This document is the framework. The critical path below names the milestones and timing. The action items below name what's due this week. The rest is supporting context. Read in that order. AND Studio is the next-generation service offering, anchored on the performance engine, delivered to current clients as a service upgrade, validated end-to-end on owned brands. Forward-looking, not descriptive.
Where we're going and what gates what. Each milestone unblocks the next. Slip a critical-path item and everything downstream slides.
| When | Milestone | Stage |
|---|---|---|
| This week | Smooch dictation intake captured. Rep 1 of the V1 engine cohort (Smooch + HygieneLab + Veloci). Founder dictates against the 6-prompt sheet (hero personas now Prompt 03). Friday May 23 deliverable = audio in, Otter transcript built, Claude project extraction populated into Chassis Library. No memo Friday. Memo template develops AFTER all three cohort founders dictate. | Critical |
| This week | Growth Strategist JD posted to LinkedIn. Senior operator role, 5-10 years DTC brand or performance agency. Posted today alongside Director, Growth Analytics search (Maike's BCG network). Two roles on purpose: one operates, one quantifies. Closes the performance lane gap. | Critical |
| This week | HygieneLab updated SOW closed. Real performance-fee deal, priority commercial action. | Critical |
| Wk May 26 | V1 cohort dictation continues: HygieneLab (Kramer) + Veloci (Tyler). Same prompt sheet, refined off what we learn from Smooch run. Tyler gets a phone call from ML before the prompts hit. Three different shapes (launch / mid-engagement / On the Keys with prior work). Each rep teaches a different break point. | Critical |
| Wk May 26 | Light touch with Luisa Monday. Confirm dictation received. Preview what comes back once V1 cohort completes. Pilot post-mortem same day with Robbie + Lee on the SOP v1.1 feedback. | This week |
| Early June | V1 engagement memo template locked from cohort. Three transcripts read side by side. Pattern-spot what worked in prompts and what didn't. Memo template developed against three real founder inputs, not a vacuum. Sequence memo deliverables to each cohort founder after lock. | m1 |
| Mon/Tue | John call. Persona-origin method, brief-handoff reality, friction list. Feeds the SOP and the Tier 1 roadmaps. | This week |
| Fri May 22 | All-Hands org announce. Org chart v1.2 goes live (industry-facing titles applied). Title alignment for Michael + Lee. Rollout: Slack profiles → LinkedIn → Email signatures (post-AND Studio migration). | This week |
| Wk May 26 | June roadmap presentations to all Tier 1 clients. AND Studio service-upgrade conversation begins here, account by account. | Critical |
| End May | Production SOP v0.1 written. Friday Ops Review live. Pod consistency starts here. | m1 |
| End June | Strategy Engine v1 operating across every pod. Every active client running the updated framework. Director of Growth Analytics in seat. Pod Leader hires opened. Magic Story / Kopari pipeline decisions land. | m1 |
| Late June | AND Studio site live at andstudio.nyc. Public artifact has to precede billing. Brand transition conversations active with every client. | Critical |
| July | AND Studio billing begins. First wave of clients moved to AND Studio LLC SOWs and invoicing. Commercial entity formally live. | Critical |
| End July | Production SOP v1.0 operating across every pod. Methodology standardized. | m2 |
| End Aug | All clients on AND Studio billing. Cutover complete. AND Gather sunsets as the commercial entity. AND Studio is the agency now. | Critical |
| End Oct | Engine validation: GOAT full-stack proof + 6-month read. The bet matures here. | m6 |
Read this section first. The rest of the doc is supporting context. If you only have 90 seconds, the table below tells you what to do and who owns it.
