The model is what everything else is a piece of — ten seats, the ten things true of each, the vocabulary, the chart, the number. It is what we build into a business.
The state is what the business becomes once the model is in place: capable of operating without the owner in it. A business either is or is not venture capable, and can be more or less so.
Learned once. Applied ten times. All ten seats are operated the same way — same tools, same terminology, same methodology. Ten people in ten seats or four people covering all ten: one way to operate. You are learning how to operate one, and that unlocks how to operate ten, as one.
One directional seat above; nine operational below. Every business is already operated from these ten — named or not, staffed or not, and in most cases several of them by the same person.
Ten people in ten seats, or four people covering all ten — the chart is the same either way. It describes the work, not the payroll.
One way to operate includes one way to say it. When a thing goes wrong, everyone already knows which seat it belongs to — without a meeting about whose job it was.
The number is not a grade. It is a read on how the work sits on you — and the same three words come back in your report, against your own number.
“Things feel calmer, less reactive, and more intentional.” Zöe Bennett · DWC Framing
One question, ten times — one per seat. About three minutes, on your own.
Your number turned back into seats: all ten on the chart, each one marked where it sits with you today, and the one next step it points to.
Half an hour with Larry. He takes you through your report and answers the one question it leaves you holding: what is my best next move? Sometimes the answer is a seat. Sometimes it is something to sort out first — and he will say so.