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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>
185 lines
6.8 KiB
Markdown
185 lines
6.8 KiB
Markdown
# Board Deck Frameworks
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## The SaaS Board Pack (Christoph Janz / Point Nine Style)
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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.**
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### Required Metrics (non-negotiable for SaaS boards)
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- **ARR** (not MRR — boards think annually)
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- **MoM / QoQ growth rate**
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- **NRR (Net Revenue Retention)** — the single most important SaaS metric
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- **Gross margin** — typically 60-80% SaaS; <60% is a flag
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- **CAC payback period** — months to recover customer acquisition cost
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- **Burn multiple** = net burn / net new ARR; <2x is good, >3x is a problem
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- **Runway** — months at current burn
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### Point Nine Benchmark Targets (Series A SaaS)
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| Metric | Good | Great | Warning |
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|--------|------|-------|---------|
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| MoM growth | 10-15% | >20% | <7% |
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| NRR | >110% | >130% | <100% |
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| Gross margin | >65% | >75% | <60% |
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| CAC payback | <18 months | <12 months | >24 months |
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| Burn multiple | <2x | <1.5x | >3x |
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| Logo churn | <10%/yr | <5%/yr | >15%/yr |
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### SaaS ARR Waterfall (Christoph Janz Format)
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Show this every quarter:
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```
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Starting ARR: $1,970,000
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+ New ARR: +$480,000 (new logos)
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+ Expansion ARR: +$120,000 (upsells/cross-sells)
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- Churned ARR: -$90,000 (cancellations)
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- Contraction ARR: -$35,000 (downgrades)
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= Ending ARR: $2,445,000
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```
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NRR = (Ending - New) / Starting = ($1,965K) / ($1,970K) = 99.7% ← flag this
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---
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## Sequoia Board Deck Structure
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Sequoia's canonical deck (used for both fundraising and board updates):
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1. **Company Purpose** — one sentence, the existential "why"
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2. **The Problem** — pain, size, who has it
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3. **The Solution** — what you do, how it's different
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4. **Why Now** — market timing, tailwinds, enabling factors
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5. **Market Size** — TAM/SAM/SOM with methodology
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6. **Business Model** — how you make money
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7. **Traction** — proof it's working (growth, retention, logos)
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8. **Team** — why you're the ones to win this
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9. **Financials** — 3-year model, current metrics
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10. **The Ask** — amount, use of funds, milestones to next round
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**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.
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---
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## Investor-Specific Tailoring
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### What Different Investor Types Care About
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**Early-stage VCs (Seed, A):**
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- Growth rate above all else
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- NRR — "does the product retain?"
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- Founder-market fit narrative
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- Milestone achievement vs last board meeting
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**Growth-stage VCs (B, C):**
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- Capital efficiency (burn multiple, CAC payback)
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- GTM repeatability — can you hire 10 AEs and have it work?
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- Market leadership signals
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- Path to profitability (even if years away)
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**Strategic investors:**
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- Synergies with their portfolio/business
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- Technology differentiation
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- Partnership potential
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**Angels:**
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- Team above all
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- Personal conviction in the thesis
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- Exit scenarios
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### Tailoring the Narrative
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- If you're ahead of plan: "Here's why, and here's how we'll sustain it"
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- If you're behind plan: "Here's why, here's what we've learned, here's the new plan"
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- If the plan was wrong: "The assumption that was wrong, what we know now, updated thesis"
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Never pretend the plan was right when it wasn't. Board members have memories and models.
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---
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## How to Present Bad News
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Boards have seen everything. What loses credibility isn't bad results — it's bad framing.
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### The Credibility Formula
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1. **Lead with the headline** — "We missed ARR target by 18%"
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2. **Quantify the gap** — absolute and percentage
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3. **Diagnose the cause** (one primary, max two secondary)
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4. **Show your work** — "We analyzed 12 churned/stalled deals and found..."
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5. **Present the fix** — specific, dated, owned by a name
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6. **Update the forecast** — bottom-up rebuild, not wishful thinking
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7. **Flag the risk** — "If X doesn't close, here's the contingency"
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### What "Showing Your Work" Looks Like
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Bad: "Sales cycle was longer than expected."
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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."
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### Scenarios and How to Handle Each
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| Scenario | Frame |
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|----------|-------|
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| Missed revenue target | Lead with it; diagnose cause; bottom-up revised forecast |
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| Key customer churned | Announce it; explain why; show retention analysis of remaining accounts |
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| Key exec left | Announce it; show succession/coverage plan; don't overpromise the replacement timeline |
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| Burn accelerated | Show P&L detail; explain what drove it; adjust runway projection; plan to fix |
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| Market headwinds | Acknowledge; show relative performance vs peers; pivot if needed |
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| Fundraise delayed | Runway impact; bridge options; revised timeline |
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---
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## Appendix Data That Boards Actually Use
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Boards use the appendix for due diligence, not during the meeting. Include:
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**Financial:**
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- Full P&L (monthly for last 4 quarters)
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- Cash flow statement
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- 3-year model with assumptions
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- Unit economics by cohort
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**Revenue:**
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- Customer list by ARR (anonymized or full, per board agreement)
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- Pipeline detail by deal
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- Cohort analysis (NRR by cohort vintage)
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- Churn analysis: when, why, segment
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**Product:**
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- Feature adoption rates
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- NPS score distribution and trend
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- DAU/MAU by segment
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**Team:**
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- Org chart
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- Full headcount list with fully loaded costs
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- Open reqs with priority ranking
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**One rule:** If the appendix is more than 20 slides, you have too much. Boards won't read it.
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---
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## Quarterly vs Monthly Board Meetings
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### Quarterly (Series A+)
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- Full board pack, all sections
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- 2 hours: 30 min pre-read, 90 min discussion
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- Voting items at end
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- Sent 48 hours before (72 hours preferred)
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- Add 1-2 "deep dive" topics beyond standard update
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### Monthly (Seed / High-Growth A)
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- Metrics dashboard + financials + top risks only
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- 45-60 minutes
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- Informal tone, more conversational
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- Sent 24 hours before
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- Skip slides for items where nothing changed
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### When to Increase Frequency
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- Approaching 6-month runway
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- Major strategic pivot
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- Fundraise in progress
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- Significant underperformance vs plan
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- M&A discussions
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---
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## Meeting Logistics (Often Overlooked)
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- **Pre-read requirement:** Board packs should be read before the meeting. If you're presenting slides, you're wasting time.
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- **Discussion format:** "I'll be brief on X since you've read it. Want to spend time on Y?" — respect board members' time
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- **One note-taker:** CEO's EA or COO; not the CEO (they need to be present)
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- **Follow-up within 24 hours:** Action items, voting outcomes, next meeting date
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- **Board portal vs email:** Use a board portal (Carta, Boardable, Notion) for version control and D&O protection
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