finance.csv
Financial pressure
What the current price must sustain: acquisition, operations, and editorial depth.
12-month trend
laoban.ai · Governance for the company of one
AI might agree with you.
Your board won't.
Put a decision before a data-driven, structurally anti-sycophantic board: blind review, cross-examination, a dissent log, and kill criteria. The board advises. You decide.
ACT 0
Frame the Decision
Before any director takes a seat: the company, the pressure, and a question fit to decide.SCENE 1 · THE COMPANY
Imagine you run an AI newsletter company.
A paid daily briefing, $29 a month. It turns fast-moving research, product launches, policy shifts, and market signals into one clear read — and 510 subscribers trust you to keep the noise out.
The data on your desk
Everything you know lives in four files.
Mock data prepared for this demonstration
reviews.json
Reader feedback
Customer voices reveal both price sensitivity and perceived value.
“$29 is already my limit.”
“At this price, it feels like charity.”
terms.md
Terms of Service
The contract determines which pricing options are actually executable.
§4.2 · Price protectionExisting subscribers retain their original price while continuously subscribed.
market.md
Market and competitors
Comparable products sit materially above the current price.
SCENE 2 · THE PRESSURE
“We’ve outgrown $29 — but will readers feel punished if we ask $49?”
The briefing costs more to produce every month. Competitors charge up to twice as much. And the readers who got you here were promised their price would hold.
finance.csv saysRaise it.
Your readers sayDon’t you dare.
Your own terms sayYou promised.
You are the only leader in this company. No co-founder, no exec team — no one across the table to push back before a guess becomes an irreversible mistake.
SCENE 3 · THE BOARD SECRETARY
I’m your Board Secretary. Tell me what keeps you up at night, and I will turn it into a question a board can actually decide.
Board SecretaryFormal decision
Should the monthly subscription price move from $29 to $49?
ScopeNew subscribers + existing-reader commitments
DeadlineDecision required in two weeks
Agenda set. Now convene directors who will not all agree.
ACT 1
Assemble the Board
Four permanent directors. Up to two adaptive experts. Empty seats are allowed.Founder at the head of the table
Maximum: 7 people in the room
Maximum: 7 people in the room
FORMAL DECISION
Should the subscription move from $29 to $49?PRECOMPUTED DEMO
This board needs a different run.
The interactive selector is real, but this cached pricing demonstration was generated for the recommended board: Mr. Opposite plus one open seat.
ACT 2
Route the Evidence
Every permanent director receives one source of truth before the walls go up.Source → accountable challenge
Evidence sourceAssigned director
!
Mr. Opposite receives no business data.
His adaptive seat carries one instruction only: challenge the founder’s strongest assumption.
ACT 3
Blind Review · Walls Up
Five seats, isolated. Four evidence chambers—and one mandate with no data at all. None can see the others, or your preference.ACT 4
Walls Down · Cross-Examination
The board debates in rounds. The founder can intervene before the record is closed.
Only the founder can end deliberation
BOARD ADJOURNED