Finance

# Finance — inbox

Wolfgang writes here when Matt routes a message to this agent.
Finance polls this file on cadence and appends responses below.

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## 2026-05-23 21:40 UTC — decisions on the 4-question approval (from Matt via Wolfgang)

All four answered. See `queue/approvals-decided/finance-2026-05-23-2330-pre-launch-decisions.md` for the full annotated file.

Quick summary:
1. **Teller cost = $0.30/account/month** (lock that into your model)
2. **Lead with lifetime in launch outreach** — Marketing + Sales unblocked
3. **Matt is opening a Mercury Helm sub-account.** Use shared Hondo + descriptor tags until routing info lands.
4. **Sales tax = via Stripe Tax** — coordinate with Tech Architect to ensure Stripe Tax is enabled on the Helm account.

Action items for you tomorrow's standup:
- Update `specs/finance-launch-readiness.md` with the locked Teller rate
- Drop a handoff to Tech Architect: confirm Stripe Tax is enabled on Helm
- Add a "waiting on Matt's Mercury sub-account routing info" line to your launch checklist

— wolfgang

• - Autonomy upgrade 2026-05-23 received. Re-armed crons against new cadence (71m work cycle, 13:23 standup). Re-read charter.
• - First autonomous work cycle: drafted `specs/finance-launch-readiness.md` per charter directive — launch-day cashflow model (5/10/25 customer scenarios at $149/mo and $1,400 lifetime, 90-day projections monthly/lifetime/realistic-mix), vendor cost inventory (Neon/Railway/Resend/Teller/Stripe/LLM with tier-bump triggers), breakeven math (1 customer realistic, 5 worst case), runway projection (cashflow-positive at 5 customers in every vendor scenario), first-paying-customer checklist (Stripe → Mercury → ledger). Caught and corrected $49 → $149 pricing per marketing's 2058 UTC verification (already flagged to otto). Open question list for Matt logged at end of spec (Teller live pricing, lifetime/monthly mix in launch comms, Mercury account separation, sales tax posture before customer #5) — will route via queue/approvals/ next cycle once prioritized.
• - 23:30 UTC autonomous work cycle: caught Matt's 21:17 UTC ruling on lifetime price (=$1,499, NOT $1,400 default) in `queue/approvals-decided/otto-2026-05-23-2200-lifetime-price-mismatch.md`. Updated `specs/finance-launch-readiness.md` end-to-end with $1,499 numbers (net per sale $1,455.23 vs $1,359.10; lifetime/monthly 10.1mo vs 9.4mo; all 90-day-projection lifetime + mix tables; runway sensitivity 58/18/2.4mo coverage vs 54/17/2.2; first-sale checklist header). Then filed `queue/approvals/finance-2026-05-23-2330-pre-launch-decisions.md` consolidating the 4 open Matt questions from spec §5 (Q1 Teller pricing launch-blocker, Q2 lifetime-vs-monthly comms weighting, Q3 Mercury account routing, Q4 sales-tax pre-customer-5) with default actions + Mon-evening expiry. Waiting on Matt's Q1 answer to refine the cost model.
• - 22:24 UTC autonomous work cycle: processed Matt's 21:40 UTC decisions on all 4 finance questions (now in `queue/approvals-decided/`). Locked Teller at $0.30/account-metered into `specs/finance-launch-readiness.md` — restructured fixed-cost scenarios (enterprise-Teller worst case no longer applies; reframed as launch/$20 → month-2-3/$49 → growth/$115), recomputed per-customer contribution to $143.16 (now including Stripe Tax line at 0.5% × ~50% taxable blend = $0.37/customer/mo and Teller at 1.5 accounts × $0.30 = $0.45), recomputed breakeven (1 customer in every scenario now — Teller resolution removed the only structural risk in the model) + runway projection + lifetime sensitivity (73/30/13 months coverage). Replaced §5 with pre-launch open-items table (Mercury sub-account routing pending Matt, lifetime price ID rotation pending TA, Teller live creds pending Matt). Filed TA handoff `queue/tech-architect-pending/finance-2026-05-24-0040-stripe-tax-confirm.md` requesting Stripe Tax enablement check + `tax_behavior: exclusive` config recommendation + tax_collection webhook verification. Added Stripe-Tax-line + Mercury-sub-account language to first-sale checklist.