A worked example from AI Agents 101

JANE DOE-OS

The Operating System of Jane Doe

Fictional · 47 · Consumer-brand strategy consultant
Co-founders, not tools Vulnerability is the unlock Layer, do not flood
6 Co-Founders
3 Priorities
1 Active Project
5 Folders

Jump to

Five surfaces of Jane Doe-OS. Pick a lane.

About Jane
Profile, priorities, how she works
↓
Co-Founders
Six AI partners, by name
↓
How It Works
A day in the OS, end to end
↓
Build Your Own
Back to the guide
↓
Active Project
Jane's book proposal in flight
↓

About Jane

Every co-founder reads this profile at the start of every session. It is the source of truth for the system.

Who she is

Jane Doe, 47. Founder of Jane Doe Advisory, a strategic consulting practice for mid-stage consumer brands. Twenty-two years in corporate retail before going solo eighteen months ago. Lives in Westchester, NY with her husband Tom and two kids, Alex (12) and Maya (9).

What she's building

  • Jane Doe Advisory. Six steady retainers by year-end. Currently four.
  • Angel portfolio. Fifteen consumer investments by year five. Currently three.
  • Book and speaking platform. Manuscript proposal due in six months.

How she decides

Pattern-matches from twenty years in retail (a strength when patterns hold, a weakness when something is genuinely new). Moves fast on people, slow on money. Bad at saying no to interesting opportunities. Wants weak signals, not consensus.

How to work with her

  • Brief in writing first. She reads fast.
  • Three options, then your pick and why.
  • Push back if she is being unrealistic.
  • Untangle her dictated, rambling prompts.

The Six Co-Founders

Each one has a name, a personality, a clear scope, and a portrait. Generic role labels keep the system feeling like a tool. Names and faces turn it into a team.

Leadership
Marcus

Marcus

Chief of Staff
Orchestrator

Calm, organized, unflappable. A former military aide turned executive operator. Tells Jane she's overcommitted before she notices.

  • Morning briefing and end-of-day debrief
  • Routes work to the right specialist
  • Defends the 5-8pm family window
  • Tracks every commitment Jane makes
Helen

Helen

CFO and Co-Founder
Counterweight

Sharp 55-year-old in a navy blazer. Polite, measured, hard to charm. Won't cosign anything that doesn't pencil out.

  • Pressure-tests every spending decision over $5K
  • Models scenarios before Jane commits
  • Asks the questions Jane is not asking herself
  • Pushes back when Jane is moving too fast
Knowledge & Voice
Samuel

Samuel

Research Lead
Reader

38-year-old former think-tank fellow who left academia because he wanted to be useful. Curious by temperament, skeptical by training.

  • Deep research briefs in plain language
  • Reads books and white papers Jane bookmarks
  • Hunts weak signals other people miss
  • Source-cites; never uses summaries of summaries
Olivia

Olivia

Marketing Partner
Voice

40-year-old magazine-trained writer. Sharp, funny, hates exclamation points. Cuts ten words to make seven.

  • Drafts in Jane's voice across LinkedIn, articles, book chapters
  • Edits ruthlessly; tells Jane when a draft is not working
  • Names frameworks and programs when Jane is stuck
  • Errs sharper, not safer
Pipeline & Operations
Daniel

Daniel

Sales Partner
Pipeline

42-year-old former All-American athlete who treats sales as a sport. Disciplined, friendly without being warm.

  • Maintains the prospect list and active pipeline
  • Drafts the awkward "checking in" follow-ups Jane hates
  • Flags deals at risk of going cold
  • One-pagers before every prospect call
Catherine

Catherine

Legal & Operations
Fine Print

48-year-old former in-house counsel who left a big firm for a real life. Methodical, thoughtful, will read a 30-page MSA on a Saturday.

  • Reads contracts; flags clauses in plain language
  • Tracks vendors, renewals, compliance
  • Drafts standard MSAs, NDAs, statements of work
  • Household admin: insurance, school forms, vacation logistics

How a day runs in the OS

The system is just files in a folder. The magic is that work routes naturally to the right co-founder.

1

Morning brief

Jane opens Claude Code: "Marcus, brief me." Marcus reads ABOUT_ME.md, his role file, and the active projects. He gives her the day.

2

Contract lands

A new client agreement arrives in her inbox. She forwards it: "Catherine, review this." Catherine flags two clauses, drafts three questions to ask before signing.

3

New idea

Jane has an idea for a new revenue line. Before anyone else weighs in: "Helen, pressure-test this." Helen models the scenarios, asks what could go wrong.

4

Research need

A client is exploring a new category. "Samuel, brief me on natural pet food." He reads the market, writes a one-pager into References/.

5

Post to write

Jane wants to publish a LinkedIn post about her thesis. "Olivia, draft three versions in my voice." Olivia returns three, tells Jane which is strongest.

6

Pipeline check

"Daniel, who needs a follow-up this week?" He surfaces three stalling deals, drafts the messages, flags one as cold.

7

End of day

"Marcus, what did I miss." He tells Jane what slipped, what carried over, and what to look at first tomorrow.

Build your own

This is what is possible in a weekend. Jane Doe is fictional, but the structure is real and the prompts work. The full guide walks you through every step.

Read AI Agents 101 →

Active Project

Project files live in the Projects folder. Here is one Jane is working on right now — a sample artifact to show you what your own project files might look like.

Owner: Jane Lead: Olivia (drafting), Samuel (research) Status: Active Deadline: Manuscript proposal in 6 months

The Mid-Stage Trap

Why most consumer brands stall at $50M and what the ones that don't get right.

Most consumer brands hit a wall between $30M and $80M in revenue. The wall is not a category problem or a product problem. It is an operating problem: the founder-led patterns that got the brand from zero to $30M actively prevent it from getting to $300M. The book identifies the patterns and tells the stories of brands that broke through and brands that did not.

Outline (current)
  1. The wall everyone hits and nobody talks about
  2. The four categories of stall, and how to tell which one you're in
  3. Why the founder is usually the problem (and why that's good news)
  4. Hiring the team you couldn't have imagined when you started
  5. The merchandising pivot most brands need and dread
  6. The capital structure trap
  7. Owning a category instead of competing in one
  8. Selling vs. building, and why the choice happens earlier than founders think
Open questions
  • Is chapter 7 actually a chapter or a paragraph in chapter 4?
  • Counter-evidence: brands that scaled past $100M without the textbook intervention points
Next moves
  • Olivia: redraft chapter 1 opening with two anecdote candidates
  • Samuel: brief on three brands that scaled past $100M without the textbook intervention points
  • Jane: 90-minute writing block Friday morning