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* feat: C-Suite expansion — 8 new executive advisory roles Add COO, CPO, CMO, CFO, CRO, CISO, CHRO advisors and Executive Mentor. Expands C-level advisory from 2 to 10 roles with 74 total files. Each role includes: - SKILL.md (lean, <5KB, ~1200 tokens for context efficiency) - Reference docs (loaded on demand, not at startup) - Python analysis scripts (stdlib only, runnable CLI) Executive Mentor features /em: slash commands (challenge, board-prep, hard-call, stress-test, postmortem) with devil's advocate agent. 21 Python tools, 24 reference frameworks, 28,379 total lines. All SKILL.md files combined: ~17K tokens (8.5% of 200K context window). Badge: 88 → 116 skills * feat: C-Suite orchestration layer + 18 complementary skills ORCHESTRATION (new): - cs-onboard: Founder interview → company-context.md - chief-of-staff: Routing, synthesis, inter-agent orchestration - board-meeting: 6-phase multi-agent deliberation protocol - decision-logger: Two-layer memory (raw transcripts + approved decisions) - agent-protocol: Inter-agent invocation with loop prevention - context-engine: Company context loading + anonymization CROSS-CUTTING CAPABILITIES (new): - board-deck-builder: Board/investor update assembly - scenario-war-room: Cascading multi-variable what-if modeling - competitive-intel: Systematic competitor tracking + battlecards - org-health-diagnostic: Cross-functional health scoring (8 dimensions) - ma-playbook: M&A strategy (acquiring + being acquired) - intl-expansion: International market entry frameworks CULTURE & COLLABORATION (new): - culture-architect: Values → behaviors, culture code, health assessment - company-os: EOS/Scaling Up operating system selection + implementation - founder-coach: Founder development, delegation, blind spots - strategic-alignment: Strategy cascade, silo detection, alignment scoring - change-management: ADKAR-based change rollout framework - internal-narrative: One story across employees/investors/customers UPGRADES TO EXISTING ROLES: - All 10 roles get reasoning technique directives - All 10 roles get company-context.md integration - All 10 roles get board meeting isolation rules - CEO gets stage-adaptive temporal horizons (seed→C) Key design decisions: - Two-layer memory prevents hallucinated consensus from rejected ideas - Phase 2 isolation: agents think independently before cross-examination - Executive Mentor (The Critic) sees all perspectives, others don't - 25 Python tools total (stdlib only, no dependencies) 52 new files, 10 modified, 10,862 new lines. Total C-suite ecosystem: 134 files, 39,131 lines. * fix: connect all dots — Chief of Staff routes to all 28 skills - Added complementary skills registry to routing-matrix.md - Chief of Staff SKILL.md now lists all 28 skills in ecosystem - Added integration tables to scenario-war-room and competitive-intel - Badge: 116 → 134 skills - README: C-Level Advisory count 10 → 28 Quality audit passed: ✅ All 10 roles: company-context, reasoning, isolation, invocation ✅ All 6 phases in board meeting ✅ Two-layer memory with DO_NOT_RESURFACE ✅ Loop prevention (no self-invoke, max depth 2, no circular) ✅ All /em: commands present ✅ All complementary skills cross-reference roles ✅ Chief of Staff routes to every skill in ecosystem * refactor: CEO + CTO advisors upgraded to C-suite parity Both roles now match the structural standard of all new roles: - CEO: 11.7KB → 6.8KB SKILL.md (heavy content stays in references) - CTO: 10KB → 7.2KB SKILL.md (heavy content stays in references) Added to both: - Integration table (who they work with and when) - Key diagnostic questions - Structured metrics dashboard table - Consistent section ordering (Keywords → Quick Start → Responsibilities → Questions → Metrics → Red Flags → Integration → Reasoning → Context) CEO additions: - Stage-adaptive temporal horizons (seed=3m/6m/12m → B+=1y/3y/5y) - Cross-references