are hereby the working style for all three rocks. Rock 2’s Inner Circle is the market-validation instrument — it ships before polish, and its behaviour data prices the paid tier.
talbotstevens.com → named dependency block added under the 90-Day Plan (rebuild in flight; see above).

Working record: mBR-Business-Review-Revisions.