The Startupp Playbook
Tactical startup & AI guidance for founders and entrepreneurs.
A practical framework for scoping AI agent permissions: map tasks to minimum access, add guardrails and audit trails, and keep a fast revocation path.
A CTO-level framework for measuring AI agent ROI: cost per completed task, escalation rate, rework rate, and time-to-trust — plus scale-or-retire rules.
Hourly billing punishes agencies for AI speed. A CTO-level framework: map services on repeatability vs. outcomes, then productize, retain, or price on results.
A practical scorecard for deciding when to buy an AI agent platform, build custom, or go hybrid — based on workflow ownership, data, and switching costs.
A manager's playbook for AI agents after go-live: performance metrics, error budgets, human-in-the-loop escalation, and clear criteria for when to retire one.
Most AI agent deployments fail from vague scoping, not weak tech. How to write an agent's job description: tasks owned, permissions, escalation, KPIs.
Status questions quietly drain agency margin. Here's the system — one source of truth, a client portal, and an AI reporting layer — that gives account managers their hours back.
What forward-deployed engineers actually do, why embedded builders beat AI licenses and consultants, and how to get one at fractional scale.
A CTO-level triage playbook for AI-built MVPs: how to audit vibe-coded apps, decide refactor vs rewrite, and harden auth, secrets, and data before scale.
Microsoft's new Frontier unit is a $2.5B bet that AI fails at implementation, not tooling. Here's why AI pilots die at the last mile — and how to close it without an army.
Most AI automation fails because the underlying process is broken. A practical pre-automation audit: map the workflow, fix handoffs, then automate.
A four-criteria scoring and kill framework for deciding which AI-generated startup ideas deserve time and budget — before you build a prototype.
A CTO-level framework to scope custom software before you build: pressure-test the problem, map real workflows, check buy vs build, ship a thin slice.
AI tools make prototypes look real in days. Here's the CTO-level evidence bar — payment, usage, retention — to clear before funding custom development.
The real cost of hiring a full-time CTO too early, the stages where a fractional CTO wins, and a clear framework for when to switch to full-time.