to culture-architect and board-deck-builder CTO additions: - Key Questions section (7 diagnostic questions) - Structured metrics table (DORA + debt + team + architecture + cost) - Cross-references to all peer roles All 10 roles now pass structural parity: ✅ Keywords ✅ QuickStart ✅ Questions ✅ Metrics ✅ RedFlags ✅ Integration * feat: add proactive triggers + output artifacts to all 10 roles Every C-suite role now specifies: - Proactive Triggers: 'surface these without being asked' — context-driven early warnings that make advisors proactive, not reactive - Output Artifacts: concrete deliverables per request type (what you ask → what you get) CEO: runway alerts, board prep triggers, strategy review nudges CTO: deploy frequency monitoring, tech debt thresholds, bus factor flags COO: blocker detection, scaling threshold warnings, cadence gaps CPO: retention curve monitoring, portfolio dog detection, research gaps CMO: CAC trend monitoring, positioning gaps, budget staleness CFO: runway forecasting, burn multiple alerts, scenario planning gaps CRO: NRR monitoring, pipeline coverage, pricing review triggers CISO: audit overdue alerts, compliance gaps, vendor risk CHRO: retention risk, comp band gaps, org scaling thresholds Executive Mentor: board prep triggers, groupthink detection, hard call surfacing This transforms the C-suite from reactive advisors into proactive partners. * feat: User Communication Standard — structured output for all roles Defines 3 output formats in agent-protocol/SKILL.md: 1. Standard Output: Bottom Line → What → Why → How to Act → Risks → Your Decision 2. Proactive Alert: What I Noticed → Why It Matters → Action → Urgency (🔴🟡⚪) 3. Board Meeting: Decision Required → Perspectives → Agree/Disagree → Critic → Action Items 10 non-negotiable rules: - Bottom line first, always - Results and decisions only (no process narration) - What + Why + How for every finding - Actions have owners and deadlines ('we should consider' is banned) - Decisions framed as options with trade-offs - Founder is the highest authority — roles recommend, founder decides - Risks are concrete (if X → Y, costs $Z) - Max 5 bullets per section - No jargon without explanation - Silence over fabricated updates All 10 roles reference this standard. Chief of Staff enforces it as a quality gate. Board meeting Phase 4 uses the Board Meeting Output format. * feat: Internal Quality Loop — verification before delivery No role presents to the founder without passing verification: Step 1: Self-Verification (every role, every time) - Source attribution: where did each data point come from? - Assumption audit: [VERIFIED] vs [ASSUMED] tags on every finding - Confidence scoring: 🟢 high / 🟡 medium / 🔴 low per finding - Contradiction check against company-context + decision log - 'So what?' test: every finding needs a business consequence Step 2: Peer Verification (cross-functional) - Financial claims → CFO validates math - Revenue projections → CRO validates pipeline backing - Technical feasibility → CTO validates - People/hiring impact → CHRO validates - Skip for single-domain, low-stakes questions Step 3: Critic Pre-Screen (high-stakes only) - Irreversible decisions, >20% runway impact, strategy changes - Executive Mentor finds weakest point before founder sees it - Suspicious consensus triggers mandatory pre-screen Step 4: Course Correction (after founder feedback) - Approve → log + assign actions - Modify → re-verify changed parts - Reject → DO_NOT_RESURFACE + learn why - 30/60/90 day post-decision review Board meeting contributions now require self-verified format with confidence tags and source attribution on every finding. * fix: resolve PR review issues 1, 4, and minor observation Issue 1: c-level-advisor/CLAUDE.md — completely rewritten - Was: 2 skills (CEO, CTO only), dated Nov 2025 - Now: full 28-skill ecosystem map with architecture diagram, all roles/orchestration/cross-cutting/culture