| # | Action | Owner | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Strategy Engine v1 operating across every pod in June. John call done Monday. John confirmed as BODi protégé to ML, scope agreed. BODi-side meeting closed last night. Next: run every active client through the updated strategy framework. Robbie codifies persona-derivation SOP from John's input. Target: v1 in execution on every account by end June. | Robbie + Pod Leaders | Critical |
| 2 | Draft v1 strategy roadmaps for every Tier 1 client. Ready for client presentations week of May 26. Tight turn, huge priority. Uses persona-derivation method from John call. Same shape as the H2 Tab roadmap, every account. | Robbie + Pod Leaders | Critical |
| 3 | Close HygieneLab updated SOW. Real performance-fee deal in flight. Priority commercial action of m1. Magic Story is BD pipeline, not critical path. Don't conflate. | Michael | Urgent |
| 4 | Performance lane: two roles posted, one operator + one consultant. Director of Growth Analytics (math layer, BCG/McKinsey/Bain track) with Maike's network in motion. Growth Strategist (operator, 5-10 yrs DTC/agency, owns CM and channel calls) goes live on LinkedIn today. Both roles exist on purpose. One operates. One quantifies. Closes 04 Performance lane in SOP (currently 6 stubs). | Michael + Robbie | Live today |
| 4b | V1 engine cohort: Smooch + HygieneLab + Veloci, run through new dictation intake. Founder records ~12 min of voice memos against the 6-prompt sheet (hero personas now Prompt 03). Otter transcribes. Claude project extracts into Chassis Library. Friday = dictation captured, not memo. Engagement memo V1 develops AFTER three transcripts land side by side. Smooch this week. HygieneLab + Veloci wk of May 26. | Michael + Robbie + Chelsea | In motion |
| 4c | Contribution margin template live at and-engine.netlify.app/cm/. Taylor Holiday framework. Working calculator: plug any brand's COGS, ship/fulfill, processing rate, return rate, marketing spend — outputs pre-mkt CM%, break-even MER, required MER for target CM. Open question flagged in template: does Shopify read access become the default ask in SOP 02.01 (CTC's Admission pulls these from Shopify directly, three of the four "asks" shift to pull-driven). Recommended posture: standard for On the Keys, optional for Creative Only. ML + Robbie align. | Michael | Live |
| 5 | Name Franco as Head of AI / Engineering. Identify Head of Creative candidate. Franco formalized as Head of AI / Eng reports to Robbie. Cost zero, clarifies tooling-track ownership. Same week, identify the Head of Creative candidate from existing team. | Robbie + Michael | This week |
| 6 | Downstream audit on Morphe + Veloci + HygieneLab. One day with Robbie + Franco mapping LP, email/SMS, sub/replenishment, cohort metrics on all 3 brands (HygieneLab unlocks once closed). 2-page audit per brand. | Robbie + Franco | m1 |
| 7 | Identify T4 prototype candidate. Smaller external brand with existing traction we believe in. Not &vest portfolio. Performance-based equity structure (% equity + vesting on engine milestones + clawback). Identify 2 to 3 candidates in m1, first conversation by end of m2. | Michael | m1-m2 |
Jump to context: Engine · Org · Validation tracks · Gantt · Increasing engagements · M4 plan · Hires · Risks
Upstream (briefing, creative production, media buying, weekly review) is proven on Promix, Rhythm, Morphe. AI-augmenting in active development. Downstream (LP optimization, retention and LTV, cohort analytics, growth strategy, brand evaluation) is mostly absent. Scaling service contracts in bigger chunks and validating on owned-brand economics both require both halves.
Intake is dictation-first. Founder records ~12 minutes of voice memos against a 6-prompt sheet (brand voice, customer + category, hero personas, numbers, how we work, launch context). No live intake call. Otter transcribes. Claude project extracts structured fields directly into the Chassis Library. Live calls become exception, not norm.
V1 cohort = Smooch + HygieneLab + Veloci. Three brands run through the engine concurrently to develop V1 of the engagement memo template. Three different shapes (launch sprint / mid-engagement / On the Keys with prior work). Memo template develops AFTER all three transcripts land side by side, not in a vacuum off one dictation.
Friday = dictation captured, not a 90-day plan. The Friday-of-kickoff deliverable is: audio in, transcript built, extraction populated. Nothing back to the founder Friday. Engagement memo (Evergreen Dashboard V1 + 4-week roadmap + CM model + cadence + 90-day thesis) develops after the cohort completes.
Contribution margin template live at and-engine.netlify.app/cm/ with a working calculator. Taylor Holiday framework. Open engine-design question: does Shopify read access become the default ask in SOP 02.01 (CTC's Admission model is pull-driven, not ask-driven). Recommended posture: standard for On the Keys, optional for Creative Only.
The upstream half is the agency today and the foundation of everything else. Eight capabilities define whether it works at AI-leveraged throughput or stays partnership-led. Each has a target metric where one is measurable. Most do not exist at this standard yet; this is the build target.
