startup-stack

Infographics — the method

Nine pictures of what this repository actually describes. Together they are the whole method: how scattered files become a knowledge base, how it stays honest, how material keeps arriving, and what you do with it every week.

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The Startup Stack method

The whole thing on one page. Raw material on the left, ten sections in the middle, the work that comes out on the right, and the three loops that keep it alive.

Scattered company files becoming a ten-section knowledge base, and the work that comes out of it — with the three loops: build, enrich, pulse.
Scattered company files becoming a ten-section knowledge base, and the work that comes out of it — with the three loops: build, enrich, pulse.

The written version is the method.

How the AI answers without reading everything

Why an index makes a knowledge base cheaper as it grows rather than dearer. This is the single idea that most people miss, and it is the reason the whole thing is structured the way it is.

A question routed through the rules file and a one-line-per-file index to two sections, against the alternative of re-reading everything on every question.
A question routed through the rules file and a one-line-per-file index to two sections, against the alternative of re-reading everything on every question.

The ten sections

The fixed spine every stack shares, the dependencies between them, and the part that is genuinely yours to decide.

The ten sections from company to pulse, with dependency arrows, and the distinction between the fixed numbering and the files you put inside each one.
The ten sections from company to pulse, with dependency arrows, and the distinction between the fixed numbering and the files you put inside each one.

The written version is build the knowledge base.

How every fact gets tagged

The quality system that stops an AI inventing your numbers. Four tags, who is allowed to apply each, the one-way promotion only a human may perform, and the fifth tag that exists because judgement is not a checkable claim.

The four fact tags with who may apply each, the human-only promotion arrow, and the assessment tag held separately.
The four fact tags with who may apply each, the human-only promotion arrow, and the assessment tag held separately.

Front matter, line by line

Eleven fields annotated with the one thing that breaks when each is wrong. Thirty seconds to write; the difference between a router and a pile.

A real front-matter block with leader lines out to what each field does and what breaks without it.
A real front-matter block with leader lines out to what each field does and what breaks without it.

The written version is the front matter schema.

Getting your material in

Three routes from wherever your company lives today into one folder, and the list of what stays out whichever route you take.

Export by hand, connectors and website scraping, all converging on one inbox folder, with the material that stays out of all three.
Export by hand, connectors and website scraping, all converging on one inbox folder, with the material that stays out of all three.

The written version is getting your material in.

Putting the pull on a schedule

Connecting a subscription to mail and drive without mirroring your inbox — the setup, the weekly cycle, the daily-or-weekly question, and the monthly audit that most people skip.

Connector setup, a weekly pull cycle landing in the inbox folder, the daily versus weekly trade, and the monthly audit.
Connector setup, a weekly pull cycle landing in the inbox folder, the daily versus weekly trade, and the monthly audit.

The written version is running it on a schedule.

Private master, shared derived

How one stack produces four different documents without leaking. Three sensitivity bands, four outputs, and one band that never leaves the machine at all.

A stack in three sensitivity bands feeding four different outputs, with the restricted band drawn outside the boundary entirely.
A stack in three sensitivity bands feeding four different outputs, with the restricted band drawn outside the boundary entirely.

The written version is the safety rules.

The weekly recap

Thirty minutes, six sections, and the only part of this system that compounds. Including the arrow that brings last week's unmet commitments back as this week's uncomfortable question.

The six sections of a weekly recap as a loop, with last week's commitments returning as this week's 'what did not move', and the carve for each audience.
The six sections of a weekly recap as a loop, with last week's commitments returning as this week's 'what did not move', and the carve for each audience.

The written version is the weekly recap.

Next: running a portfolio — the layer for a programme rather than a single founder.

Generated from docs/infographics-method.md in the repository. Edit the markdown, not this page.