Ventures · Planning · HourLife Premium
Give each idea for earning a budget, a deadline and an honest decision.
Try each way of earning as a bet with a budget and a deadline, log the hours, spend and revenue as they happen, and decide when the bet is up.
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Every idea is a betWrite what you are testing, set a budget of hours and money and a day to decide by, and the venture draws a meter for each. It asks for a decision when the deadline arrives or a budget runs out.
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What it earns for the timeEach check-in is hours, spend and revenue, typed in. The venture keeps its net so far and divides it by the hours you logged, so a side project that pays $2 an hour says so.
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Kill, continue, scale or pivotWhen a bet is up, you choose what next and say why. Scaling doubles the next bet’s budgets, killing stops the venture, and the call can go to your Decisions journal with its evidence.
Your first venture
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Name it and place a bet
Open Ventures and tap “+”. Name the venture, then write the bet under “THE BET”, such as “Ten people pay for the beta”, and set any of the three budgets under “BUDGET”. “DECIDE BY” starts 30 days out.
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Check in as you go
Each time you work on it, open the venture and tap “Check in”. Enter the hours, what you spent and what you earned. The card says “Check-in due” when you have gone longer than your cadence.
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Decide when it asks
When the card says “Decision due”, tap “Decide”. Pick “Kill”, “Continue”, “Scale”, “Pivot” or “Keep steady”, say why and what you learned, and leave “Also save to Decisions” on to keep the call.
Every step, in detail
- 1 Open Ventures and tap “+” (“Add venture”). Name it, add the pitch in a line if you like, and pick its “KIND”.
- 2 Under “THE BET”, write what you are testing, such as “Ten people pay for the beta”. Under “BUDGET”, set any of “Revenue target”, “Hours” and “Money”, and set “DECIDE BY”, which starts 30 days out.
- 3 Choose how often to “CHECK IN”, Weekly to begin with, and turn on “Remind me weekly to check in” if you want a nudge. Tap “Save”.
- 4 Whenever you work on it, open the venture and tap “Check in”. Enter the “Hours”, what you “Spent” and what you “Earned”, plus a “SIGNAL” such as “3 sign-ups from the newsletter”.
- 5 When the card says “Decision due”, tap “Decide”, pick what next, and say why and what the bet taught you.
The day the bet is up
A venture never just drifts. Each bet carries a day to decide by, and when it comes, or the hours or money run out, the card is stamped “Decision due” until you make a call. The Newsletter bet that sponsors would pay to reach its readers, and today is its deadline: $600 of the $800 target in, 31 of 40 hours used. Pick what next, and watch the venture’s page and the record in Decisions follow.
Sample · the app’s Newsletter on its deadline, Wednesday, October 21 · pick a decision, say why, then decide
The call is in your decision journal, with the bet, its numbers and all five options.
Only the venture keeps the call. Its row under “PAST BETS” offers “Save to Decisions” for later.
Decisions · the record it writes
Decision
- The evidence
- The options
- Why
- What it taught
Pick what next, and the record Decisions keeps is drawn here.
Ventures
- Testing 2
- Growing 1
- Steady 1
- Stopped 1
Newsletter
A weekly letter on planning, for people who work for themselves
Net so far
Per hour
$305
$3.11/h
98 h · $310 spent · $615 in
First money in on Apr 14, 2026
The bet
Sponsors will pay to reach 1,000 readers who plan for a living
Success looks like: $400 a month from sponsors
Started Aug 27, 2026 · decide by Oct 21, 2026
The deadline is here
Past bets
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PivotAug 27, 2026
Swaps and guest issues grow the list to 1,000 readers
23 h · $58 spent · $0 in
1,060 readers, and they open it. Time to make it pay.
Growth came from other writers, never from ads.
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ContinueJul 3, 2026
Swaps and guest issues grow the list to 1,000 readers
24 h · $153 spent · $0 in
820 readers. Short of 1,000, but the last month added 300.
Swaps brought three times the readers the ad did, for nothing.
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PivotMay 4, 2026
Readers will pay $5 a month for the letter
20 h · $41 spent · $15 in
Two paying readers after six weeks. The free list grows; the paid one doesn’t.
People read it gladly and won’t pay for it. The readers are the asset, not the subscription.
Continue keeps the terms, Scale doubles the revenue target and both budgets, and Pivot keeps the budgets and leaves the hypothesis blank, each starting the next bet straight away. Those three need a hypothesis before the call can be made. Kill moves the venture to Stopped and Keep steady to Steady, and neither opens a bet. The bet’s numbers count only the check-ins logged while it ran, so this one reads 31 hours where the venture has 98.
Hours in, money either way
A check-in is a line in the venture’s ledger: the hours you put in, what you spent, what came back, and a signal worth remembering. Planner templates is eleven days into a bet that 50 people buy a $12 pack, and down $23 so far. Log a check-in, or move the days on and watch the meters fill until a budget or the deadline asks for a decision.
Sample · the app’s Planner templates, a bet placed on October 10 · move the days, log a check-in, overspend
Oct 21, 2026 · the bet’s deadline is Nov 9, 2026, and a check-in is due seven days after the last.
Planner templates
Printable weekly planners for freelancers, $12 a pack
Net so far
Per hour
−$23
−$2.88/h
8 h · $59 spent · $36 in
First money in on Oct 17, 2026
The bet
50 people buy a $12 planner pack in 30 days
Success looks like: 50 sales
Started Oct 10, 2026 · decide by Nov 9, 2026
Check-ins
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Oct 17, 2026$16
3 h · $20 spent · $36 in
3 sales from one post
Mentioned it in the newsletter on Sunday.
