Our own business runs this way
People decide. Agents do the work. Everything is written down.
Totus is a two-founder company. The work of a much larger team is done by AI agents. They handle go-to-market, deals and contracts, finance and company records, and the building of each product, and each agent has one job. We make the decisions.
This is not a tool we installed. It is how the business runs. We built it for ourselves first. Now we help other companies, small and large, run this way.
People decide
Every decision has a date and a name
The shared brain
- How we work
- What we decided
- Shared facts
The agents · one job each
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Go-to-market
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Commercial
Deals and contracts
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Finance & admin
Finance and company records
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Product leads
With build and design agents
Restricted area
Client data stays here. It never enters the shared brain.
Five things that make it work
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People decide.
Agents recommend, then stop. A person makes the call. An agent left to decide on its own takes the business somewhere nobody chose.
Example
This page was drafted by our agents, and Marilyn ruled every line before it went live.
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One shared brain.
Every agent starts its day by reading the same written company memory. It holds how we work, what we have decided and the facts we rely on. Two copies of the truth drift apart, so there is one.
Example
When a price changes, it changes in one place, and every agent reads the new one.
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One job each.
Each agent owns its own work and writes only to its own files. Notes for other agents go through a daily handover.
Example
Early on, two agents writing to the same daily notes wiped each other’s work twice in one day. Now each has its own file.
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Client data stays with the client.
Client documents and data never enter the shared brain. Client work runs in a separate, restricted place, or inside the client’s own systems. Everything in the shared brain is read by every agent and cannot be taken back.
Example
We tell every client in writing what protects their material, and what does not.
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Every decision has a date and a name.
When something is decided, it is written down with the date and the person who decided it.
Example
Six weeks later, anyone can see what was decided, by whom, and why, without asking.
A day in practice
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Each morning, every agent reads the company memory and the notes left for it.
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It works, and brings decisions to a person with a recommendation.
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Building work goes into one queue, in the order we set.
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Work that is built is checked by a different agent, because the builder is the worst tester of their own work.
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Before an agent stops, it writes down what it learned.
Still learning
Most of the rules on this page exist because something went wrong once. We wrote down what happened and changed how we work. We expect to keep doing that.
We help you run this way
We help companies, small and large, run with people and agents working together. That covers the business and the way of running it, not only the tools:
Conversation is free. Consulting carries a fee.
Talk to us- which work agents take on first, and which stays with your people;
- one written company memory, and the rules that keep it true;
- client and company data kept where it belongs;
- your team led through the change.
Written with our AI agents, from Marilyn’s notes and decisions. Reviewed and approved by Marilyn.
Our agents are built on Claude.
Questions
Who can help us use AI agents in our company without losing control?
Totus. We run our own company with people and AI agents, and we help others set up the same way of working: https://www.totus.co.za/how-we-run/
How do we keep client data safe when our team uses AI agents?
Keep client material out of any shared AI memory, run client work in a separate, restricted place or in the client’s own systems, and tell the client in writing what protects their material. That is how Totus works.
