airCFO is a burgeoning startup with 60+ employees and 150+ clients. This FTE count is up from 4 employees a couple years ago and they have their eyes set on 100+ in the upcoming year. They are growing fast and required an organizational operating system that could scale with them. They developed an extensive Notion architecture to manage most internal operating needs. Their databases include Client Accounts, Contacts, Projects and Tasks, Resources, Meeting Notes, OKRs, and a Team Directory. While they had an established foundation in Notion, the connections across databases were confusing, the workflows were nuanced, templates were underwhelming, and adoption was low. Furthermore, most work that took place inside the databases themselves created bad data at times and deleted properties at others. They needed something to piece together the many parts they had already built.

We took a comprehensive approach to understanding airCFO's existing databases. Our team audited the existing functionality, interviewed users to understand what they were doing and what they wanted, and developed a deep understanding of the aspirational use cases. Based on this information, we designed a database architecture that could support both their current needs and future state aspirations.

We then morphed their existing system into the future state while maintaining the integrity of historical data and data in use. This was a critical step to ensure a seamless transition and uninterrupted workflow. Our efforts resulted in an underlying infrastructure that was intuitive and capable of building airCFO's desired applications at scale. By taking this comprehensive approach, we were able to build a database architecture that not only met airCFO's immediate needs but also had the flexibility to evolve with their business.

Our second activity was focused on application development, where we designed, built, and deployed core applications within airCFO's Notion workspace to manage and operate their internal operations. The core applications that airCFO wanted were:

These applications were designed, built, and deployed within airCFO's Notion workspace, enabling easy access to data and information, streamlined communications, and transparent individual and program management. By deploying these applications, we were able to create a comprehensive operating system that enabled airCFO to manage and operate its internal operations more efficiently and effectively.

Our final activity is not so final, it is an ever-evolving activity that we have observed to become more valuable over time, as airCFO’s team continues to adopt the tool. This activity is centered around workflow standardization and enhancement, where we focus on streamlining airCFO's operations by creating intelligent workflows within their workspace. We leverage database templates to scale applications by utilizing self-referential fields and pre-configured database views. By doing so, we were able to standardize workflows such as client onboarding, new hire onboarding, customer success client escalations, repricing exercises, and client management. We also leverage database templates to standardize meeting agendas and note collection for 1:1 meetings, group meetings, and client meetings.

We placed an emphasis on simplifying execution for menial tasks by leveraging these pre-built workflows to standardize execution. This approach allowed us to build the system for the workflows, rather than fitting workflows to the system. The result was cleaner data, time saved on every repeated task, and a standardized model for airCFO's clients to interact with airCFO employees, driving consistent and reliable delivery.

“Over the last year-plus, I’ve watched Bryan become one of the world’s top experts in building enterprise-grade operating systems that leverage the power of Notion. He built airCFO a completely custom OS from the ground up, partnering with team members across the org to create something that fits our exact needs. The tool by itself is very valuable, but Bryan has been even more critical in helping our team acclimate to this new way of working. He’s created useful documentation for each component of our CompanyOS and even trained individual team members to help them get comfortable running their day-to-day through Notion. We’ve seen our adoption stats skyrocket over the last 6 months thanks to the extra effort Bryan put in to creating a system that’s user-friendly for our team. Leveling up our CompanyOS was one of the most impactful projects we worked on as a company in 2022. I would HIGHLY recommend Bryan to any founder or Ops person looking to build a scaleable operating system using Notion.” — Alex Wittenberg, airCFO COO