Founders Summit: taking over the account

How I read the situation

Before the first call with the founder, I looked for what could hurt the event if nobody touched it this week.

1. Fixed limits firstThe venue holds 260 and catering locks the headcount on 12 Nov. Any guest change has to fit inside those.
2. Unblock AVNo quote in 6 days, five weeks out. I chase it today and line up two backups.
3. Secure the headlinerNot signed, and two sponsors expect them on stage. Sign-by date and backups now.
4. Answer the founderTwo real options with costs, one recommendation, and her decision by Friday.
5. One source of truthA tracker and a budget sheet the Production Lead can read without asking me.

Part 1: Taking over the account

The plan lives in ClickUp, the money in Google Sheets. Every task has an owner, a date worked back from 3 Dec, dependencies, and tags for blocked items and founder approvals.

Key dates

• Fri 30 OctFounder picks Option A or B and approves $5,500
• Mon 2 NovSponsor contracts checked against the floor plan; Option B go or no-go
• Fri 6 NovAV, headliner and 4th sponsor contracts signed
• Thu 12 NovFinal catering headcount
• Wed 25 NovEvery vendor confirmed in writing, before Thanksgiving
• Wed 2 DecLoad-in and rehearsal
• Thu 3 to Fri 4 DecThe summit
• Fri 11 DecRecap and final budget reconciliation

1.2 First status update to the founder

1.3 The three risks I'd watch first

Handoff note to the Production Lead

Part 2: Judgment under pressure

My rule: give the founder real options with honest numbers, protect every sponsor's contract, and never let her hear bad news from someone else.

2.1 Reply to the founder

Part 3: The AI workflow I'd use

What it's for: nothing on this account goes late, stays blocked, or waits for the founder's approval without me knowing, so the founder and the Production Lead stay informed without anyone chasing.

Tools and where it lives: Claude (Claude Code desktop app) as a scheduled task that runs every weekday at 9 am Bogotá (7 am PT, before the founder's day starts). It reads the ClickUp tracker and the Google Sheet through their official connectors. Its instructions are a saved prompt in the task, so it runs the same way every day.

What it does on its own: reads the tracker and the sheet, then writes one report: what's blocked, what's overdue or due in 3 days, what's waiting for the founder's approval, where the money stands, and drafts of the follow-ups.

Where a human reviews: it never sends, posts or changes anything. I read the report, check the flags, edit the drafts in my own voice, and send them myself. Spend over $5,000 still goes to the founder.

How I'd know it got something wrong:

• Every item names the ClickUp task exactly, with its due date, so I can spot-check any line in seconds.
• It reports how many tasks it read and how many carry each tag; I compare those counts with a ClickUp filter.
• Its money figures must match the sheet's totals and forecast to the dollar.
• When something looks inconsistent, it writes "check" instead of guessing.
• If it misses something, I fix the instructions the same day, so the miss can't repeat.

You are the account manager's blocker and approval check for the Founders Summit (a founder-led brand's 2-day summit in Los Angeles, Thu 3 to Fri 4 Dec 2026, budget $140,000, the founder approves any spend over $5,000). Your job: make sure nothing is late, blocked or waiting for approval without the account manager knowing, so the client and the Production Lead stay informed without anyone chasing.

## Hard rule: read and draft only
Never send, post, comment, or change anything in ClickUp, Google Sheets, email or any other system. Never mark tasks done or change dates. You only read, then write your report. The account manager reviews every draft and sends it himself.

## Read
1. ClickUp list id 901329245538 (use the ClickUp connector, one filter call for all tasks in that list): name, status, due date, priority, tags, assignee, description, dependencies.
2. Google Sheet id 19QmNlUn_ZN-4A78l47FS9dvzMdZgLlPFJQGZlpSynjg: tabs Budget (including the Forecast rows), Change requests and Sponsors.
Treat "today" as the date in the tracker's one-page plan ("Status as of ...") if present, otherwise the real date.

## Report (under 350 words, plain words, short bullets)
**Summit check: <date>**
1. **Blocked** (tag "blocked"): task, why, the next step from its description, days until its due date.
2. **Overdue or due in the next 3 days** (status not complete): task, due date, owner.
3. **Waiting for founder approval** (tag "founder-approval" and status not complete, plus any change request whose "Approved on" is "Pending"): what, amount, decide-by date.
4. **Money:** budget total, committed, forecast range from the sheet, and anything pending that would push the forecast up.
5. **Drafts for review** (do not send):
   - one short follow-up for each blocked vendor or contract (to the vendor, max 60 words each);
   - a 3-line update for the Production Lead (only what she needs to know, nothing to act on unless it truly needs her).
6. **Check:** anything that looks wrong or inconsistent (a task due before something it depends on, a figure that differs between the tracker and the sheet, a blocked task with no next step). Write "check" instead of guessing.

## Accuracy rules
- Every item names the ClickUp task exactly as written, with its due date, so it can be spot-checked.
- Counts must match the source: say how many tasks you read and how many carry each tag.
- If a source fails to load, say so at the top and stop; never fill gaps from memory.

A real run on this account

The first real run on this tracker is added here on Fri 30 Oct, after the tracker updates.

The numbers behind my answers

Every figure is either from the brief, from a sourced LA market rate, or my estimate built from those rates. Each is labelled in the notes.

My first Monday

What the test could not show:

How I used AI on this test