Operating Model · v1 · Internal
How we work
A few changes this week, effective now. The aim is simple: free me up to spend Tuesday to Thursday with investors — because the raise is what unlocks the growth, and the people we need to get there.
For that to work without me in the room every day, each of us has to be certain of our own job: what I'm doing, when it's due, why it matters, and who it lands on. Clear on that for yourself first. Then confident your teammates have the same clarity. And able to get help the moment you need it. That's the whole point of everything below — staying in step without turning into bureaucracy. If any of it ever feels like admin, we've got it wrong, so tell me.
What we're pointed at
Four things. The first comes before the rest — the other three are what it pays for. When two things compete, the one higher up wins. That's what the order is for.
Raise the funds.comes first
It's what unlocks everything else — the growth, and the people we need to get there.
Ship Unlock.
Modules live for our founding investors to test and help shape — building toward the November launch.
Grow the agency (XLR8).
Will turning the tools we built for ourselves into services we sell to companies in the financial space — wealth managers, IFA networks, fund managers. (See the note at the end on why this counts more than once.)
Fire up engagement.
Fiorella turning the data we hold into subscribers and waiting-list joins — the warm audience the raise depends on. A new function, and a vital one.
The picture by November — so you can make the call without me
Tuesday to Thursday I'm with investors and hard to reach. When you're unsure midweek and can't get me, steer towards this: by November, Unlock is live with founding investors actively shaping it; Fiorella has built a warm audience around it; the agency (XLR8) is selling to financial-services firms — bringing in revenue and proving the engines work; and the round is closing. Choose the option that best serves that picture. I'd rather you make the call than sit waiting on me.
Where you lead
Clear lanes. Two numbers each: a lead number you control week to week, and the lag number it's meant to move.
| Who | Owns | Lead — driven weekly | Lag — the outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| TomCapital | Bring in the investment. | Investor conversations had · new prospects opened. | £ committed — watched, not chased. |
| WernerHead of Product | Build the products — Unlock first. | Modules & fixes shipped to founding investors. | Founding investors actively testing, and the feedback logged. |
| WillThe agency · XLR8 | Turn what works for us into services for companies in the financial space. | Conversations with financial-services firms · turnaround on what we ask of him. | Paid agency engagements. |
| FiorellaEngagement & growth | Turn the data we hold into subscribers. | Activity out — emails sent, retargeting live, list touched. | Subscribers & waiting-list joins. |
| ClaudiaDesign & brand | Own the brands. | Brand work shown each week — fast, open for feedback. | Every brand coherent & on-message — Unlock, EUK, the agency. |
| RoyBuild | Build the mini-apps. | Mini-app progress (agent tracker ✓ · lead-scoring next). | Apps live & used. Priorities with Werner; Will is the internal customer. |
| MadonnaPipeline & diary | Run my pipeline and protect my time. | Leads contacted & followed up · my asks reaching me same-day. | Pipeline current, nothing dropped. |
One scoreboard. A single sheet — one lead number and one lag number per lane — updated before Thursday. So we can all see, at a glance, whether we're winning. Not a report; a scoreboard.
The week
A rhythm, so you know when I'm heads-down and when I'm yours.
Above the week sits the target: November. Each Monday I'll keep the few big rocks between now and launch visible — so your weekly plan ladders up to them, not just to a busy week.
Every working day
- A quick daily note from each of us, end of day.
- Product standup — Roy · Werner · (Will, when he has a data ask).
- Growth pod standup — Fiorella · Will · Claudia.
On the daily note. Teams do this a hundred ways. What I'm after is simple: a feel, with some depth, for what you're doing, the challenges you're hitting, and how you're tackling them — so I can tell whether a problem is a one-off, something organizational we should fix together, or a sign you'd value support in a different way. It should be quick — a minute or two. Easiest thing is to dictate it to AI ("today I did this, struggled with that, here's my approach") and let it tidy it up. Don't overthink it. This isn't bureaucracy and it's the opposite of micromanaging — it just means I'm never left wondering, there are no surprises, and it runs both ways: I'll keep you posted too. Template's in section 07.
Part-time? Your daily note is per working day, not per calendar day. Same with standups — only the days you're on. Miss one because life happened? No drama. Just don't let a blocker sit.
My week
| Mon | Direction, product & strategy · 1:1 with Werner · any content you've asked me for · my plan for the week — clearing the decks so I'm head-down Tue–Thu. |
| Tue | With investors. |
| Wed | With investors. |
| Thu | With investors, then the all-team demo. |
| Fri | Feedback & refinements · planning my next week · finance. |
| Sat / Sun | Off. |
The rhythm: by Thursday's demo everyone's shown a clear plan for the week ahead → I feed back Friday → we get to work. I set direction Monday → I'm with investors Tue–Thu. Need me midweek? Fine — Madonna gets it into the diary so nothing of yours is lost while I'm focused.
