IF A contractor orders 1/2 in hydraulic hose by the foot
THEN Offer two JIC swivel ends and a ferrule set with it
Confidence 0.86
Source: Hank, interview 2026-09-12, 00:19
Demo 13 · Tenure Capital
Interview with Hank.
31 years at the counter. Retiring in eighteen months. The exceptions, the aliases, the "everybody knows that" rules live in his head and nowhere else. Watch them become rules with a source, a confidence and an owner's ruling.
Recorded example · Hank and every company are fictional No live AI on this page: the interview and answers were written in advance
The interview
Recorded example · 2026-09-12 · Hank, counter lead, 31 yrs · Meridian Sample Supply (fictional)
Transcript
- PTAI interviewer (AI) · 00:04
Hank, thanks for doing this. I've read the last two years of counter tickets. I'm going to ask about the things the system can't explain. First one: when a contractor orders half-inch hydraulic hose by the foot, what else goes out the door?
- Hank · 00:19
Oh, every time. If a contractor buys half-inch hose by the foot, they always need two JIC swivel ends and a ferrule set. Nine out of ten forget to ask. If you don't offer it, they're back in an hour, and they're mad about it.
→ R-01 drafted - PTAI interviewer (AI) · 00:41
The pricing matrix says Thistlewood Mechanical should pay 25 percent off on abrasives. The invoices show 38 percent for the last six years. Why?
- Hank · 00:52
That's a handshake from 2014. Their plant manager signed a blanket PO for flap discs and cut-off wheels, a big one, and the old owner told me Thistlewood gets 38 off abrasives as long as that blanket PO is open. It's not written anywhere. I just know it.
→ R-02 drafted - PTAI interviewer (AI) · 01:18
Does that 38 percent apply to anyone else? Thistle Fab, for example, has asked for it twice this year.
- Hank · 01:26
No, no. Thistle Fab isn't Thistlewood. Different company, no blanket PO. They get the matrix like everybody else. People mix them up because the names are close.
→ R-02 drafted - PTAI interviewer (AI) · 01:41
Vellacourt Foods has a note on the account that says 'SS ONLY.' What does that mean at the counter?
- Hank · 01:50
It's a food plant. Washdown every night. You never substitute zinc-plated for stainless on a Vellacourt Foods order, even if stainless is out and they're screaming. You call their maintenance lead and wait. We lost a pump there once, years ago. Nobody forgets that.
→ R-03 drafted - PTAI interviewer (AI) · 02:14
Customers keep ordering 'the blue discs.' There's no item with that name. What are they?
- Hank · 02:21
Ha. The blue discs are the four-and-a-half-inch zirconia flap discs, 40 grit. Item 55-4412. The backing used to be blue. It hasn't been blue for eight years, but everybody still calls them that.
→ R-04 drafted - PTAI interviewer (AI) · 02:38
About twenty items end in a Q, like 22-118Q. They show as active in the system. Can the counter quote them?
- Hank · 02:46
Don't quote those. The Q items are dead, the vendor dropped that line in 2023. Nobody ever turned them off in the system. If somebody needs one, offer the replacement, it's usually the same number without the Q.
→ R-05 drafted - PTAI interviewer (AI) · 03:04
When a rental yard calls for a 'standard coupler,' which one do you pull?
- Hank · 03:10
For the rental yards, standard means the three-eighths ISO-B. Not ISO-A. The ISO-A looks almost the same and it won't mate with their equipment. We get that wrong, the machine's down on a job site.
→ R-06 drafted - PTAI interviewer (AI) · 03:28
Last one. Orders going to the Eastside job sites: UPS or your own truck?
- Hank · 03:34
Anything over forty pounds rides the two o'clock truck. It's cheaper than UPS and it gets there the same afternoon. Under forty, UPS is fine. That's just how we've always done it. I don't think anybody wrote it down.
→ R-07 drafted
Rules forming · 7 of 7
IF Customer is Thistlewood Mechanical (fictional) and the item is in the abrasives family
THEN 38% off list, only while their abrasives blanket PO is open. Undocumented handshake (2014). Not for Thistle Fab.
Confidence 0.74
Source: Hank, interview 2026-09-12, 00:52
IF Order is for Vellacourt Foods (fictional)
THEN Never substitute zinc-plated for stainless. Call their maintenance lead instead.
Confidence 0.93
Source: Hank, interview 2026-09-12, 01:50
IF A customer asks for 'the blue discs'
THEN Item 55-4412: 4-1/2 in zirconia flap disc, 40 grit
Confidence 0.90
Source: Hank, interview 2026-09-12, 02:21
IF Item number ends in 'Q' (e.g. 22-118Q)
THEN Discontinued by the vendor in 2023 but still active in the system. Quote the replacement.
Confidence 0.68
Source: Hank, interview 2026-09-12, 02:46
IF A rental yard asks for a 'standard coupler'
THEN Pull the 3/8 in ISO-B quick coupler, not ISO-A
Confidence 0.88
Source: Hank, interview 2026-09-12, 03:10
IF Shipment to an Eastside job site weighs over 40 lb
THEN Send on the 2 p.m. branch truck, not UPS
Confidence 0.71
Source: Hank, interview 2026-09-12, 03:34
Confidence bars show how firmly the recording supports the rule; the tick marks 0.80, the level where a rule can be used at the counter without the owner's ruling. That threshold is a demo setting, and the owner rules on every pricing exception regardless.
