Flagship Service · Consulting
Founder Operating System
The business operating system I built to run my own businesses. Now I build them for other owner-operators.
Built by someone who still opens the café — and still used every day across four of them.
Questions I Wanted My Business To Answer
Every week I found myself asking —
- Are we actually making money?
- Which suppliers increased prices?
- Why did margin fall?
- Which site is performing best?
- Can we afford that purchase?
- How much GST is due?
- How is the household tracking?
- Where did cash actually go?
Founder Operating System was built so those questions could be answered in seconds, instead of hours.
The Story
Over the past eight months I’ve been building the business system I wish I’d had when I started.
Like many business owners, my information lived in multiple places:
- Banking
- Accounting
- Payroll
- Supplier invoices
- Cost of Goods Sold
- Tax
- Revenue
- Household finances
Each system answered part of the story. None of them answered the whole story.
So I built one operating system that brings everything together into a single place, allowing me to understand what’s happening across my businesses and make better decisions faster.
It doesn’t replace Xero, my bank, my payroll or the IRD — those all stay the source of truth. It simply brings what each of them holds into one place, so the whole picture is finally visible.
Today it’s how I make sense of four cafés, multiple income streams, supplier costs, financial position and business performance — all in one place, on my terms.
Now I’m offering to build similar systems for other owner-operated businesses.
What Changes
Outcomes, not software.
Better Decisions
Know exactly what’s happening across your business.
Less Admin
Stop jumping between five different systems.
Financial Clarity
Understand where money is actually going.
Supplier Awareness
See supplier price increases when you update your invoices.
Family Context
See how your business decisions affect your household.
Business Summaries
Generated whenever you update your information — instead of spending Sunday building spreadsheets.
Every business is different. Each Founder Operating System is customised — built around the tools you already use and the questions you actually need answered.
How It Works
Three steps. You own the result.
1
Discovery
We spend time understanding how your business operates, where information currently lives and what questions you wish were easier to answer.
2
Build
I design and build a customised Founder Operating System around your business, using the same principles I’ve developed in my own companies.
3
Implementation
We refine the system together, train you on how it works and transfer everything into your own Claude account, so you own the finished product.
How It Actually Works
Your systems stay the source of truth.
Founder Operating System isn’t software, and it isn’t trying to replace anything. Xero, your bank, your payroll and the IRD all stay exactly where they are — they remain the source of truth. What it does is bring the information those systems hold into one place, so Claude can understand the broader context of your business.
Information is updated intentionally, by you, as it becomes available. Supplier invoices are added when new invoices arrive. Banking is updated when you export it. Payroll is updated once it’s been processed. Accounting is brought in when it suits you, and tax information is updated from the latest IRD figures. Founder Operating System then works from that current context.
I built it this way on purpose. You stay in control of your financial information, what AI can see, the existing software you already rely on, and your own way of working. Nothing happens in the background, and nothing moves without you.
The value here isn’t automation. It’s context, clarity and better decisions.
Who It’s For
Owner-operators who are tired of —
- jumping between multiple systems
- manually compiling reports
- searching for information
- making decisions without the full picture
Ideal for hospitality, retail, trades, professional services and other small businesses.
Why I Built It
This wasn’t built as software. It was built because I wanted answers.
I didn’t set out to make a product. I set out to solve a problem I had every week — I wanted one place where my businesses could answer the questions I was already asking. How are we tracking? Where is margin slipping? What changed with that supplier? What do I actually owe?
So I built it the way I run everything else: practically, from the floor up, and only keeping what earned its place.
I’m still a working operator running four cafés. The system isn’t finished and it isn’t meant to be — it keeps evolving as my businesses evolve. Every improvement I make to run my own companies becomes part of what I build for yours.
Running Today
In use today.
It’s what I use to understand my own businesses. In one place, kept current as I update it, it brings together:
- Four cafés
- Banking records
- Multiple revenue streams
- Household finances
- Payroll records
- Supplier costs
- Invoice analysis
- Tax records
- Cost of Goods Sold
- Business summaries
- Business performance
FAQ
Do I need Claude?
Yes. The Founder Operating System runs inside your own Claude account. Part of the work is getting you set up properly, so by the end you have everything running in a place you control.
Do I own the finished system?
Yes. The whole point is ownership. Everything is transferred into your own Claude account at the end, and I train you on how it works so you’re not dependent on me to run it.
Can this work outside hospitality?
Yes. The principles aren’t specific to cafés. It suits most owner-operated businesses — retail, trades, professional services and others — because every one of them has information scattered across too many places.
Does it connect directly to my bank, Xero or payroll?
No — and that’s deliberate. It doesn’t have direct access to your accounts and it doesn’t sync on its own in the background. Your existing software stays the source of truth. You decide what information to bring in, and when; once it’s in one place, the AI helps you understand it.
Does it calculate or file my tax?
No. It doesn’t calculate tax and it doesn’t file anything. It simply brings your latest tax information together alongside banking, accounting, payroll and the rest, so you can understand everything in one place. Your accountant and the IRD remain the source of truth.
How long does implementation take?
It depends on the size of the business and how many systems we’re bringing together. We agree a realistic timeline in those first conversations, before any build begins.
How much does it cost?
Each build is customised, so pricing depends on scope. We work that out once we’ve talked and I understand your business and what you actually need — no obligation to proceed.
Start The Conversation
Not another piece of software — a clearer way to understand your business.
Interested in building a Founder Operating System for your business? Send me an email. Tell me a little about your business, how you currently operate and what you’d like to better understand. If I think Founder Operating System is the right fit, we’ll continue the conversation from there.