| # | Capability | What "works" looks like | Target metric | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Brand onboarding to live ads | 15-minute live intake call + access to client systems (Meta, Google, Shopify, Klaviyo, GA4/Triple Whale) + unit economics for contribution margin (one ask, sent before the call). Brand foundation in Milanote, Chassis Library entry populated, first sprint brief written, first 4 to 8 assets in market against a defined hypothesis. 7-day turnaround on the engagement memo back to client. | 14-21 days from kickoff | In design |
| 02 | Sprint cadence with hypothesis-driven testing | Built on the 4-week roadmap process documented in the Strategy Engine. W1 execute Wave 1 + L7 read. W2 reinforce winners + L7 read. W3 scale + Net New Test (L7/L30 read). W4 present Month N+1 roadmap, strategist writes "The Bet," approve and launch. L7 / L30 / L90 / L365 windows feed every cycle. Every sprint has a stated hypothesis. Monday lock or no sprint. Produce begins Tuesday. | 4 sprints per pod per month | Defined in Strategy Engine, variable by pod |
| 03 | Per-asset briefs at strategist quality, AI-assisted | Brief sits below the monthly roadmap. Robbie's tool + Chassis Library generates first drafts. Pod Leader edits to lock. Stupid simple format: videos over words, reference ads over copy descriptions, final locked copy not directional copy. Format-specific Sprint Brief templates (per Brecka cut, tweet static, sale static, testimonial UGC, 3D animation, MOFUFounder) lock all production-decision fields before the brief is handed off. A team member not in the briefing can execute without a clarifying question. | 20-40 briefs/week across roster | Tool live on 2 brands · format templates TBD (m1 pressure test on H2 Tab) |
| 04 | High-volume creative production at AI throughput | Production tier sized to account economics. T1 Iterate: 20 assets/month, 1 macro partial, ~6-month full cycle. T2 Scale: 50 assets/month, 1 macro full, 3-5 month cycle. T3 Velocity: 100 assets/month, 2 macros, ~2.5 month cycle. Static, motion, animation, video, and 3D all in scope. 3D is a deepen-here capability (Hermerson + Jae on PH team, Phil leads). | 20 / 50 / 100 assets per month by tier | Tier structure defined · 3D deepening |
| 05 | Creator and UGC pipeline at batch scale | Camilee coordinates creators. Phil's team batches creator content into ad units. Existing creator databases get re-cut for runway. AND's structural edge. | Per-account creator throughput documented per pod | Operating, needs SOP |
| 06A | On the Keys (AND runs media buying) | Where AND controls media: Morphe, Veloci. Campaign setup, audience strategy, bid optimization, daily spend management, ad-level performance tracking. Kill thresholds defined per account. Mike Manzo-Lewis hands on keyboard. | Daily optimization SLA per account | Operating where AND controls media |
| 06B | Creative Only (someone else runs buying) | Where the client's internal team, a contractor, or another agency runs buying: H2 Tab, BODi, HygieneLab, Smoochbody. AND provides creative only. Nobody "forces spend" anymore; best-in-class buying lets Meta's algo find winners. The lever in both modes is creative volume. In Mode B, AND needs higher creative output and more persona variants because we're not in the room when allocation decisions happen. Still allocate creative production into proven persona winners. | Higher creative volume vs Mode A · persona-mapped variant count tracked weekly | Playbook needs codification |
| 06C | Organic Only (no paid component) | Goodwipes and Barker run organic social only. No paid component. Mode A/B distinction doesn't apply. Different brief shape, different cadence, different success metrics. Pod Leaders flag these explicitly so they don't get measured against paid-account benchmarks by accident. | Organic-specific metrics: engagement, watch time, share rate | Stable · own SOP needed |
| 07 | Motion reads at three cadences | Weekly (operational signal), monthly (strategic direction), quarterly (account health and renewal context). Templated per client tier so no one reinvents the cycle. | 100% account coverage on weekly + monthly | Templates in design (Robbie + Pod Leaders) |
| 08 | Performance signal → next brief (closed loop) | Friday Sprint Review reads performance, updates hypothesis, decides kill/scale, feeds next-week Sprint Brief inputs. Wins captured in Chassis Library so cross-account learning compounds. | Loop closes weekly with documented hypothesis updates | Missing as systematic practice |
| 09 | Internal agency dashboard | Single dashboard with the metrics AND cares about across the book: assets shipped per pod per week, brief lock cadence, ROAS per account where AND buys, performance reads delivered (Mode B), capacity utilization per pod, win rate on new business. Built simple, edited easily. Not a client dashboard, an operating dashboard for Robbie + Lee + Michael. | Live by m2 · weekly refresh cadence | Spec phase · Robbie + analyst hire build |
Canonical methodology doc lives at audits.andgather.co/and-strategy-engine (v0.5, last updated 2026-05-17, owned by Robbie + Michael). Key bridges into this roadmap are below. The methodology is what makes the engine the engine. The Pod Leader is the strategist running it.
3 to 5 macros per account, 3 micros per macro (each = a cognitive bias), 4 angles per micro (price comparison, peer proof, mechanism, study count), 4 vehicles per angle (podcast, tweet, UGC, animation). Full coverage = 48 distinct ads per macro.
Engine handles mechanical work. Strategist owns judgment. The split is explicit, not aspirational.
Locked discipline. Not a choice per pod.
Each month one new micro within a hero macro or one untested macro. Winning vehicle from L30 (hold one variable constant). Two waves. Week 4 verdict.
Strategy Engine defines production volume by tier. T1 Iterate / Crawl: 20 assets/month, 1 macro partial coverage (H2 Tab and Foundation-tier clients). T2 Scale / Walk: 50 assets/month, 1 macro full coverage (Performance Partnership-tier clients). T3 Velocity / Run: 100 assets/month, 2 macros (Launch + Performance clients, BODi at ~100 assets/mo). Crawl/Walk/Run is the client-facing naming (per Robbie's SOP); T1/T2/T3 stays internal for production volume tracking. These are the production tiers. They map loosely onto the Pricing Framework v4 tiers (T1 Foundation / T2 Performance / T3 Launch) but the mapping isn't 1-to-1 in every case (BODi is contractually T3 but produces at the upper end). v5 of the framework should formalize the mapping.
