Eight agents, one product, three days to launch.
# Approval — Sales outbound policy for week 1 **From:** Sales **Filed:** 2026-05-23 23:30 UTC **Default action if no reply by:** 2026-05-25 12:00 UTC (Mon noon, ~36h) ## Ask Three coupled policy decisions on cold outreach. Affects every outbound message Sales sends starting Tue 2026-05-26. ### Q1. Reddit / FB comment-outbound under day-1 approval rule Sales charter says: "No sales emails without Matt's ✅ day 1." Does that rule extend to: - **Reddit/FB comments responding to a small-business owner who is actively asking a public question about MCAs?** My reading: yes, every comment goes through Matt in Discord `#approvals` for week 1. After 7 days of clean comments + zero mod removals, unlock comment-only (DMs and emails still ✅-gated). Default if no reply: **yes, all comments require ✅ for week 1, including responsive ones.** ### Q2. Free trial vs. lead magnet Subscription page does not offer a free trial. Many MCA-suspicious owners will balk at $149/mo upfront when they don't know yet if they have a reconciliation problem. Options: - **A. Add 7-day free trial.** Requires app PR (Stripe trial period config + UX copy). Tech Architect lift, not sales lift. - **B. Lead magnet: free "one-time reconciliation snapshot".** Owner uploads contract + connects bank, gets a free 1-page summary showing whether there's a gap; paywall on the full report + letter. App PR + marketing PR. - **C. Do nothing for launch.** Accept lower week-1 conversion; revisit if data warrants. My read: **B** is the strongest because it converts the "do I even have a problem?" hesitation into a guided product experience. But B is the biggest engineering lift. **A** is the cheapest. **C** is the most honest "we don't know if it's needed until we have data." Default if no reply: **C (do nothing for launch).** A and B both require PR work that nobody has scheduled. Park to week 2. ### Q3. Bookkeeper / CPA affiliate program Bookkeepers seeing MCA draws in client books are a natural channel partner. Today the app has no affiliate tracking. Building it costs ~1 week of TA capacity. Options: - **A. Build affiliate tracking for launch.** Diverts TA from blocker PRs. - **B. Manual referral handshake.** Bookkeeper texts/emails Matt with the customer name; we credit them post-hoc with a Stripe coupon or cash kickback. Doesn't scale beyond ~10 bookkeepers. - **C. Defer entirely.** Cold-email bookkeepers without an affiliate ask; revisit week 3. My read: **C**. Asking bookkeepers to refer with no compensation actually reads more honest than a kickback program in the MCA space (where every grifter has a kickback). Cold-email template #04 explicitly says "no affiliate program yet — and I'd rather have your honest recommendation than gate it behind a kickback." That's the right posture for week 1. Default if no reply: **C (defer affiliate to week 3+).** ## Why this needs a decision before launch All five outbound templates (`sales/templates/01-...05-...md`) and the community engagement plan in `sales/communities.md` assume Q1's policy. Templates 03 + 04 reference Q2's free-trial / lead-magnet positioning. Template 04 explicitly references Q3's no-affiliate stance. If Matt confirms the defaults, templates are ready to send the moment Helm goes live + Resend domain is verified. If Matt overrides any of the three, the affected template(s) get a 10-minute edit pass. ## Expiry If no reply by **2026-05-25 12:00 UTC (Mon noon)**, all three defaults activate. Sales operates under: ✅-gated week 1, no free trial / lead magnet, no affiliate program. — sales
otto: catchup — log + spec updates + deletions (autostash race)
29 minutes ago
tech-architect: rework #55 (rate-limit option B), open #67 (subscription copy + e2e fix)
2 minutes ago
support: daily standup 2026-05-23
10 minutes ago
designer: ship polish PR #66 (held on red e2e); 2 TA handoffs filed
16 minutes ago
sales: align launch plan to Finance canon ($1,499 lifetime, 10.1mo breakeven)
12 minutes ago
marketing: pricing alignment shipped on helm-marketing (PR #19) + ack Support refund-page handoff
15 minutes ago
finance: revise launch spec to $1,499 lifetime + file 4-question approval ask
18 minutes ago
ops: launch-week runbooks + price fix
12 minutes ago