Meetings & agendas
| What | When | Who | Agenda |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily note | Daily · EOD | Everyone → Tom | Headline & what I need, up top · what I did · how · what I learned · what got in the way. A couple of minutes — dictate it if quickest. By email. |
| Product standup | Daily | Roy · Werner · (Will by exception) | In build · blockers · what's needed. Will joins on days he's carrying a data/database ask — otherwise he posts it async. Werner sends me 2–3 lines after. (I join when something needs me.) |
| Growth pod | Daily | Fiorella · Will · Claudia | Daily because growth needs momentum. Engagement plan · content (Will) · design (Claudia) · what's needed. Data needs posted async, picked up in the product standup. A couple of lines to me after. |
| Weekly 1:1 | Mon | Tom · Werner | Walk through what's being built · issues · priorities. |
| All-team demo | Thu | Everyone | Forward-looking: what I'm on · my plan for next week · any blocker we should solve together · links to go deeper. 5 min each, tight. Can't make it? Appoint someone. |
| Pipeline report | Weekly | Madonna → Tom | Leads in · contacted · self-generated · demos · follow-ups · in pipeline. |
Where we solve things together. The daily note flags a blocker to me; the demo is where a cross-team snag gets solved, not just reported. Bring the one thing that's stuck — that's the most useful five minutes you'll spend.
Getting what you need
Clear paths, so you're never stuck and nothing falls through the cracks.
- Growth hub — your first stop is Vanessa. CRM and automation support, tooling, the day-to-day — go to Vanessa, not me. Coming to me pulls me off the raise, and she can usually sort it faster anyway.
- Need data or a database connection? Post it in the shared channel — it gets picked up in the product standup. The channel, not a single person, so it's handled even when someone's off.
- Need an automation or something built? That's Roy — same route, posted to the channel and picked up in the product standup. He can prototype these for you too.
- Anything from me → Madonna. Content, a decision, a review — send it to Madonna and she'll make sure it reaches me and gets done. Not about distance; it's so nothing you need slips while I'm on the raise.
- Blocked, can't reach me, and the right person's off? Don't sit on it. Post it, tag whoever's nearest, and pull the cord early. A blocker flagged Monday beats a missed target Friday — that's the job, not an interruption.
How we work together
Autonomy — own it, ask early.
Know what you're doing, when, and why — and know who to ask. Asking early isn't weakness; it's how we move fast. I'd far rather hear about a blocker on Monday than a missed target on Friday.
Be least wrong — question everything.
Sense-check before you act. None of us is the best in the world at our job — but through AI we can borrow people who are. The skill is knowing how to ask. Question what you take for granted; sometimes our old strengths are the very thing slowing us down. (Short guide coming on the tools and where our knowledge lives.)
Define success — say it plainly, every day.
A line from each of us, every day, in your note: what does a good day look like for me? I know this can sound like a cliché, and it's not everyone's cup of tea — but it's a genuinely good habit. It makes you clearer with yourself about what you're actually trying to do, so a good day stops being an accident. Keep it simple: "Today's a good day if I get X, Y and Z done." Same for the week, in the plan you bring to Thursday.
What this is really about
It comes down to trust. I trust each of you to work out what your job really takes — and to own it. Clear goals, no excuses, and me close enough to back you and clear whatever's in your way.
Send me your daily note, bring your plan to Thursday's demo, route what you need through Madonna — and let's go build something we're proud of.
A note on the agency (XLR8)
The agency — XLR8 — sells our own engines as services to companies in the financial space: wealth managers, IFA networks, fund managers, alternative-asset platforms. Not to investors — to firms that need growth, data and content but can't safely use a generic agency because of compliance. It does three jobs at once:
- It brings in revenue and funds runway, by selling those services to financial-services firms.
- Every paying client is live proof our engines work on a real second business — which de-risks the platform and strengthens the story I take to investors. (Proof for the raise — not a service for investors.)
- It shapes the tools we'll build into Cloudworkz.
So the work there counts more than once.
To sort tomorrow: Claudia locks the demo time with Will & Fiorella (day's fixed: Thursday). Madonna starts, and picks up the pipeline & diary.
Templates
Two quick templates to make the rhythm easy. Both are meant to be fast — if either ever feels like admin, we've got it wrong, so tell me. Copy the block, fill it in, send it.
1 · Daily note
A couple of minutes, end of day, by email. Headline and what you need go up top — so if I only read three lines, I've got the ones that matter. Dictate it to AI if that's quickest. Not a report card — a pulse.
One or two lines per section is plenty. Head-down on one thing all day? Just say that. The headline and the I need line are the two that earn their place — never skip those.
Here's one filled in — my own day today, as the depth and tone I'm after:
2 · My week
Bring this to Thursday's demo. A few lines, no more. This is what ladders up to November — so tie the "to get there" to a rock, not just a busy week.
The point of both: clear plans, no surprises, momentum you can feel — and me close enough to back you without being on top of you.