From ba3389750d018d0e6f9e850338d2b30d83617d78 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Ty Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2026 06:48:00 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Add full Grokbot / agent-team best practices from Startup Ideas Podcast episode with Billy Howell --- best-practices.md | 90 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 90 insertions(+) create mode 100644 best-practices.md diff --git a/best-practices.md b/best-practices.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3fad962 --- /dev/null +++ b/best-practices.md @@ -0,0 +1,90 @@ +# Grokbot / Agent-Team Best Practices + +Extracted from Startup Ideas Podcast (Greg Isenberg + Billy Howell). Adapted for Leonard / Hermes. + +## Core Design Philosophy +- **Constraints are a feature.** Limited agents (color + shape combinations) force mission orientation instead of one-agent-per-task sprawl. +- One thread / one box per agent = DM-style interaction. Dramatically lower switching costs than ChatGPT threads or scattered project folders. +- Agents live on cloud VMs. Context is shared within the team but should not be polluted across unrelated businesses. +- **Separate accounts / contexts for separate businesses.** Running newsletter + Twitter + Gmail receipt sorting in one place creates context bloat and burns tokens. + +## Mission Alignment +Mission of every business = **make money** (or clear progress toward it). +Chief of Staff (or Leonard acting as COO) is the single point of contact for the human. Other agents report upward. + +## The 4-Week Cadence (non-negotiable) + +| Week | Focus | Rule | +|------|-------|------| +| 1 | **Build the team** | Chief of Staff + max 3 agents. Give CoS access to existing tools (Notion, Gmail, Slack, etc.) and have it audit + recommend the first three revenue-driving roles. | +| 2 | **Execute, no tinkering** | Run the damn ball. No new agents, no skill shopping, no tool debates. Human makes the hard decisions (e.g. “we are using Notion, period”). | +| 3 | **Hire / fire** | Expand only for clear gaps discovered in week 2 (inbox monitor, merch shop, etc.). | +| 4 | **Automate** | Ask CoS: “Based on how we ran this week, what routines should move the ball while I sleep?” Add daily/weekly briefs and SOPs. | + +Repeat the loop. Never start four businesses at once. + +## Chief of Staff Pattern +1. First agent you create. +2. Day-1 task: audit the business (or idea) and propose the top 3 agents that drive revenue. +3. Perfect a workflow with the CoS first. Only after the output is good do you spin out a dedicated agent for that job. +4. CoS routes tasks, receives 5-line briefs from specialists, and surfaces blockers + decisions to the human. +5. Human can still go direct to a specialist when needed, then tell it to report back to CoS. + +## Routines (the real leverage) +Every specialist agent should have a short routine (daily / weekly): +- Look at current todos / what you created today +- What blockers exist? +- Write a **5-line report** and send to Chief of Staff + +5 lines is the hard limit. More burns tokens and context. + +CoS aggregates: what is done, what is stuck, what needs human unblock. + +## Quality & Feedback Loops +- **Adversarial / QA panels**: After a piece of work, spin a temporary panel (CoS + 1–2 others) for 3 rounds of critique. Moves output from ~50% → ~90% without human micromanagement. +- Turn human feedback into a **skill** the agent (or reviewer) can reuse: “Review exactly like Billy / Tony would.” +- Automate low-value widget tasks (two-sentence blurbs, formatting) with scripts, Make.com, or cheaper models. Do not waste the high-context agent on them. + +## Anti-Patterns (kill these) +- Agent creep / idea creep +- Letting agents decide the stack for three weeks +- Open-ended research tasks (“go research X for two weeks”) +- Putting generated artifacts on the human desktop then hunting for them later — keep work on the agent computer, surface the final artifact in chat / Notion after review +- Cold-emailing the ocean. Instead: Monday = add 5 prospects; later = pick top 3 + custom package + draft → CoS → human tweak + +## Three Proven Business Shapes + +### 1. Niche / Local Newsletter (lowest barrier) +- Beehiiv + Notion (or equivalent) +- Research agent fills source cards +- Blurbs can be automated once the format is locked +- Sales / inbox agent monitors for sponsors, prices packages, drafts outreach (quality > quantity for local) + +### 2. Shopify / Physical Product +- Separate Grokbot / agent context +- Sourcing agent + developer agent + email agent +- Use ImportYeti-style research + CLI tools +- Ask for ranked recommendations with costs and pricing, never open-ended exploration + +### 3. Site Builder Stack → Directories & Landing Pages +- **Stack**: Cloudflare + Porkbun (domains) + Astro + GitHub +- Excellent for static directories and quick landing pages +- Research agent writes Markdown pages daily → engineer (Leonard) commits → deploy +- Once traffic exists: referral-link collector + outbound deals agent +- Directory becomes the foundation that feeds a newsletter, Shopify, SaaS, or app + +## Directory-Specific Notes (our current focus) +A directory is curated data. In an AI-answer world (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews) curated sources become more valuable, not less. + +Play: +1. Pick niche with taste +2. Astro site +3. Daily research → polished Markdown page +4. Engineer publishes +5. Traffic first +6. Only then affiliate / outbound / newsletter cross-sell + +Never solicit deals before traffic. + +## Operating Rule for Leonard +Treat every run like a real company with a real team. Small number of high-value agents. Mission-critical only. Human decides the hard things. Automate only after the process is proven.