Plan shifted on the Head of Strategy hire. Build and test the Strategy Engine first; hire the leader of the process once the role shape is sharp. Hiring against a fuzzy spec produces an expensive miss. Building first also surfaces whether the role tilts more analytical than strategist (likely, given how much of the mechanical work the engine automates). Recruiters stay active in the market to keep a warm pipeline, but the hire is not on a calendar target. Founder-time cost during the build is real: Michael holds ML Pod interim. Cost is named, not hidden. The build-and-test work is what closes that cost; not a passive wait.
Capabilities 1, 2, 3, and 8 land on the Pod Leader desk. The Pod Leader writes the brief, locks the sprint, oversees production through quality gate, reads performance Friday, and feeds the next-week brief. Without a defined Pod Leader role with consistent scope (see Tier 2 below), these capabilities stay variable pod-by-pod which is the explicit problem Lee and Robbie are solving.
On the Keys (AND runs buying): Morphe, Veloci. We run account ops + provide creative. Mike Manzo-Lewis hands on keyboard. Creative Only (someone else runs buying): H2 Tab, BODi, HygieneLab, Smoochbody. Client team, contractor, or another agency runs buying. AND provides creative only. Nobody "forces spend" anymore; best-in-class buying lets Meta's algo find winners. Creative volume is the lever in both. What changes in Creative Only: AND needs higher creative output and more persona variants because we're not in the room when allocation happens. Still allocate creative production into proven persona winners. Organic Only: Goodwipes and Barker. Organic social, no paid component. Different brief shape, cadence, success metrics. Pod Leaders flag explicitly to avoid measuring against paid benchmarks.
AND Studio is not a rebrand. It's a more dialed-in service offering than what AND Gather sells today. Mode A/B clarity, locked-copy briefs, sprint cadence with closed loop, internal dashboard, the engine running across every account. Operationalizing this through current clients end-to-end IS the shift to AND Studio, not the prep work for it. Each current client gets an active presentation of the new operating model and what changes for them. The brand transition is the wrapper. The offering is the substance.
The engine is not only tooling. It's the org running it. AI-leveraged throughput compounds when reporting lines are clear and roles are scoped. Below is the leadership hierarchy as it stands now and as it needs to be filled. Michael, Robbie, and Lee at senior exec. Pod Leaders below. Team Leads below them. Everyone else reports through Team Leads. The team reports operationally to Robbie, with support from Michael and Lee.
Brand strategy, M&A, capital allocation, key client relationships, T4 candidate decisions.
Process, capacity, hiring discipline, finance, account P&L. Building the production SOP with Lee. Mapping performance per client. The team reports to Robbie.
People, talent, team performance coaching, production SOP build co-owned with Robbie, leadership tier development.
TBD Pod absorption from Michael (BODi, Morphe, Smooch Body). Monthly Testing Strategy, brief standards, cross-account consistency, Motion reading cadence, AND LAB sprint cadence. Strategy Engine methodology execution.
Production ops, automation, tooling roadmap. Builds and maintains Robbie's tool, Chassis Library, LP optimization tooling, retention automation. v1.2 title is Operations Manager.
Media buying where AND owns it: Veloci and Morphe (hands on keyboard). Performance support, no buying: HygieneLab, MyPrize, H2 Tab, BODi, Smoochbody. No performance component: Goodwipes, Barker. Robbie sets up the per-client KPI cadence.
Cohort analytics, contribution margin modeling (Taylor Holiday's definition: revenue minus COGS, shipping, processing, returns, and marketing), deal economics, growth strategy, weekly read across accounts, case-study dashboards. Distinct from Mike's media-readouts role: this seat owns the data layer + growth thesis.
HygieneLab, MyPrize, Goodwipes. Briefs, copy, creative strategy, client management. Manages John. ATL.
H2 Tab, Veloci, +1 TBD. Briefs, copy, creative strategy. NYC. 30-day test, writing scripts. Pass-fail by m2.
BODi, Morphe, Smooch Body, Barker Wellness. Michael holds it until the engine is built and tested, then the Head of Strategy hire takes the pod. Date moves with the engine, not a calendar target. Real founder-time cost during the build.
Title: Pod Leader. Use your existing language. Mid-career rank with a clear path to Senior Pod Leader.
Scope: Owns strategy and production oversight for 1 to 3 accounts. Writes monthly testing strategy and weekly sprint briefs. Reviews team production output. Manages account P&L. Reports to Robbie.
Background to hire for: Performance creative agency or DTC brand in-house creative lead. Came up through production (knows what is makeable and what timelines are real). Has done strategy at senior level (monthly testing plans, brand POVs, sprint briefs). Performance-marketing literacy. Reads Motion and Meta data fluently and connects creative decisions to outcomes. AI tools as core workflow, not novelty. 5 to 8 years experience at the right blend. Operator over artist. Strong written communication. Briefs are the work.
