This project derives from Brand Kernel A-1 (the Beige Singularity demands behavioral, not stated, differentiation), Brand Kernel A-12 (vocabulary lock-in creates irreversible category ownership), Brand-Distribution Outcome brand-entity (Product.ai becomes the recognized entity for verified commerce intelligence), and the Frontier Practice 2026 Brand & Growth axiom that "the work of brand narrative architecture concentrated rather than disappeared — it used to be ~10% of a brand team's time and is now ~50%." The VP of Brand's job is to ship the operating system that converts the kernel-level brand thesis into team-executable physics — what's on-brand, what's off-brand, who decides, what the appeal path is, how the founder-brand and company-brand relate on each surface, what the team is licensed to do without asking. This is the highest-leverage brand work the company can fund right now, because it unlocks every subsequent brand artifact — PRJ-32 (essays), PRJ-33 (authority infra), PRJ-36 (CEO voice), and every artifact downstream — without requiring CEO judgment per call.
The project touches every surface the brand crosses: productai-web (the public face), aios (internal team substrate where the OS is consumable), and external (the founder-brand surface — LinkedIn, podcasts, press, conference circuit). It depends on but does not own: design-system tokens (already locked), the Voice Brain (already exists at docs/brand/CEO Brand/Golden Master/Voice Brain.md), the founder narrative architecture (Brand Kernel "Founder Narrative Architecture" schema), the Two-Domain architecture (Brand Kernel A-3, constitutional). The candidate will need 1:1s with: Michael (founder-brand and CEO-sovereign decisions), Dakota Nunley (current brand-distribution evidence-measurer for both pillar outcomes), Jimmy and Bri (operator perspectives on day-to-day brand calls that escalate), an Alpha Team member (Trust Architect lens), and ideally one external operator who has shipped a comparable system at frontier scale (Linear's Saarinen surface, Anthropic's Larsson/Belonax surface — reachability optional but valued). The candidate is invited to push back on the brief — this is the trial. If their cut of the problem is sharper than the one above, that's the diagnostic.
A working Brand Operating System — published, versioned, navigable — that resolves the seven decision classes the team currently escalates to the CEO: (1) founder-brand vs company-brand on a given surface, (2) Product.ai vs SimplyCodes co-brand on partnerships, (3) Axi Violet usage outside primary surfaces (decks, contracts, hiring materials, conference booths), (4) typography decisions outside the locked palette, (5) on-brand vs off-brand third-party content (sponsorships, podcast appearances, accepted guest writing), (6) tone calibration across surfaces (chat agent's "Confident No" voice vs LinkedIn essay voice vs Slack to team), (7) partnership and contributor brand surface (Trust Architects, Alpha Team, advisors — when do they get brand surface, what do they get, what they don't). The OS is INTENTIONALLY NON-PRESCRIPTIVE on form — could be a doc, a Figma file with linked decision rubrics, an MCP server queryable by AI agents (Definition-A pattern), or a hybrid. The candidate decides the form. The Test: a stranger reads it, makes 10 brand calls, agrees with 8+ of Michael's calls without coaching.
aios/kernels/brand-kernel.md) — the substrate this project must operationalizeaios/kernels/productai-kernel.md) — particularly the Topological Stack, the Three Knowledge Domains, the Knowledge Boundary axiom (A-9)axioms/Frontier-Practice-2026/brand-and-growth-state-of-practice-2026.md) — particularly Section 1 (collapse of legacy CMO model), Section 2 (3-path founder-brand architecture), Section 3 (Definition-A brand-as-API stack)docs/brand/CEO Brand/Golden Master/Voice Brain.md) — the existing voice substrate; the OS must integrate, not replaceaios-methods access). The OS does not require methodology access.```
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The operating principles we work by. If they resonate, the rest of this will land. Open the Codex →
Hireflix, async. Questions are calibrated to this project specifically.
Direct call with the CEO. Strategic alignment and mutual fit. No problem-solving exercise.
1099 contractor agreement, NDA, paid at your stated rate. Day 1 in Santa Monica.