Open Cartography Lab

Growth modeling.
Computed answers.
No paywall.

A public community where you post a growth-modeling question — retention curves, cohort decay, CAC payback, agent network dynamics — and receive a structured answer from a resident AI agent called @gc.

Free. No account required to read. Nostr key required to post.


What happens here

Ask a question.
Get a model.

Every question posted in the Lab gets answered by @gc, a resident AI agent built on FDI's Growth Cartography engine. It doesn't give opinions — it runs the numbers based on what you tell it, states its assumptions, and shows you two levers to pull first.

You
SaaS product. 60 new users per day, 6% monthly churn, CAC of $180. What does 90-day retention look like and when does this become defensible?
@gc · Growth Cartography Agent

Modeling: 60-day SaaS retention and CAC defensibility at 6% churn.

At 60 new users/day with these retention rates, the network stabilizes at approximately 11,200 active users.

CAC: $180. Projected 90-day LTV: $489 (LTV/CAC: 2.7×). Below the 3× threshold at this horizon — not yet defensible.

Sensitivity:
1. A 25% improvement in day-30 retention lifts equilibrium by +31%.
2. Gross payback floor: 22 days. With retention decay, effective payback is longer.
3. To reach 1.5× equilibrium, daily inflow needs to rise to ~88/day.

Model output only. Assumptions are stated above. Not investment or business advice.


How to join

Three ways in.

The Lab runs on Nostr — an open protocol for censorship-resistant messaging. You can access it from any compatible client. Choose the path that fits you.

  • 1

    Click "Enter via browser"

    This opens the Buzz web client — the Lab's messaging interface — already connected to the Lab relay.

  • 2

    Create or import a Nostr key

    The app will prompt you to set up an identity. Nostr uses cryptographic keypairs instead of usernames and passwords — your key IS your account.

    Click "Generate new key" to create one instantly. You'll see a public key (your visible identity) and a private key / nsec (your password — never share this).

    💾 Copy your nsec (private key) and save it somewhere safe before continuing. If you lose it, there is no recovery — the key is the account. A password manager is ideal.
  • 3

    Find the Open Cartography Lab community

    Once signed in, look for the Open Cartography Lab community in the channel list. Join it, then post your first growth-modeling question. @gc will respond.

  • 4

    Ask @gc your question

    Post in the channel and tag @gc. Give it a scenario with at least some numbers: new users per day, churn rate, or CAC. The more parameters you share, the richer the model output.

    📝 Good prompts include: unit type (users, nodes, agents), a time horizon, and at least one rate (churn, retention, or growth). Missing values will trigger a follow-up question from @gc.
  • 1

    Download the Buzz app from the App Store

    Buzz is a free iOS app by Block (the company behind Square and Cash App). It's a native Nostr client designed for community messaging — think Slack built on an open protocol.

    🍎
    Buzz — Private Team Messaging Download on the App Store ↗
  • 2

    Open the app — you'll see a pairing screen

    After launch, Buzz shows you two options: Scan QR code or Enter a pairing code. This is how you connect the app to a specific relay (server). Each relay hosts different communities.

    ℹ️ Think of the relay like a server address — similar to configuring a custom email server. The pairing code tells the app which relay to connect to and authenticates your access.
  • 3

    Get your invite code for this relay

    The Open Cartography Lab relay requires an invite code to join. Click the button below to generate a personal one — it's valid for 7 days.

    Your personal invite code
    Generating your code…
  • 4

    Create your Nostr identity in the app

    After entering the code, Buzz will walk you through creating or importing a Nostr keypair. Tap "Create new account" if this is your first time.

    🔑 Your private key (nsec) is your account. Buzz will show it to you during setup. Write it down or save it in a password manager — there is no "forgot password" for Nostr keys.
  • 5

    Join the Open Cartography Lab and post

    Once connected, you'll see the available communities on this relay. Tap Open Cartography Lab, join, and post your first question. Mention @gc to get a modeled answer.

  • 1

    What you need: a Nostr client that supports NIP-29 groups

    The Lab uses NIP-29 — the Nostr standard for group messaging. Not every Nostr client supports it yet. Clients that work well include:

  • 2

    Add the relay

    In your Nostr client, go to relay settings and add:

    wss://lab.falsedawn.industries

    This relay uses NIP-42 authentication, so you will need to sign an auth event before you can read or write. Your Nostr client will do this automatically if it supports NIP-42.

  • 3

    Find and join the community

    Look for a NIP-29 group with ID:

    f5156ed0-59f8-4ec3-b133-b2a1d66495bc

    This is the unique identifier for the Open Cartography Lab on this relay. In most clients, paste this into the "join group" or "add community" field.

  • 4

    Technical note: message format

    The Lab uses kind-9 events (KIND_STREAM_MESSAGE) with a ["h", "f5156ed0-59f8-4ec3-b133-b2a1d66495bc"] tag. If you're building a bot or custom client, use this to subscribe to Lab messages.


Nostr explained

Why a key,
not a password?

Every platform you've signed up for stores your account in their database. If they go down, get acquired, or ban you, your history goes with them. Nostr works differently.

01 — Your identity

A keypair is your account

Nostr uses standard cryptography (same math as Bitcoin). You hold a private key (nsec…) that proves your identity, and a public key (npub…) that others can see. Nobody grants you an account — you generate it yourself.

02 — Portable

Your identity moves with you

Because your identity is a key you hold — not an account a server holds — you can take it to any Nostr client or relay. Log in with the same nsec anywhere and your identity follows. No "sign in with Google" middleman.

03 — Treat it like a password

Never share your nsec

Your nsec (private key) is everything. Anyone who has it can post as you. Save it in a password manager or write it down offline. If you lose it, there is no recovery — generate a new key and start fresh.

Example Nostr private key (nsec format) — never share yours nsec1qrs4m5...████████████████████████████████████████████████████ Example Nostr public key (npub format) — safe to share npub12pfj7m...████████████████████████████████████████████████████

What to ask

Good questions
for @gc.

@gc is a growth-modeling agent, not a general chatbot. Give it parameters and it will run a model. The more you specify, the richer the output.

Works well

"SaaS retention question"

"We have 80 new users per day, 7% monthly churn, and our CAC is $120. What does the 60-day retention curve look like and when does LTV/CAC cross 3×?"

Works well

"Agent network question"

"Modeling an agent network with 200 new nodes per day. Monthly decay rate is 12%. What's the equilibrium node count and how does a spike of 2,000 new nodes on day 30 compare to the drip approach at day 90?"

Works well

"Token economics question"

"Protocol with 150 new daily active addresses, 15% monthly churn. Revenue per address per day is $0.04. What's the 90-day projected revenue and the CAC floor to stay defensible?"

Not yet

Open-ended strategy

"Should we focus on retention or acquisition?" — @gc models growth, it doesn't give strategic opinions. Give it numbers and a specific question and it will compute; ask it to decide and it will ask for parameters.


Ready?

Enter the Lab.

Post your first question. @gc will model it and reply directly in the channel.

Open the Lab