Source pool: Common Thread Collective, Pilothouse, Disruptive Advertising, Tinuiti, performance pods at DTC brands like AG1, Liquid Death, Notion. Less likely from traditional agencies.
Open Pod Leader seats: BODi (Michael interim, founder-time leak), Morphe and Smoochbody (Chelsea + Rafaela, not a strategic lead today). At least 2 permanent Pod Leaders hired or promoted by m2-3.
Static, art direction, and motion Quality Gate. Designers report into Saul (Ailen, Agustina, Manuel, Bruno PT). Closest internal to Head of Creative.
Video + motion Quality Gate. Editors and animators report into Nacho Peña (Juan, Matías, Ignacio Fassini, Motion/AE OPEN). Incredible style, top video skill on the roster.
Post production throughput, video, 3D and animation. Editors and animators in PH report in (Hermerson, Raniel, Jae). Partners with Nacho Peña on video quality.
Editors, animators, designers, producers, talent coordinator, AI artists, support contractors. Report through Team Leads (Tier 3). Not shown on the leadership chart by design. The strategy doc captures what gets debated and built; the full team roster is maintained separately in the Org Census. Note (v1.2): Bruno Torquato and Rafaela Sanchez moved to contractor roster, off the org chart.
Review cadence, brief intake, work-back schedules, escalation paths, growth conversations. To be codified in direct partnership with Saul Cuevas, Nacho Peña, and Phil Dimalig. Creative team leads direct AND produce; the management layer is the next pass. Lee owns the rollout; Robbie partners on process. Target: documented by m2.
Robbie shipped v1.2 of the org chart May 19. Open seats with owners + interim coverage. (1) Motion Designer, ASAP, under Nacho Peña, covers HygieneLab + Barker Wellness (Stephanie gap), TBD interim, RW + Chelsea own. (2) After Effects Animator, ASAP, under Nacho Peña, partner seat to Motion Designer (second Stephanie gap), TBD interim, RW + Chelsea own. (3) 3D Artist, TBD per Andres pipeline, likely under Phil's team (PH), Hermerson + Jae interim, RW + Phil own. (4) Director of Creative Strategy, by July 1, $250K equity, system architect profile, triggers TBD Pod permanent transition (Michael off day-to-day), ML + RW own. Announce All Hands Friday May 22.
Not in place today. Production runs at the pod level with variability between pod leaders. Systemizing it is the work Lee and Robbie are taking on. The framework below is the target structure: builds on the existing "Sprint vs Produce" language (Sprint = full test cycle from hypothesis through measurement; Produce = execution inside a sprint, Tuesday after Monday brief lock) and pins owners + time budgets per gate. Build target: documented and in operation across all pods by m3.
| Gate | Stage | Owner | Artifact | Time Budget |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Onboarding / Refresh | Pod Lead (Account Director) | Milanote brand foundation + Chassis Library entry | T+30 days new; quarterly refresh |
| 02 | Monthly Testing Strategy | Head of Strategy (sequenced, hire after engine built). Interim: Hayes (his 3 pods), John Ty (H2Tab + Veloci), Michael (BODi), Chelsea + Rafaela (Smoochbody + Morphe) | One doc per client: campaign overview, funnel strategy, weekly product focus, per-ad briefs, reference creative | 1st of each month, all clients |
| 03 | Sprint Brief Lock | Script writers today: Hayes (his pods) + John Ty (his pods) + Michael (ML Pod) + Rafaela on Smoochbody/Morphe. Zak and Conor both gone. | Weekly Sprint Brief: ad name, headline, body copy, promise, CTA, visual direction. Stupid simple format: videos over words, reference ads over copy descriptions, final locked copy not directional copy. Brief passes if a team member who was not in the briefing can execute without a single clarifying question. No "we'll figure out the copy later" iteration cycles. | Monday morning (Sprint cannot start without lock) |
| 04 | Produce | Pod Lead + Post Production (Phil) | Assets delivered against brief | Tue to Wed |
| 05 | Quality Gate | Split by output: Nacho on video, Saul on static + art direction. Future Head of Creative consolidates. | Approved / rejected / iterate, with reason logged | Wed to Thu |
| 06 | Media Deployment | Media Buyer + Pod Lead | Campaigns live with kill thresholds | Thu to Fri |
| 07 | Sprint Review | Pod Lead + Analyst + Mike Manzo-Lewis (performance readout, every client) | Account dashboard, hypothesis updates, kill/scale decisions, next-week Sprint Brief inputs. Mike adds an outside performance voice on every account, including the ones AND doesn't buy media for. | Friday |
60 minutes. Standing meeting. Each Pod Leader reports against gates. Robbie runs it. Lee co-chairs on talent and people. Mike Manzo-Lewis joins for the per-client performance readout segment, including clients where AND doesn't buy media. Michael attends. Michael does not run it. The posture shift is the point. Founder role moves from doing the work to reviewing the review. Cadence is staggered to per-client review windows, not parallel to them. BODi reviews v1 every Tuesday, we revise, Friday is their internal review. MyPrize is Tuesday delivery with same-day final. Each client has its own contract cadence baked in; the internal SOP wraps that. Per-client cadence map (one row per client: their review day, our ship day, their feedback turnaround) lands in SOP v1.1.
