Services
A Service sells a finished result under a written promise; the Startup does the work, answers for it, and earns only on acceptance.
A Service sells a finished result under a written promise. The Startup does the work and answers for it, and the Customer judges the result, not the effort.
Who does the work
Every Product answers one question: who does the work? With Software, the Customer does it with the Startup's tools. With a Service, the Startup does it and the Customer receives the result.
Take month-end bookkeeping for small design agencies.
As Software, it is an App where the agency's office manager categorizes transactions and reconciles accounts. As a Service, the agency connects its bank and card accounts. By the fifth business day it receives closed books, a reconciliation report, and a profit and loss statement.
The Interface does not decide which one a Startup sells. An API that returns suggested categories sells Software; an API that returns a reconciled ledger the Startup stands behind sells a Service. The difference is who answers when a number is wrong.
The promise is the product
A deadline and a price are not a promise. "Books closed by the fifth" leaves open what closed means, who checks it, and what happens when an account does not reconcile.
Every Service carries an Outcome Contract on its Offer that settles those questions in five terms. They state what counts as done, who accepts by when, how done is checked, the remedy, and the Event that earns the fee. Outcome contracts covers each term.
The contract binds the Startup, not any one worker. When an Agent stalls on a foreign-currency account and a person finishes it, the Customer's terms do not change.
Steps run by any Function
Each step of a Service is a Verb on the Order. Each Verb runs as a Function: code, one model call, an Agent with tools, or a Human. The caller sees the same Action whichever kind runs it.
The bookkeeping Startup imports transactions with code, categorizes them with an Agent, and checks the reconciliation with an Evaluator. A bookkeeper reviews only the accounts the Evaluator flags. As the Agent earns agreement on those accounts, the review step moves to the Agent, one Verb at a time, as Human functions explains.
Buyers that are agents
A Service sells to people and to their Agents through the same Verbs. In the b2a Motion, an agency's finance Agent places the monthly Order over MCP, answers intake questions, and reads the delivered books.
The finance Agent checks the reconciliation report against the contract's done term. It confirms or disputes within the window, under a Mandate its owner granted. Every step it took is on record, by the Agent and for the agency.
Supply sets the ceiling
Digital supply has no practical ceiling: each new Order starts another Agent. Human supply is finite. A Service that needs people recruits, verifies, and schedules them as Suppliers, and their booked hours cap its volume.
The bookkeeping Startup needs people only for flagged accounts, so one bookkeeper covers hundreds of agencies. A Service that needs a licensed signature on every delivery plans its growth around licensed hours. Supply covers both.
Five shapes
A Startup picks its Service shape by choosing a Product Template. Each answers who does the work and who answers for the result.
| Product Template | Who does the work | Who answers for the result |
|---|---|---|
| Services-as-Software | Agents, end to end | The Startup |
| E2E managed service | Agents, with people in the loop, running a whole business function | The Startup |
| Licensed-human marketplace | Credentialed professionals | Each professional, under their own Agreement |
| Marketplace | Suppliers who deal with buyers directly | Each Supplier |
| Agent as a Service | An Agent the Customer directs | The Customer, who directs the work |
The first two are Services. The marketplaces earn a take for matching and settling, while each Supplier answers for their own work; ServiceBuilder still runs their supply and their Disputes. Agent as a Service hires out the worker, not the result.
Services between Startups
A Startup can buy a result from another Startup instead of staffing it. A recipe-video channel that wants weekly search articles orders them as a Service under an Agreement, rather than seating its own writing Agent.
The order runs on the same contract as any other: delivered, accepted, then billed. The buying Startup sees the result and its evidence, never the seller's Workers or Memory. The same pipeline, run in-house with seated Workers, is a Play.
Next
- Outcome contracts: writing the promise.
- Delivery and acceptance: from a placed Order to an earned fee.
- Supply: where the people come from.