If you quit tomorrow, who starts over?

Starting from zero

A few years ago I took over a group of people in a warehouse. My predecessor kept notes on them on paper, the same way the group managers before had done for years. I couldn't find those notes. I started from zero.

Then the company bought a new system. I typed the old records in by hand, then scanned each paper so we could throw it out. I hated it.

We had four systems for our people. Each group manager ran all four for their own group, from clocking in to improvement ideas. When one of us quit, the next person had to learn all four and start over with that group.

If you quit tomorrow, who would have to start over?

Reports on demand

In August we started asking owners of small companies how their work gets done. One owner could pick any report the system offered, and add or drop reports as needed. I asked if anything checked that the reports were right. The owner couldn't say.

Automation comes in steps, I explained. At one end you do the work by hand. At the other it runs on its own while you do something else entirely. My guess was the company stood halfway. The owner guessed the same, and asked what the rest of the way looks like.

The system did what the vendor sold it to do, but checking the result wasn't anyone's job.

The hours left over

This summer Benjamin asked me to start a company with him. I said yes. I worked 7 to 4 on weekdays. Weekends I tended bar at a nightclub, with extra evening shifts at a restaurant on top. Benjamin had a full-time job too, so we built Mellovy in the hours left over. First a name and colors, then a bank account, and a product we kept reworking. I had to learn roles I hadn't held before, from finance to marketing, while Benjamin built the AI.

We could buy a tool for a piece of each role. Doing the role was still on us, in the evenings at Benjamin's place. I biked 30 minutes there after work, then home again in time to get five hours of sleep before 7. Benjamin kept going most of the night.

We built Mellovy so the roles stop piling up on one person. In Mellovy, an Employee is an AI agent that works in your tools on its own computer. Hand one your weekly report. It pulls the numbers from your systems itself, then sends the report within the limits you set.

You describe a correct report in plain words first. An Evaluation compares each report with what you wrote, then checks the numbers one by one with the real figures in your systems. The Employee's own word doesn't count as proof. The owner with the reports didn't have that check.

Count the hours the Employee gives back to you, the time the role used to cost you every week. Put those hours into paid work. The money they bring in is your second number.

With both numbers in hand, you can tell a solved problem from one that only feels solved.