R7 — Bird-in-hand pitch architecture as default; begin from what the GC has, propose incremental improvements; reserve reinvention for growth-oriented founder-GCs

Rule: Default Candid pitches begin from what the GC currently has — current site, current client list, current work — and propose incremental improvements with bounded downside. Strategic-reinvention pitches are reserved for the small subset of growth-oriented founder-GCs for whom the standard frame fits.

Why: Bird-in-hand ([[sarasvathy-effectuation-bird-in-hand-affordable-loss]]) is the empirically-grounded decision rule of expert entrepreneurs. Most GCs Candid encounters are owner-operators, not growth-oriented founders ([[stewart-roth-2001-entrepreneur-risk-propensity-contested]]) — the bird-in-hand frame is the right default.

How to apply:

• Discovery question: "What's working well right now that we should build on?" (not "What's broken?")
• Proposal structure: existing-asset inventory → identified leverage points → bounded improvements with explicit kill criteria.
• Exception trigger: if the prospect self-identifies as actively pursuing growth/scaling, is crossing the $5M-revenue threshold ([[overconfidence-in-house-comparator-pattern-for-gc-pitches]] caveats), or has a second-generation owner actively professionalizing the firm — strategic-reinvention pitches are eligible. Otherwise default to bird-in-hand.