Founder handbook
Set up your business to run with clear ownership and control.
Follow this guide once when creating the workspace, then use it as a checklist whenever you add a team, tool, AI Agent, or operating process.
Before signup
Choose one accountable owner and prepare the business information.
Business direction
- Business name and type
- Main offer and target customer
- First measurable priority
- Planning time and timezone
People and decisions
- Founder and accountable managers
- Team members and contractors
- Who may approve important work
- Who receives urgent alerts
Business-owned tools
- Business AI plan and accountable owner
- Email, calendar, and files
- Customer, sales, and support systems
- Website, code, hosting, and monitoring
- Finance, payment, tax, and compliance
Keep private access private.
Do not place passwords, access keys, private keys, or recovery codes in chats, meetings, tasks, or notes. Enter them only in the private access field for the correct business asset.
Setup steps
Complete the workspace in this order.
Set your business direction
After creating your workspace, set your offer, customer, first priority and daily review time. Both new and existing businesses follow this step.
Connect your first company tool
Open Company tools and choose Add a company tool. The owner prepares company sign-in once. Adding a tool alone does not make its sign-in ready. One work browser installation handles all supported tools.
Connect your business AI plan
An owner chooses Connect ChatGPT and completes the private sign-in. Wait for Ready. If this connection is unavailable, ask your workspace administrator and continue the other setup steps.
Choose your first AI Agent
Choose a named AI Agent with a clear role and mission. Start with Watch only or Suggest next steps.
Choose who may use each tool
Use Give access on the company tool to select a person or AI Agent. Begin with limited access and owner approval. You can start alone and add people when needed.
Assign one safe test task
Choose an owner, expected result, done criteria and a process. Begin with a draft or review. Work without a matching process remains blocked.
Review the result and set your rhythm
Check the result and its evidence before marking work done. Set a daily review time. Increase allowed work only after successful tests; sensitive actions stay under review.
Your business partners
Bring vendors, people and tools together.
Open Vendors to add an agency, supplier or service provider. Start with its name and service, choose the team member responsible, and link relevant company tools and work. Contacts, notes and renewal dates can be added when ready.
Choose Add follow-up work on a vendor card to create an owned task. Its progress stays visible alongside the vendor's tools and contact. Adding a vendor does not give it a login or tool access.
Repeatable work
Define how important work should be completed.
A task states the result the business needs. A business process records the ordered checkpoints that a person or AI Agent must follow. Processes belong to the business, so the same release, publishing, customer communication, or payroll rules apply regardless of who performs the work.
Keep a department fallback
Review the starter General work process for every department the business uses.
Add specific processes
Create a process for repeated or sensitive work. Choose its department, task type, ordered steps, and approval rule.
Narrow it only when needed
Add a business unit, product, application, environment, campaign, website, or customer target when that process should override the department-wide process.
Run a controlled test
Assign one test task and confirm it shows the expected process, version, steps, and owner review requirement.
If no process matches: the task remains visible and assigned, but it is blocked. It cannot be started or completed until an owner or admin adds a matching process.
Complete owner checklist
Confirm every part of the business workspace is ready.
Work through every item that applies to your business. Optional tools and departments can be marked complete after you decide they are not needed. Progress is saved on this device.
1. Workspace and business direction0/8
2. Owners, members, roles, and account lifecycle0/8
3. Business tools, digital assets, and private access0/13
4. Named AI Agents and control levels0/8
5. Permissions, requests, approvals, and sessions0/8
6. Processes, objectives, assigned work, and results0/14
7. Meetings, standups, presentations, and commands0/9
8. Founder attention, real-time reach, and review history0/8
9. Department coverage0/7
10. Final validation, safety, and continuity0/9
Checklist completion means the business has reviewed every current workspace area. It does not turn unavailable or unverified external actions on; keep those items blocked until their connection test and approval requirements are satisfied.
Access standard
Use one restricted business credential for one clear purpose.
Do
- Use business-owned accounts
- Limit access to the required account, project, repository, channel, or server
- Prefer read-only access for initial review
- Test reversible work outside production first
- Rotate access after exposure or staff changes
Avoid
- Personal master passwords
- Organization-wide administrator keys
- Credentials shared between businesses
- Accounts belonging to customers or vendors
- Automatic payments, filings, production changes, or public publishing without approval
Department checklist
Add only the areas the business actually uses.
Development
Repository, project tracker, code quality, development and production environments, deployment, monitoring, errors, and backups.
Marketing and sales
Website, analytics, CRM, business social pages, advertising, email campaigns, leads, proposals, and publishing approval.
Customers and support
Business communication account, support inbox, booking, customer records, escalation owner, and privacy rules.
Business operations
Business email, calendar, files, meetings, internal communication, vendors, renewals, policies, and contracts.
Finance and compliance
Accounting, invoicing, payment collection, financial reporting, tax, and statutory portals with mandatory human approval.
Founder reach
A private route for approvals, blockers, urgent customer issues, incidents, and time-sensitive review. Keep routine updates in the workspace.
First-day validation
Verify one complete operating cycle before relying on automation.
- The business profile, timezone, and planning time are correct.
- At least one accountable owner is active.
- Every connected account belongs to this business.
- Every AI Agent has only the access required for its role.
- Sensitive actions require the right human approval.
- One read-only tool check succeeds.
- One reversible action succeeds in a safe account or non-production environment.
- One meeting creates a decision and an owned task.
- One standup records progress and blockers.
- One important founder alert is delivered and acknowledged.
- Activity and Review log entries match what occurred.
If a check fails, leave the related action disabled and record the missing decision or connection as a blocked task.
Day-to-day
Keep the business focused on outcomes and exceptions.
- Founder sets direction and limits.
- People and connected tools provide updates.
- Reviews identify progress, blockers, and decisions.
- Decisions become owned tasks.
- People and AI Agents perform permitted work.
- Sensitive action waits for approval.
- Results and evidence return to the workspace.
- Founder reviews outcomes and sets the next priority.
Troubleshooting
When something needs attention.
A tool says “Needs connection”
Confirm the account belongs to this business, the credential is current and restricted, and any provider authorization is complete. Run Check again. Do not replace it with a broad personal credential.
An AI Agent cannot use an asset
Confirm the AI Agent is active, the exact asset permission exists, Use is allowed, owner approval is complete, and the related task is not blocked.
A standup contains a limited summary
Treat it as a notice rather than completed AI work. Review the blocker, restore the required business service, and rerun the standup.
A founder alert does not arrive
Confirm the route, intended person, private destination, communication account, and interruption level. Test with one controlled message.
The same alert arrives twice
Do not retry manually. Record the time and message, review the communication history and ABVC activity, and pause the automatic route until the duplicate is resolved.
Ready to begin
Start with reviewed, reversible work.
Expand an AI Agent's control only after repeated results are accurate, useful, evidenced, and recoverable.