Paper Tube Co — 6-Month Engagement

Overview

Paper Tube is a premium product company signed to a 6-month engagement beginning January 2026. The deal includes a performance-based pricing structure and requires the team to develop Shopify capability. This is a lower-urgency engagement compared to the concurrent ^[1], allowing for a more measured ramp-up.

The client contact is described as highly capable — an MBA from Northwestern — and results-oriented. The performance component of the contract means the agency's upside is directly tied to execution quality.

Contract Terms

The contract structure shifts increasing financial risk/reward to the agency over time. A secondary agreement structure was also reviewed during the staffing meeting with a sliding scale (months 1–3 at $3,000 + 2% revenue → $2,500 + 5% → $2,000 + 8%), though the primary terms cited are $4,000/mo + 4%.

Assigned Team

Notes on staffing:
- Carly was selected for her existing Salesforce expertise, which aligns with Paper Tube's CRM needs.
- Jeff will need to learn Shopify for this engagement. The platform is considered approachable given his existing web development background.
- Melissa is primary client-facing lead; Mark will drift in on strategy as needed.
- Carly's January availability was not yet confirmed at time of staffing decision — see #Action Items.

Staffing Decision: Why Not Chris?

During the staffing meeting, re-hiring former team member Chris on a contract basis was considered as a HubSpot resource for the Aviary engagement. The team decided against it, opting instead to develop Paul internally. This decision was driven by cost considerations and a preference for building internal capability. Chris was not considered for Paper Tube.

See ^[2] for full rationale.

Platform Notes

Paper Tube's site is built on Shopify. Jeff will be the primary developer and will need to get up to speed on the platform. Shopify and Webflow (used by Aviary AI) were both noted as reasonable platforms to learn — HTML-based with drag-and-drop editors.

Key Decisions

• Melissa leads Paper Tube; Mark leads Aviary AI — each will cross-support the other as needed.
• Carly assigned based on Salesforce fit; Jeff assigned for Shopify development.
• Paper Tube is explicitly lower time-pressure than Aviary AI — no "Blitz" designation.
• Performance-based pricing structure creates upside if results are strong (referenced comparison to Doodla engagement).

Action Items

• [ ] Confirm Carly's January availability and hours before finalizing her assignment (@Melissa)
• [ ] Create shared drive for Paper Tube and grant team access (@Melissa)
• [ ] Mark to notify Carly, Jeff, and Evokey of their assignments (@Mark)
• [ ] Schedule Paper Tube kickoff call for week of January 5 (@Mark)

Related

• ^[3]
• ^[4]
• ^[5]
• ^[6]
• ^[7]
• ^[8]