Internal
Leadership Team Only
Category lock: Monday April 20
Presenting in Lisbon: week of April 20
Would You Rather — Lisbon All-Hands Prep
Lock the no-regrets moves. Then pick the levers.
The category narrative has to be locked by Monday April 20 for the company all-hands in Lisbon. Before the strategic levers, commit to the moves that are positive in every scenario. Then explore the real optionality along four dimensions: Insights ambition, services ambition, platform posture, and category positioning.
The Profound situation — as of April 2026 (updated)
Profound just pivoted their homepage to "Marketing agents to win in" — positioning as a "full stack marketing platform for the marketer of the future," with pre-built agents for every function (Brand Agent, Content Agent, Demand Gen Agent, AEO Agent, PR Agent). Free trial as a wedge. Zero Click conference running SF/NY. They are moving fast on the category we intended to claim.
Feature gaps
Real prompt panel, log-file agent analytics, model coverage
Three gaps, all fixable in 30-90 days of focused engineering. None are existential.
Brand gap
Category-defining language + tier-1 venture backing
CFOs approve "AEO" budget because Profound owns the phrase. Compounds every quarter.
New: they're on our turf
"Full-stack marketing platform" + function agents
Profound has planted a flag in the agent category. Category lock can't wait till May 13.
Our advantage
Head start in action — about to be bigger
AirOps Next is a general-purpose agent runtime with multiplayer HITL. Their agents are narrow, single-player, function-bundled. We've been shipping longer.
Our advantage
Closed-loop: insights → action → impact
Profound is measurement + narrow agents. We connect measurement to execution to brand context to learning. Every cycle compounds.
Our advantage
Brand context, offsite, services — the moat under the head start
Brand Graph, $1M Offsite ARR, 100% enterprise retention, forward-deployed pods. Profound has none of these.
No-regrets moves — commit before picking levers
These are the decisions that are positive in every lever scenario. Don't bike-shed them. They are the floor.
01
Proof of runtime superiority in 30 days. 2-3 head-to-head agency tests. Human panels. "1 dollar of Claude in AirOps = 3-5x impact" pitch locked by mid-May.
02
Bundle proprietary tools invisibly. Remove the "naked" feel of playbooks. Merchandise what the harness does.
03
Ship AirOps Next cleanly on May 13. 175 managed customers. No scope creep.
04
Close the 3 Profound feature gaps. Log files, Conversation Explorer equivalent, model coverage. 30-90 day engineering lifts.
05
Lock the category narrative by Monday April 20. Recommended lead: Agent-Driven Growth, with Brand Intelligence as moat story and AI Visibility as wedge.
06
Website + sales material overhaul around locked category before May 13.
07
Run the pod pilot. 2-3 enterprise pods at $40K/month — Headway, Airbnb, one e-commerce lighthouse.
08
Continue scaling Offsite. $4M ARR target. No slowdown.
09
Hire 3-5 strategists + 4 editors + 1 quality lead. Required for pod pilot. Useful for anything upmarket.
10
Normalize burn to $2.1M/month in Q2. Runway above 12 months. Non-negotiable.
Presets
Choose your levers
LEVER 01Insights Ambition
Are we playing to win or playing to play against Profound?
LEVER 02Services Ambition — the Pod
Do we remove the review chokepoint and replace the customer's agency?
LEVER 03Platform Ambition
Do customers use the product, or do we use it for them?
LEVER 04Category Positioning
What category are we selling into? What do we say we are?
SCENARIO
Scenario Name
Subtitle description
LEADING MESSAGE
Headline pitch
Buyer, competitive set, pricing envelope
EOY '26 ARR
$50M
vs. plan
Enterprise NDR
125%
vs. plan
Gross Margin
62%
SaaS vs Services blend
Series C Multiple
15x
Valuation risk
What this looks like
What breaks
Capital intensity
Moderate
Hiring pressure
Moderate
Valuation risk
Moderate
Execution risk
Moderate
Category clarity
Clear
Cross-cutting imperatives (above the no-regrets floor)
Above the no-regrets floor, these four principles apply regardless of which lever positions you pick.
1
The closed loop gets tighterEvery lever choice makes the Insights → Action → Impact → Learning loop faster and harder to replicate.
2
Enterprise is the priority100% logo retention protected. VP/CDO buyer. Median ACV 2x IC.
3
Quality is dictator-levelOne piece of slop on a customer site kills a pod engagement. No exceptions.
4
Never naked — always merchandiseProprietary tools bundled invisibly, but visibly signalled. The harness should feel magic.