Founder operations5 posts
Where do a founder's hours actually go?
A founder's hours mostly go to work that only looks like it needs them: chasing status, answering the same question twice, and rebuilding context before each call. Count it with three numbers, clients times touchpoints times minutes per touchpoint, and the weekly total is usually bigger than the founder expects.
3 min
No. 28: A founder time audit should count the questions only you can answer
A founder time audit works when it logs two things for a fortnight: where each hour went, and every question somebody brought you because nobody else knew the answer. Then mark which of those needed your judgement. The ones that did not are hours the operation spent using you as its memory, and they can come back to you.
3 min
No. 21: The hidden cost of switching between tools is the answer stitched by hand
The hidden cost of switching between tools is mostly in what happens after the switch: a person reads several systems that are each right about their slice, then merges them into one answer, sometimes using facts of different ages. The minutes spent clicking are the small part, and the easiest to count.
2 min
No. 16: How many hours a week go to manual admin, counted from your own numbers
How many hours a week go to manual admin depends on three numbers you already have: the accounts that are live, how often each gets handled, and the minutes each handling spends finding where it was left. Multiply them, then divide by the weeks in the cycle. The page on what a system gives back runs it for you.
5 min
No. 09: Running many projects without losing track means knowing which one is waiting on you
Running many projects without losing track depends less on remembering each one than on seeing which has stopped and is waiting for you. On the screen OCTYN is building for its own coding sessions, a waiting session is tagged with what it wants, and the only urgent count is how many need a person.
4 min
No. 04: What should a founder automate first? Start with the catching up
The first thing a founder should automate is the step where someone rebuilds context by hand before acting, reading back through WhatsApp and email to see where a client stands. Count it before building anything. Clients times touchpoints times minutes spent catching up gives a weekly figure, and that figure decides what gets built.
The systems and arguments this topic points at.
The rest of the writing.
- Build or buyBuild or buy, what it costs, and what to ask before anyone builds you anything.
- Client contextThe work of reassembling who a client is before every next touchpoint, and how to stop doing it.
- Automation that holds upSilent failures, gates, rollbacks and the checks that keep a running system honest.
- Growth systemsContent and outbound that keep running when the founder is busy, and still sound like the company.
- Operations systemsIntake, handoffs and status carried by one system, so the team keeps the judgement calls.
- Product systemsA model inside a product: speed, fallbacks, keys, and what running it costs after launch.
Bring the version of this that is about your company.
The first conversation is with the people who would build it. If there is a fit, the Consult comes next.