Week two at the counter
The new hire asks. Hank answers.
The counter assistant answers only from rules that came out of the interview, and every answer cites the minute Hank said it. Rule on a card above (confirm or reject it as the owner) and ask again: the answer follows your ruling.
Recorded answers · pre-written for this demo, keyed to your rulings
New hireThistle Fab wants the Thistlewood price on flap discs. Can I give it to them?
Counter assistant
No. The 38% abrasives price is Thistlewood-only and tied to Thistlewood's open blanket PO. Thistle Fab is a different company with no blanket PO, so quote the matrix price. Note: this exception is still a draft waiting for the owner's ruling.
Not just Hank
Two more chairs. Same kind of rules.
The pricing admin and the abrasives inside rep carry rules of their own: when a price letter really takes effect, which floors were meant to be temporary, who gets the case price early, what never goes on a stainless job. Same method, shorter recordings.
Pricing admin
Recorded example · 22 yrs · 2026-09-19- PTAI interviewer (AI) · 00:06
Kestova Carbide sent a tungsten surcharge letter dated March 2. Your sell prices on their end mills moved on April 13. What decides the date?
- Pricing admin · 00:18
The letter date doesn't mean much. Kestova's new net only starts on orders placed after the effective date, so I move our matrix the Monday after the new cost shows up on a receipt. Move early and the counter takes the heat for a price the shelf stock never cost us.
- PTAI interviewer (AI) · 00:44
About 140 items carry a manual price floor with no end date, most set in 2021. What are they?
- Pricing admin · 00:55
Those are mine, from the freight spike. Anything under five dollars got a floor so the small stuff couldn't ship at a loss. But those floors were only supposed to last until freight settled. Nobody took them off, and I'm the only one who knows which ones they are.
IF A supplier price letter arrives (for example the Kestova Carbide tungsten surcharge)
THEN Move the sell matrix the Monday after the new cost lands on a receipt, not on the letter date
Confidence 0.82
Source: Pricing admin, interview 2026-09-19, 00:18
This is a lag clock. See what it costs in Replay 2026 →
IF An item under $5 carries a manual price floor set in 2021 with no end date
THEN Treat it as a temporary freight floor: review it against today’s cost before keeping it
Confidence 0.77
Source: Pricing admin, interview 2026-09-19, 00:55
Inside sales, abrasives
Recorded example · 12 yrs · 2026-09-26- PTAI interviewer (AI) · 00:05
Cut-off wheels come 25 to a box and 100 to a case. Some shops get the case price at 50 wheels. The matrix says 100. Who gets it?
- Inside sales, abrasives · 00:16
Shops that take wheels every month. A fab shop on a standing monthly order gets the case price from 50, because over a year they buy more than a case a month anyway. A one-time buyer pays the box price until they hit a full case.
- PTAI interviewer (AI) · 00:38
Vellacourt Foods buys cut-off wheels too. Does their 'SS ONLY' note matter for abrasives?
- Inside sales, abrasives · 00:47
More than for fittings. A regular wheel leaves iron in the cut, and it rusts on stainless after a few washdowns. For Vellacourt, and honestly for anyone cutting stainless, only the iron-free INOX wheels go on a stainless job. The counter grabs whatever is on the shelf if nobody says it.
IF A customer on a standing monthly order buys 50 or more cut-off wheels
THEN Case price from 50. Everyone else pays the box price until a full case (100).
Confidence 0.72
Source: Inside sales, abrasives, interview 2026-09-26, 00:16
IF The job is stainless (Vellacourt Foods (fictional), or any "SS ONLY" account)
THEN Only iron-free INOX cut-off wheels and flap discs. Never a standard wheel.
Confidence 0.89
Source: Inside sales, abrasives, interview 2026-09-26, 00:47
Knowledge-at-risk map
Who walks out the door, and what walks out with them.
A sample team, by role (no names). Drag the years forward and watch retirements pass. Then switch on capture. Every number is editable, so put in your own team: it stays in your browser.
It is also a succession question. Know your margin by customer, product and line before a buyer or a lender asks, and have the rules behind it written down, not retiring with the people who know them.
265rules walked out the door
0captured in the rulebook
195still only in someone's head
Sample assumptions (change them)
Interviews go to the highest-risk person first (most rules, fewest years left). A rule counts as captured only if the interview happens before that person retires. This is an illustrative model of your own inputs, not a forecast or a promise.
| Role | Tenure (yrs) | Years to retire | Est. undocumented rules | Captured | Walked out |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Counter lead (Hank) | 0 | 140 | |||
| Pricing admin | 0 | 85 | |||
| Credit manager | 0 | 40 | |||
| Warehouse lead | 0 | 0 | |||
| Branch manager | 0 | 0 | |||
| Purchasing lead | 0 | 0 | |||
| Outside rep, East | 0 | 0 | |||
| Inside sales, abrasives | 0 | 0 |
Start with one veteran
One interview. Twenty-five minutes. You keep the rulebook.
Tenure Capital interviews your long-tenured people on a steady cadence, anchored on the exceptions in your own data, drafts each rule with its source, routes it to the owner for a ruling, and keeps a counter assistant that answers only from ruled knowledge. Your real interviews happen inside your own isolated workspace, never on a public page.
Monthly desk
Tenure Capital
Starting at $1,500/mo
plus $5,000 one-time setup
Captures what your veterans know before they retire and turns it into rules anyone can use.