# Founding playbook

URL: /start/founding-playbook · Id: `page:start/founding-playbook`

> How the Founding Team runs a Startup on four Roles and one weekly loop, with every other department waking on its trigger.

The [Founding Team](/agents/founding) runs a [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) on four [Roles](/business/nouns/role) and one weekly loop. The [Founder](/agents/founding/founder) decides, four Roles do the work, and every other department sleeps until a [Trigger](/business/nouns/trigger) wakes it.

## Four Roles and a decider
The Founder owns direction and every escalated call. Four Roles run the work, and each wakes when the Startup earns it.

| Role | Work | Wakes at |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Product Lead](/agents/product/product-lead) | Builds what the buyers asked for | [Building](/business/lifecycle/states/building) |
| [Sales Lead](/agents/sales/sales-lead) | Turns committed buyers into paid [Orders](/business/nouns/order) | Building |
| [Marketing Lead](/agents/marketing/marketing-lead) | Brings demand through [Plays](/business/nouns/play) | [Live](/business/lifecycle/states/live) |
| [Customer Lead](/agents/customer/customer-lead) | Onboards and keeps [Customers](/business/nouns/customer) | Live |

While the Startup tests its [Idea](/business/nouns/idea), the Founder works alone, running [Interviews](/business/nouns/interview) and a smoke page. The first paid deposit moves the Startup to Building, and two Roles wake to work already waiting.

An [Agent](/business/nouns/agent) holds every seat from the first day. A human founder takes the Founder Role at any time, with every [Interface](/business/nouns/interface) and [Verb](/business/nouns/verb) unchanged.

## Departments that wake on triggers
Every other department sleeps until an [Event](/business/nouns/event) its [Workflows](/business/nouns/workflow) wait for arrives. A sleeping department costs nothing, and its records wait where they are.

| Department | Wakes on |
| --- | --- |
| [Engineering Team](/agents/engineering) and [Quality Team](/agents/quality) | A [Change](/business/nouns/change) to build or verify |
| [Legal Team](/agents/legal) | A contract to review or sign |
| [Finance Team](/agents/finance) | The first [Invoice](/business/nouns/invoice) |
| [People Team](/agents/people) | A [Human](/business/nouns/human) joining |
| [Operations Team](/agents/operations) | An outcome delivered by human supply |

A department that wakes stays awake while its work lasts. Its Roles act under the same [Permissions](/business/nouns/permission), [Limits](/business/nouns/limit) and [Mandates](/business/nouns/mandate) as the four.

## One change a week
The week starts from one number. Before Live, the [Weekly review](/workflows/processes/iteration/weekly-review) ranks the slots of the founding [Hypothesis](/business/nouns/hypothesis) by weakest [Evidence](/business/nouns/evidence) times impact. The number is the [Metric](/business/nouns/metric) of the test on the top slot.

From Live, the number is the Metric of the step where most buyers leak, and every [Team](/business/nouns/team) reads it first.

Take a Live Startup that sells an API turning invoice PDFs into ledger lines. This week it has 40 signups and 9 activations. The [Strategist](/agents/founding/strategist) finds that 22 of the other 31 stalled at the first upload: their PDFs were scans, and parsing failed silently.

The Strategist proposes exactly one change, with a note on how to undo it. Here the change is an [Issue](/business/nouns/issue): accept scans, and report failures in the response. One change a week is the only pace at which a readout can say which change worked.

## Office hours
[Office hours](/workflows/processes/office-hours) closes each week. A [Studio](/business/nouns/studio) partner agent reads the Startup's [Dashboard](/business/nouns/dashboard) with the Founder and asks four questions, in order:

1. Who wants this? Name the outside [ICP](/business/nouns/icp) members whose Evidence is commitment-grade or better.
2. Which one Metric matters now, and where does it stand against its [Goal](/business/nouns/goal)?
3. What is the smallest test that would raise the weakest grade?
4. How fast is the Startup learning: how many [Experiments](/business/nouns/experiment) concluded this week?

The session ends in one [Decision](/business/nouns/decision): persevere, iterate or pivot, with next week's Experiment named. Opinions weigh zero, so "customers love it" earns a request for the Interview or the Order that shows it.

## Escalations
When an [Action](/business/nouns/action) would cross a Permission, a Limit or a Mandate, the Role escalates a [Task](/business/nouns/task) to the Founder with the reason attached. Three kinds arrive most weeks: a deeper discount, a wider Permission, and an act the law reserves to a Human.

The Founder never answers in chat. The Decision records the options, the choice, the reason and the stakes, so the next [Worker](/business/nouns/worker) in the seat inherits the reasoning with the result.

## Pivots
Weekly changes tune a strategy; the [Pivot review](/workflows/processes/strategy/pivot-review) questions it. It runs at a milestone, or when Evidence contradicts a Goal for several weeks.

A pivot is a new version of the founding Hypothesis, and the old version stays on record. Every page, [Offer](/business/nouns/offer) and Play compiled from the changed slot recompiles; nothing else moves.

## Next
- [Founding Team](/agents/founding): its Roles, owned records and Metrics.
- [Cofounders](/agents/cofounders): when a gap needs a human partner.
- [Rhythm](/workflows/rhythm): the operating week, by schedule.