/cs:onboard — Founder Interview

Command: /cs:onboard

The first command to run when adopting c-level-agents. A structured founder interview that produces ~/.claude/company-context.md — the file every cs-* advisor reads before responding. Without this, the advisors are guessing.

What This Produces

~/.claude/company-context.md — a single file with the durable facts about the company. Read by:

• cs-chief-of-staff (routing decisions)
• Every cs-* advisor (context for any question)
• /cs:brief (assumptions in any new decision)

The Interview (12 Questions)

Company Basics

1. Company name and one-sentence pitch.
2. Stage: pre-seed / seed / Series A / Series B / Series C+ / public
3. Headcount: total, by function (eng / product / GTM / ops / G&A)
4. Geographic distribution: HQ + remote split, key countries

Business Model

5. Revenue model: SaaS subscription / usage / transaction / marketplace / hardware / services
6. ICP: name one real customer and describe what they have in common with others
7. ACV: median and range; deal count last 12 months
8. Growth rate: ARR YoY; if pre-revenue, leading metric (users, MAU, etc.)

Financial Posture

9. Runway: months of cash at current burn; bear-case months
10. Last raise: amount, valuation, lead investor, date

Strategic Context

11. Top 3 priorities for the current quarter (in plain language)
12. Top 3 risks the founder loses sleep over (be specific)

Output Format

Canonical schema: ~/.claude/company-context.md is owned by the cs-onboard skill and follows its 7-dimension schema (../../../c-level-advisor/skills/cs-onboard/templates/company-context-template.md): Company Identity, Stage & Scale, Founder Profile, Team & Culture, Market & Competition, Current Challenges, Goals & Ambition. The 12 questions above are a faster structured intake that populates that same file — Identity/Business/Financial → Stage & Scale, Team → Team & Culture, Quarter priorities/risks → Current Challenges + Goals & Ambition. Write [not captured] for dimensions the quick intake doesn't reach (Founder Profile, Market & Competition); run the full cs-onboard interview to fill them. Never create a second context file or a divergent layout.

The intake summary captured by the 12 questions:

# Company Context
**Generated:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Last updated:** YYYY-MM-DD

## Identity
- **Company:** <name>
- **Pitch:** <one sentence>
- **Stage:** <stage>
- **HQ + remote:** <distribution>

## Business
- **Model:** <type>
- **ICP:** <description + named customer>
- **ACV:** $<median> (range $<low> - $<high>)
- **Deal count (LTM):** N
- **ARR growth (YoY):** X%

## Financial
- **Cash on hand:** $<amount>
- **Net burn (monthly):** $<amount>
- **Runway base:** N months
- **Runway bear:** N months
- **Last raise:** $<amount> at $<post> in <month YYYY>, led by <investor>

## Team
- **Total headcount:** N
- **Eng:** N | Product: N | GTM: N | Ops: N | G&A: N

## Quarter
- **Top priorities (Q<X> YYYY):**
  1. <priority>
  2. <priority>
  3. <priority>

- **Top risks:**
  1. <risk>
  2. <risk>
  3. <risk>

## Routing Hints
[Optional: any role the founder wants to use sparingly or rely on heavily]

Workflow

1. Walk the founder through all 12 questions
2. Quote founder's own words wherever possible (don't paraphrase the ICP)
3. Save to ~/.claude/company-context.md
4. (Optional) If llm-wiki bridge is configured: symlink to vault

   ln -sf ~/company-vault/00-meta/company-context.md ~/.claude/company-context.md
   

5. Confirm with founder: read the file back, ask "anything missing?"

When to Re-Run

• After a fundraise (numbers change)
• After a major pivot or product launch
• After 6+ months (most facts have drifted)
• After a major hire (team distribution changes)
• Always before a /cs:boardroom for a high-stakes decision

Persistence

By default, ~/.claude/company-context.md is local to the founder's machine. To make it persistent across machines / shareable:

• Markdown vault (recommended): see ../../references/llm-wiki-bridge.md
• Encrypted dotfile sync: age + git
• Shared team: keep in a private repo, symlink from ~/.claude/

Related

• Skill: cs-onboard — the underlying interview protocol
• Skill: context-engine — reads this file
• Reference: ../../references/llm-wiki-bridge.md

Version: 1.0.0