skills listed, design decisions, integration with other domains Issue 4: Root CLAUDE.md — updated all stale counts - 87 → 134 skills across all 3 references - C-Level: 2 → 33 (10 roles + 5 mentor commands + 18 complementary) - Tool count: 160+ → 185+ - Reference count: 200+ → 250+ Minor observation: Documented plugin.json convention - Explained in c-level-advisor/CLAUDE.md that only executive-mentor has plugin.json because only it has slash commands (/em: namespace) - Other skills are invoked by name through Chief of Staff or directly Also fixed: README.md 88+ → 134 in two places (first line + skills section) * fix: update all plugin/index registrations for 28-skill C-suite 1. c-level-advisor/.claude-plugin/plugin.json — v2.0.0 - Was: 2 skills, generic description - Now: all 28 skills listed with descriptions, all 25 scripts, namespace 'cs', full ecosystem description 2. .codex/skills-index.json — added 18 complementary skills - Was: 10 roles only - Now: 28 total c-level entries (10 roles + 6 orchestration + 6 cross-cutting + 6 culture) - Each with full description for skill discovery 3. .claude-plugin/marketplace.json — updated c-level-skills entry - Was: generic 2-skill description - Now: v2.0.0, full 28-skill ecosystem description, skills_count: 28, scripts_count: 25 * feat: add root SKILL.md for c-level-advisor ClawHub package --------- Co-authored-by: Leo <leo@openclaw.ai>
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Board Deck Frameworks
The SaaS Board Pack (Christoph Janz / Point Nine Style)
Point Nine's board pack format became the de facto standard for early-stage SaaS. Core principle: the numbers tell the story; the narrative explains the numbers.
Required Metrics (non-negotiable for SaaS boards)
- ARR (not MRR — boards think annually)
- MoM / QoQ growth rate
- NRR (Net Revenue Retention) — the single most important SaaS metric
- Gross margin — typically 60-80% SaaS; <60% is a flag
- CAC payback period — months to recover customer acquisition cost
- Burn multiple = net burn / net new ARR; <2x is good, >3x is a problem
- Runway — months at current burn
Point Nine Benchmark Targets (Series A SaaS)
| Metric | Good | Great | Warning |
|---|---|---|---|
| MoM growth | 10-15% | >20% | <7% |
| NRR | >110% | >130% | <100% |
| Gross margin | >65% | >75% | <60% |
| CAC payback | <18 months | <12 months | >24 months |
| Burn multiple | <2x | <1.5x | >3x |
| Logo churn | <10%/yr | <5%/yr | >15%/yr |
SaaS ARR Waterfall (Christoph Janz Format)
Show this every quarter:
Starting ARR: $1,970,000
+ New ARR: +$480,000 (new logos)
+ Expansion ARR: +$120,000 (upsells/cross-sells)
- Churned ARR: -$90,000 (cancellations)
- Contraction ARR: -$35,000 (downgrades)
= Ending ARR: $2,445,000
NRR = (Ending - New) / Starting = ($1,965K) / ($1,970K) = 99.7% ← flag this
Sequoia Board Deck Structure
Sequoia's canonical deck (used for both fundraising and board updates):
- Company Purpose — one sentence, the existential "why"
- The Problem — pain, size, who has it
- The Solution — what you do, how it's different
- Why Now — market timing, tailwinds, enabling factors
- Market Size — TAM/SAM/SOM with methodology
- Business Model — how you make money
- Traction — proof it's working (growth, retention, logos)
- Team — why you're the ones to win this
- Financials — 3-year model, current metrics
- The Ask — amount, use of funds, milestones to next round
For ongoing board updates: Swap 1-5 (context) for "State of the Business" and "Last Quarter vs Plan." Boards know the company — skip the pitch.
Investor-Specific Tailoring
What Different Investor Types Care About
Early-stage VCs (Seed, A):
- Growth rate above all else
- NRR — "does the product retain?"
- Founder-market fit narrative
- Milestone achievement vs last board meeting
Growth-stage VCs (B, C):
- Capital efficiency (burn multiple, CAC payback)
- GTM repeatability — can you hire 10 AEs and have it work?
