For founders
Hi. If you signed up because you're running the business yourself — wearing every hat from sales to payroll to "is the printer working" — this is the right starter page. We've shaped it for you specifically.
The honest premise
Most founders we talk to are not short of will. They're short of visibility. You know which deal is shaky, which person is stretched, which month is going to be tight. You just have all of that information spread across WhatsApp threads, Excel tabs, your accountant's email, your own head.
thola is built to pull all of that into one place so the question "how are we really doing?" gets a real answer in under a minute — and the "what should I do this week?" answer comes with it.
The first 30 days, by week
Week 1 — Get yourself a real picture
This is the week to upload data. Drop in:
| Day | Drop in |
|---|---|
| Monday | Last 3 months of sales (CSV/Excel from your CRM or sheet) |
| Tuesday | Last 3 months of expenses (bank statement export is fine) |
| Wednesday | Your employee list (name, role, start date, salary structure) |
| Thursday | Your current cash balance (just one number) |
| Friday | A current sales pipeline if you have one (CSV with deal value, stage, owner) |
Each upload follows the same shape: preview → confirm. Five minutes per day. By Friday evening, your Home screen has real numbers, real Red Flags, and the Planner can answer real questions.
If you only have one day, do Monday + Thursday. Sales + current cash gives you a credible Health Score by itself.
→ See: Import your sales sheet, Categorise your expenses
Week 2 — Set your one goal
Go to Profile → Goal and write one specific outcome you want in the next 60–90 days. Examples:
- "Cross ₹15 lakh monthly revenue."
- "Get to 6-month runway from 4-month."
- "Hire two people without missing a payroll run."
The Founder agent uses this goal to focus its weekly nudges. Specifically:
- It computes a probability of hitting the goal based on current trajectory.
- It tells you the two things most likely to push that probability up.
- It does not let you forget the goal exists.
→ See: Set and track your goal
Week 3 — Run a Playbook
A Playbook is a small, repeatable workflow. thola ships with ~40 of them. Pick one that matches something you're currently losing sleep over:
- Stuck Deal Unblock — if your pipeline has deals older than 14 days
- Cost Diagnosis — if your runway just slipped under 6 months
- Onboarding — if you've got a new hire starting this month
- AR Cleanup — if you have unpaid invoices over 30 days
You run it once. After the run, thola asks you the obvious follow-up: "Want me to run this every Monday?" Most founders say yes to one or two and never look at them again.
→ See: Pick your first Playbook
Week 4 — Bring in your right hand
If you have a partner, co-founder, or operations lead who you trust with everything, invite them now. Settings → Members → Invite. Pick the role Co-founder or Admin depending on what they actually do.
Two things change when there are two of you on thola:
- You can share a chat — they can pick up an analysis where you left off
- The Co-Founder Fit module activates — only if both of you opt in, and the data stays just between you
→ See: Invite teammates, Co-founder setup
What to safely ignore (for now)
You'll see a lot of features in the sidebar. Most founders, especially in month one, don't need most of them. Skip these unless you specifically need them:
- Custom Playbook editor — the 40 shipped templates cover 95% of cases. Don't build your own until you've run a template and felt the limits.
- Branches — only matters if you literally have multiple physical locations.
- API keys — for engineers/integrators only.
- Audit log export — for compliance reviews. Useful, but not week-one stuff.
- External chat sharing — sharing data outside the workspace. Off by default; leave it off.
The two screens you'll live on
- Home — the Health Score, the top 3 Red Flags, the suggested actions for today. Land here every morning.
- Chat — the Planner. Ask anything. Stay here when you're working through something specific.
If you find yourself in any other screen for more than five minutes, ask yourself if a question to the Planner would have been faster. Usually it would.
The founder's morning routine
Many founders settle into this rhythm by week three:
- Open thola, glance at Home (30 seconds)
- Read the Morning Briefing (a daily message from the Planner in chat) — "Cash held steady, one new deal closed, Branch 2 had an attendance gap" (1 minute)
- Tap the most important Red Flag, do the suggested fix (5–15 minutes)
- Close the app
That's it. Total: under 20 minutes a day to actually have your finger on the business.
One thing we want you to know
You are not supposed to be running a 30-person ops function alone, even when the company is small. thola is the closest thing we could build to giving you that ops function before you can afford to hire one. Use it that way.
If the agent suggests a fix, let it suggest the fix. If it offers to draft a customer email, let it draft. If it flags burnout signals in your team, take the signal seriously even if your gut says otherwise.
You are still in charge. You confirm everything that matters. But you don't have to be in charge of every step anymore.
Where to go next
- Want to feel out the chat? Try the 5-minute Quickstart if you haven't.
- Want the bigger mental model? What is thola?.
- Have a specific thing on your plate this week? Find it in Recipes.
Welcome again. Let's build something good.