Here are three automations every founder should build first. The boring jobs that eat your week.
1. Meeting actions that complete themselves
Every action from every call assigned, contextualised, and the simple ones done for you.
- Run a meeting notes app (I use Granola) that records and transcribes everything.
- An AI assistant (I use Claude) reads the transcript and pulls out the things you and others agreed to do. "I'll send the deck", "you'll get me the numbers by Friday".
- Each action lands in your task hub (I use Notion), assigned to the right person.
- The simple ones, sharing a doc, sending a link, answering a question, get done automatically by Claude.
- The harder ones stay with a person, with the meeting notes attached so they're not starting cold.
Actions are being handled before the meeting's even written up.
2. From "paid" to "kicked off" with zero clicks
From client payment to fully onboarded. Project page, team chat, calendar invite, welcome email, all created the moment the money lands.
- When a client pays, your payment tool (I use Stripe) signals the workflow to start.
- A project page is created in Notion from a saved template, prefilled with the client's name, scope, and start date.
- A team chat channel (I use Slack) is created, the right people are invited, and a kickoff message is posted.
- A kickoff call lands in both calendars at the next sensible slot.
- A welcome email is drafted in your voice with the project page, kickoff time, and next steps.
Onboarding stops being a thing you do.
3. Prospecting in two minutes a lead
Personalised cold emails drafted in your voice, with real data and a recent event about the prospect baked in. Two minutes a lead.
- Type a prospect's name and company into a simple form.
- A lead-research tool (I use Apollo) pulls their role, company size, funding stage, and LinkedIn.
- A research tool (I use Perplexity) finds a recent event worth mentioning. Funding round, product launch, hiring spree, podcast appearance.
- Claude drafts the email from a short template. One line on why you're reaching out, one on what you do, one opening the door. No ask.
- The draft lands in Gmail. Nothing is sent automatically. You tune the line that needs your voice, then send.
- The contact is logged in Notion so the same person never gets emailed twice.
30 minutes a lead becomes two. The time you save goes into deciding who's actually worth emailing.
Pick one
Don't build all three at once. Pick the one annoying you most. Build the smallest version. You'll know what to fix once it's running.