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Oct 12, 2026−$39
5 h · $39 spent · $0 in
First pack designed; storefront up
Save needs hours, money either way, or a few words. Try $25 spent on day 12, and the spend meter runs past $80.
A bet asks for a decision when its deadline comes, its hours reach the hour budget, or its spend reaches the money budget, checked in that order. Reaching the revenue target never ends a bet on its own. “Decision due” outranks “Check-in due”, so a venture shows one stamp at a time. A venture with no bet open, like the print shop under Steady, keeps taking check-ins and offers “New Bet”.
Which hours actually pay
Insights adds up every venture you haven’t archived, stopped ones included, and ranks them by what each hour earns. In the sample, design consulting brings in $91.24 an hour and the newsletter $3.11, a gap no total would show. The Recipe app was stopped and archived in September. Archive a venture, or bring one back, and watch the months, the ranking and the bets move.
Sample · the app’s six ventures, May to October · archive and unarchive
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Design consulting
Growing · $20,255 net -
Newsletter
Testing · $305 net -
Riso print shop
Steady · $2,019 net -
Stock photography
Stopped · −$24 net -
Recipe app
Stopped · −$218.92 net -
Planner templates
Testing · −$23 net
Archiving puts a venture away without deleting it: it leaves the list, Insights, Today and its reminder.
Insights
Nothing here yet
Add a venture and log a check-in. What it nets, and what each hour earns, shows up here.
Your ventures have netted $22,532.
$4,322 this month. First money in on Apr 8, 2026.
Net by month
Revenue less spend, the last six months.
Per hour
What each venture earns for the time.
- 1$91.24/h
Design consulting
222 h · $20,255 net
- 2$21.03/h
Riso print shop
96 h · $2,019 net
- 3$3.11/h
Newsletter
98 h · $305 net
- 4−$1.04/h
Stock photography
23 h · −$24 net
- 5−$2.88/h
Planner templates
8 h · −$23 net
Net divided by the hours logged.
Bets
7 bets decided, 3 called a win.
3 still open.
A bet called Scale or Keep steady counts as a win, Kill as killed, and Continue or Pivot as kept testing. The months count every check-in, whichever bet it fell in. Insights adds up one currency, the one most of your ventures use, and names any it left out rather than converting them.
What a winning bet looks like
Design consulting began as a one-day review offered to a few app teams in March. Two bets later, both scaled, it is under Growing with a bet on a $1,500 monthly retainer, and its page reads $20,255 netted over 222 hours. Its check-ins tell the story the totals can’t: the review booked from a newsletter mention, the retainers renewed, and the proposal that came to nothing.
Tips
- Insights adds up one currency, the one most of your ventures use. A venture in another currency is named as not counted rather than converted.
- The bet card and the Decide sheet count only the check-ins logged while that bet ran. “NET SO FAR” counts everything, so the two can differ.
- Archive a venture from its ⋯ menu to put it away without deleting it. It leaves the list, Insights, Today and its reminder, and “Archived” in the list’s ⋯ menu brings it back.
- A venture’s currency comes from your Finances setting, and it is fixed once the first check-in is logged.
Questions
About Ventures day to day.
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Does Ventures connect to my bank or track my time automatically?
No. Every check-in is hours, spend and revenue that you type in. Nothing is read from a bank, from Finances, or from a timer.
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How is “PER HOUR” worked out?
It is the venture’s net so far, revenue less spend over every check-in, divided by the hours you logged in those check-ins. It is hidden until you log some hours, and it goes negative when a venture has cost more than it earned.
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When does a bet ask for a decision?
When its deadline arrives, when the hours you logged reach its hour budget, or when what you spent reaches its money budget. Reaching the revenue target does not end a bet on its own.
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What happens when I scale or pivot?
Both start the next bet straight away, the same length as the last. Scale keeps the hypothesis and doubles the revenue target and both budgets. Pivot keeps the budgets and leaves the hypothesis blank for a new one.
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Can my ventures be in different currencies?
Yes, each venture has its own currency, fixed once it has check-ins. Insights adds up only the currency most of your ventures use and says how many it left out. It does not convert between currencies.
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Is Ventures free, and does it sync?
Ventures is part of HourLife Premium. Ventures, bets and check-ins sync through iCloud with the rest of your data, and the Mac app has its own Ventures screens.
Works with
Where Ventures hands off to the rest of HourLife.
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Decisions
“Also save to Decisions”, on while you decide, writes the call to your decision journal with the bet, its hours, spend and revenue, all five options, your reasoning and what you learned. A past bet that was not saved shows “Save to Decisions”.
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Pursuits
An open pursuit’s ⋯ menu offers “Test as a venture”, which starts a venture with a first bet of “Someone will pay for …” and links back to the pursuit.
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Today
The “VENTURES” card on Today lists up to three live bets, the ones waiting on you first, with a “Decide” or “Check in” button, and what came in this month.
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Goals
A venture can link to a goal, shown as “Goal: …” on its page, and a decision saved to Decisions keeps that goal.
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Projects
A venture can link to a project, shown as “Project: …” on its page.
Already have HourLife?
Ventures is under Planning in the module list, and it is part of HourLife Premium. “+” adds a venture, and the ⋯ menu holds “Analyze”, which opens Insights, and “Archived”. Today shows a “VENTURES” card whenever a bet is live.
Ventures is in the Library, under Planning. If it isn’t there, turn it on in Settings → Look & Feel → Modules. It needs HourLife Premium.
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