Senior exec tier is in place: Michael, Robbie, Lee. Robbie's mandate gets formalized week 1 (account P&L, hiring authority, ops review chair). Lee partners on production SOP build and team performance. Head of Strategy is sequenced, not on a calendar target. Build and test the Strategy Engine first; the role shape gets sharp once the engine is operational. May tilt more analytical given the automation work in flight. 2 recruiters stay active in the market but the hire is not prioritized. Zak and Conor are both gone, no PT bridge today: Hayes, John, Michael, and Rafaela cover script writing across their respective pods. Franco formalizes as Head of AI / Eng. Analyst search runs in parallel. Pod Leader hires (internal promotions or external) come in m2-3 to standardize Morphe + Smoochbody coverage above the Chelsea-Rafaela layer.
Brand strategy. New venture development. Capital allocation across &vest portfolio. Key client relationships at the founder level. Final word on T4 candidates and brand acquisition decisions. Everything else routes through the leadership tier.
Each track validates a different capability and supports a different sales motion. The six engagements together is a much harder portfolio to dismiss than any one alone. Capital partners and acquisition targets each see the case study most relevant to their question; internal teams see the engine's range. Each engagement also doubles as a template for similar future deals: Magic Story = broken-account rebuild on performance fees, HygieneLab = working-account performance shift, BODi = brownfield enterprise complexity, Smoochbody = greenfield client launch, GOAT = owned brand full-stack, T4 prototype = smaller traction brand on equity-bearing terms. The Ideal Partner Brand rubric in Section 06 names what AND looks for to qualify a new brand for any of these templates.
SOW sent 5/2. Lead in BD pipeline alongside Kopari. Not a case study until signed. Tracked in Section 08 Increasing Engagements.
"We shift working accounts to performance and unlock alignment."
"We run enterprise complexity at AI throughput legacy agencies can't touch."
"We launch a client brand from zero. cradle to grave."
"We operate owned brands and capture equity, not just fees."
"Engine economics work on a brand we don't fully own."
Approach A locked: downstream-first on Morphe + Veloci (m1-3) → existing-client expansion in three parallel paths (m4) → GOAT full-stack validation (m5-6). Magic Story rebuild runs in parallel from m1 as live engine validation in production.
Existing clients scaling spend is one revenue vector. New engagements is the other, and it has not been a deliberate function. Net-new business has run through Michael's network and inbound referrals. That doesn't scale and it's a single point of failure on the founder. The engine work creates the assets a real business development function needs: case studies, productized pricing, partnership relevance, and the team capacity to absorb new wins without breaking quality.
Magic Story rebuild outcome, Smoochbody Target launch, BODi enterprise throughput, GOAT validation. Each becomes a public proof point.
v4 Pricing Framework is the sales playbook. T1 Foundation, T2 Performance, T3 Launch make pricing legible. Shortens sales cycle. Forces clean fit decisions.
E-commerce platform partners refer in-fit DTC brands. Klaviyo, Shopify Plus, Skio, Recharge, retention tooling. AND becomes a named service partner.
Defined target account list. DTC brands at $30K to $300K monthly Meta spend in categories where AND has rep (supplements, beauty, food, fragrance, hydration). Pattern-matched outreach, not spray.
Today: Michael, founder-led, network and referral inbound. Single point of failure. By m3-4: shared function. Michael holds founder-level relationships and narrative. Head of Strategy partners on positioning and case study production. Robbie owns operational governance (capacity, pricing fit, deal-shape decisions). Lee surfaces inbound talent attracted by the work (a real recruiting vector). Pod Leaders run disciplined outbound against the target list in coordination with Michael. m7+: if growth justifies it, a dedicated Growth lead. Don't hire it before the channels prove.
Magic Story: SOW sent 5/2. Lead in pipeline. Not signed. Decision window by end June. If signed, SOW reissues under AND Studio LLC. Kopari: early conversations, beauty / wellness fit. Active outreach continues against the disciplined target list to widen the top of the funnel. Both leads fit the Tier 2 Performance Partnership shape. The Ideal Partner Brand rubric scores each before AND commits team capacity. New engagements signed from July onward are AND Studio contracts.
New engagements cannot outpace pod capacity. The max-2-simultaneous-T2/T3-ramps rule already exists and constrains this. The function targets 1 to 2 net-new T2/T3 wins per quarter through m1-6, plus T1 Foundation deals at lower friction. Don't sell faster than you can deliver. The promise of the framework is that engine throughput rises over time, expanding capacity for new wins without proportional headcount.