- Market leadership signals
- Path to profitability (even if years away)
Strategic investors:
- Synergies with their portfolio/business
- Technology differentiation
- Partnership potential
Angels:
- Team above all
- Personal conviction in the thesis
- Exit scenarios
Tailoring the Narrative
- If you're ahead of plan: "Here's why, and here's how we'll sustain it"
- If you're behind plan: "Here's why, here's what we've learned, here's the new plan"
- If the plan was wrong: "The assumption that was wrong, what we know now, updated thesis"
Never pretend the plan was right when it wasn't. Board members have memories and models.
How to Present Bad News
Boards have seen everything. What loses credibility isn't bad results — it's bad framing.
The Credibility Formula
- Lead with the headline — "We missed ARR target by 18%"
- Quantify the gap — absolute and percentage
- Diagnose the cause (one primary, max two secondary)
- Show your work — "We analyzed 12 churned/stalled deals and found..."
- Present the fix — specific, dated, owned by a name
- Update the forecast — bottom-up rebuild, not wishful thinking
- Flag the risk — "If X doesn't close, here's the contingency"
What "Showing Your Work" Looks Like
Bad: "Sales cycle was longer than expected." Good: "Sales cycle stretched from 45 to 72 days. Root cause: new legal review requirement at enterprise accounts, triggered by our SOC 2 Type II gap. Fix: SOC 2 audit underway (target: Dec 15), and we've pre-built contract language to accelerate review. Impact: estimated 3 stalled deals ($420K ARR) unblock in Q4."
Scenarios and How to Handle Each
| Scenario | Frame |
|---|---|
| Missed revenue target | Lead with it; diagnose cause; bottom-up revised forecast |
| Key customer churned | Announce it; explain why; show retention analysis of remaining accounts |
| Key exec left | Announce it; show succession/coverage plan; don't overpromise the replacement timeline |
| Burn accelerated | Show P&L detail; explain what drove it; adjust runway projection; plan to fix |
| Market headwinds | Acknowledge; show relative performance vs peers; pivot if needed |
| Fundraise delayed | Runway impact; bridge options; revised timeline |
Appendix Data That Boards Actually Use
Boards use the appendix for due diligence, not during the meeting. Include:
Financial:
- Full P&L (monthly for last 4 quarters)
- Cash flow statement
- 3-year model with assumptions
- Unit economics by cohort
Revenue:
- Customer list by ARR (anonymized or full, per board agreement)
- Pipeline detail by deal
- Cohort analysis (NRR by cohort vintage)
- Churn analysis: when, why, segment
Product:
- Feature adoption rates
- NPS score distribution and trend
- DAU/MAU by segment
Team:
- Org chart
- Full headcount list with fully loaded costs
- Open reqs with priority ranking
One rule: If the appendix is more than 20 slides, you have too much. Boards won't read it.
Quarterly vs Monthly Board Meetings
Quarterly (Series A+)
- Full board pack, all sections
- 2 hours: 30 min pre-read, 90 min discussion
- Voting items at end
- Sent 48 hours before (72 hours preferred)
- Add 1-2 "deep dive" topics beyond standard update
Monthly (Seed / High-Growth A)
- Metrics dashboard + financials + top risks only
- 45-60 minutes
- Informal tone, more conversational
- Sent 24 hours before
- Skip slides for items where nothing changed
When to Increase Frequency
- Approaching 6-month runway
- Major strategic pivot
- Fundraise in progress
- Significant underperformance vs plan
- M&A discussions
Meeting Logistics (Often Overlooked)
- Pre-read requirement: Board packs should be read before the meeting. If you're presenting slides, you're wasting time.
- Discussion format: "I'll be brief on X since you've read it. Want to spend time on Y?" — respect board members' time
- One note-taker: CEO's EA or COO; not the CEO (they need to be present)
- Follow-up within 24 hours: Action items, voting outcomes, next meeting date
- Board portal vs email: Use a board portal (Carta, Boardable, Notion) for version control and D&O protection