Date: 2026-09-18 Decider(s): Michael Houck (with Ben) Status: decided
Decision
Ben departs all recurring workday responsibilities on October 19, 2026. He stays in Slack for occasional non-urgent work. Blake takes over Augment account management if the contract expands. Ben retains Clipwing content review indefinitely until a Jolt-specific AM is hired.
Context
Ben accepted a full-time Entrepreneur in Residence role at qsbsrollover.com (QSBS rollover tax strategy firm, helping Series A/B founders who sold secondary build new ventures). Start date October 17-19. After ~2.5 years at Rye Valley (started as podcast manager via a cold DM), he is transitioning out of recurring workday duties. Gives approximately 1 month of overlap for clean handover.
Options Considered
- Full offboard October 19, Blake absorbs all tasks including Clipwing content review.
- Ben stays in Slack, Blake absorbs Clipwing content review. Rejected: Blake lacks the editing eye Ben has built up reviewing video content for Augment/Clipwing.
- Chosen: Ben departs recurring work, Blake absorbs account management, Ben retains the Clipwing content-review piece until a Jolt-specific AM (with video editing eye) is hired.
Consequences
- Ben: to send handover notes and recommendations next week covering all tasks and suggested owners.
- Augment account: Michael sending expansion proposal today (Jolt for Noel + potentially 1-2 other Augment team members). If contract grows, Blake becomes primary AM.
- Clipwing content review: Ben handles on a go-forward basis. Low time commitment, he is comfortable with it.
- Jolt-specific AM hire: Michael to identify when Jolt growth justifies hiring a dedicated AM capable of wide video content review. This person likely peers with or reports to Blake.
- Michael: flagged need to fix Megaphone lead volume as a separate workstream.
Meeting
Follow-up (2026-10-01 monthly synthesis)
Ben’s handover notes were promised “next week” (i.e. by ~Sep 25). No handover document has surfaced in meetings/, inbox/, or decisions/ as of Sep 30. With Ben’s departure Oct 19, this is now the most time-sensitive dropped ball in the brain: under three weeks of overlap remain and the handover artifact that was supposed to start that overlap clock does not exist yet. Also unconfirmed: whether Michael sent the Augment Jolt-expansion proposal mentioned the same day, and whether a JOLT-specific AM search has started. Flag for Michael directly, not a routine status note.