What separates a brand AND should engage on performance-heavy terms from a brand AND should pass on. Six dimensions, each scored 0 to 2. Brands scoring 9 or higher are go on performance-heavy terms. 6 to 8 are conversation continuers (likely T1 Foundation or hybrid). Below 6, walk. The rubric is the better outbound filter than territory or category. It also forces honest screening before AND commits team capacity.
| Dimension | What we look for | Signal at score 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Validation signal | Revenue trend, retention rate, organic word-of-mouth, repeat purchase rate | $2M+ ARR with positive trend and demonstrable retention |
| Unit economics | AOV and gross margin support paid scaling | Gross margin 60%+, AOV that allows 6-12 month CAC payback at target ROAS |
| Brand voice and POV | Clear positioning, named personality, distinctive creative POV | Brand has a thesis a stranger could repeat in one sentence; not category-generic |
| Operator team | Can ship product and ops at the scale paid spend will demand | Supply chain, fulfillment, support, finance all keep up at 3-5x current volume |
| Performance alignment | Willing to structure deals around outcomes, not just hours or assets | Founder open to T2 or T3.5 structure; signs threshold + percentage without long renegotiation |
| Category fit | Categories where AND has reputation, creator network, performance pattern recognition | Beauty, supplements, food, fragrance, hydration, wellness. AND has rep here |
Brand is shifting from AND Gather to AND Studio (LLC already set up, domain owned at andstudio.nyc). New site is the public face of the engine. Wireframe v1 is done (single page: hero, engine, proof outcomes, tier pricing, partner fit, owned brands, contact). m1-2 = copy + design lock. m2-3 = build. m3 = launch + andgather.co redirect strategy. The site is where case-study-driven inbound, productized pricing, and disciplined outbound all land. Without a public site that communicates the engine, every other BD channel underperforms. Treat the site launch as a m3 trigger that activates the rest of the BD function.
Equity is binary, not a sliver. Fees are the primary capture mechanism across the standard tiers. Equity only when AND acquires outright or the deal is juicy enough to justify a meaningful percentage. v5 of the framework should formalize 3 fee-based deal shapes for partnership brands:
T2 Performance Partnership: base + 10% over threshold (existing, Magic Story shape).
T2+ Sharpened Performance: base + 15-20% over threshold for brands AND has high conviction on. Higher upside capture for higher risk position.
T3.5 Scaling Partnership: lower retainer + revenue share of incremental against baseline, or heavier % of spend over threshold. For validated brands that want to scale aggressively and trade lower base for upside participation. No equity carve. Fees only.
T4 equity-bearing structure stays distinct from the partnership tiers. Used when AND acquires (Morphe-owned shape, GOAT shape, future incubations) or when a deal economics make a 5%+ position genuinely sensible. Small equity slivers across many deals complicate negotiation, vesting administration, and capital structure. Skip them. Fee upside scales; equity goes deep when it goes at all.
m4 is not "convert agency clients to performance." That was the v1 framing and it was wrong. Three distinct paths, each suited to the relationship and the brand economics.
Cohort margin won't fly. BODi won't structure that way. Best case is reduced base fee paired with a % of creative production spend. Media buying stays client-side so true outcome alignment is hard. Honest: this may not land. BODi remains valuable as the production-volume case study whether or not the fee reshapes.
Not &vest portfolio. A smaller brand with existing traction that we believe in, where AND can structure a highly performance-based equity deal. Different candidate pool than agency clients. Identify in m2, negotiate m3, deploy m4-5. Template work supports GOAT and acquisitions.
Owned brand. Different conversation entirely. Drop the agency-retainer fiction; install internal cost recovery + profit share. Designs sister structure to Tier 4 for owned brands. Goes last because it touches owned-brand economics that need T4 template completed first.
Three critical hires plus role formalizations and one immediate scope upgrade to lock the leadership tier and start the downstream build.
| Role | Start | Owns |
|---|---|---|
| Director of Creative Strategy | BY JULY 1 (per v1.2) | $250K equity. System architect profile (Doctor Squatch HoPerfCreative archetype). Owns Monthly Testing Strategy across all accounts, brief standards, cross-account consistency, Motion reading cadence, AND LAB sprint cadence. Trigger: TBD Pod permanent transition (Michael off day-to-day, oversight only). Engine build still gates the role-shape sharpness. Owner: Michael + RW. |
| Director, Growth Analytics | m1 search · target in seat by m2-m3 | The consultant route. BCG/McKinsey/Bain track. Math-layer hire. Owns cohort analytics, weekly P&L view, deal-economics model, case-study dashboards, contribution margin model per client. JD live with Maike's network (&vest operating partner, ex-BCG). One half of the two-role performance bet. |
| Growth Strategist | Posted LinkedIn May 21 · first conv week 2 | The operator route. 5-10 years inside DTC brand or performance agency. Owns growth strategy across the book, channel mix calls, scaling thesis, partners the pods on briefs. CM discipline default, not ROAS-first. Bridge until DGA is in seat; permanent senior IC after. The other half of the two-role performance bet. |
| Pod Leaders (2 to 3) | m1-2 search · m2-3 in seat (or promote) | Strategy and production oversight for 1 to 3 accounts. Open seats: BODi (off Michael), Morphe + Smoochbody (above Chelsea + Rafaela). Performance creative or DTC brand background, 5 to 8 years. |
| Retention / LTV Operator | m3 in seat or partner-equity | Sub mechanics, email/SMS, replenishment, post-purchase flows, cohort-margin lift modeling. |
| Head of Creative | Active search · close once role definition is locked | Cross-account creative quality, brief standards, mentorship across Saul / Nacho Peña / Phil. Search has been live: 2 recruiters engaged, LinkedIn post active. The bottleneck has been role definition, not pipeline. Engine build surfaces what the role actually needs to do. Close once the engine work clarifies the seat (likely m3-4). |
| Franco | m1 formalize | Head of AI / Engineering. Owns Robbie's tool, Chassis Library, LP optimization build, retention automation, v5 tooling roadmap. |
| Mike Manzo-Lewis | m1 expand scope | Performance / Media. Existing media buying scope holds. New: weekly or bi-weekly performance readouts across ALL clients, including non-media-buying accounts. Consultant looking for more work. Adds another voice at the per-client table. |
| Robbie (action, not hire) | m1 deliverable | Map performance ownership per client. Today only some accounts have explicit performance owners (Mike on MyPrize, Veloci). Every account needs a named performance owner or readout cadence in the new map. |
BODi: Michael is running the pod. The fix works but it's the founder-time leak the engine is supposed to stop. Options: promote an internal lead (Hayes overloaded; Saul or Nacho candidates with backstop from Head of Strategy hire), or hire a senior account lead externally. Morphe + Smoochbody: Chelsea (Project Manager) plus Rafaela (creative producer contractor at MOA) cover both accounts. Chelsea is internal PM, not a strategic lead. Rafaela is contractor. Neither is a permanent strategic answer. Decide week 1: formalize Rafaela as Smoochbody + Morphe lead via FTE conversion or expanded contract, or stand up an internal candidate above her, or hire externally.
SOW sent 5/2. not yet signed. Signature risk before rebuild risk. Once signed: true ROAS 0.65x today, AND eats team cost on rebuild. Day-45 ROAS read decides day-60 staffing. If not trending toward 1.0x, restaff smaller and accept margin loss. Don't bleed silently.
Proposal sent. Until executed, the second perf-fee track validation doesn't exist. Close in m1. If HygieneLab won't shift, the perf-fee track has one engagement (Magic Story) and the track is fragile.
Cohort margin is off the table. Reduced base + % of creative spend is the only realistic fee reshape. Media buying client-side means alignment is hard. Don't bet engine validation on a BODi conversion. Frame BODi externally as production case study; conversion is bonus, not requirement.
Slip the m2 analyst hire by more than 30 days and the downstream build + growth strategy + deal-econ model all slip. Open the search week 1. Two channels. LinkedIn + personal-network call list. first conversation by week 2.
Yousef anti-bloat spec is the gating item across both FiberMax SKUs. Manufacturer confirmation (Intermountain primary, Makers/Vitaquest backup), product liability insurance, NY Foreign Qualification + DBA filing all pre-launch. Slip risk is real and outside engine control.
Framework absorbs ramp on 8-10 person teams. Magic Story rebuild + Smooch greenfield launch are both in first-60-days simultaneously starting m1. That's already the max. No new T2/T3 starts until at least one is past day 60.
H2 Tab Audit page on the Strategy Engine names it directly: "We do not have documentation of what data, research, or interview informed the 9 personas." Same risk likely exists across other accounts. Personas drive everything downstream (macros, vehicles, briefs, hooks, success criteria), so undocumented origin = unauditable strategy. Action: John call this week surfaces the H2 Tab method. Robbie codifies a persona-derivation SOP from John's answer (Conor is no longer in seat; Robbie owns this directly, partnering with Pod Leaders). Apply retroactively to every active account by m2. Method must be in place before June client roadmap presentations next week. Without it, AND Studio's "more dialed-in service" claim has a hole at the foundation.
Hard commercial deadline. AND Studio billing begins in July on the first wave of clients. By end of August every client is on AND Studio billing. AND Gather sunsets as the commercial entity. This is a service upgrade conversation that lands on each client's calendar, not a logo swap. Each conversation includes: the new operating model (Mode A/B, locked briefs, sprint cadence, engine running on the account), what changes for them, and the new SOW with AND Studio LLC. Sequencing: site live by late June (public artifact must precede billing). First-wave billing cutover in July. Full cutover end of August. Cosmetic checklist (301 redirects, email forwarding, LinkedIn, contracts, signatures, Slack handles, vendor accounts) wraps the commercial transition. Lee + Robbie own cosmetic and operational checklist. Michael + Pod Leaders own the client conversation calendar (per-client handoff dates).