Why we start with a $99 concierge pilot

Every Number is a dashboard where every number shows its work: its definition, its filters, the rows it used, the rows it left out and why, the source file, and the date the data runs through. The software that will do all of that on its own isn't built yet. So today we offer one thing, a $99 concierge pilot. You send one spreadsheet, and a person builds your dashboard by hand, following the same rules the product will automate after launch.

This note explains why we start that way, why it costs $99 instead of nothing, and where the limits are.

Why a person builds the first dashboards

Real spreadsheets are messier than any sample file we could invent. A totals row sits in the middle of the data. An amount is blank because someone meant to come back to it. The same invoice appears twice, once from an export and once typed by hand. A date column holds a mix of dates and text. None of this is anyone's fault. It's what a sheet looks like after a year of real work.

We want to meet that kind of mess before we write the software that reads it. If we automated first, we'd be guessing which kinds of mess matter. Doing the work by hand first shows us what the rules have to handle.

Paul Graham made the case for this in his 2013 essay Do Things That Don't Scale. When you have only a small number of users, he writes, you can sometimes get away with "doing by hand things that you plan to automate later." When you finally automate, you know exactly what to build, because you've done it yourself. That's our plan.

By hand doesn't mean loose. The person building your dashboard follows the same 6 rules the product will follow, listed on how it works. The AI never types a number, and it never sees your rows. A database engine calculates every number, in the pilot and after launch.

Why $99 and not free

A free pilot is easy to say yes to and easy to forget, on both sides. We wanted a small, real commitment from each of us.

From you, it's one spreadsheet, a 15-minute call, and $99. A small price is still a filter: it means the dashboard is for a question someone needs answered. From us, it's a deadline and a promise. You get the dashboard in 5 business days. If we can't build it, we refund the full $99. If you cancel before we start building, we refund the full $99. And when Every Number launches, the $99 counts toward your first month of a paid plan.

Graham's essay also has a warning. This kind of hands-on attention is safe, he argues, as long as you're not being paid to do it. Our pilot is paid, which is the line he draws, so we keep it narrow on purpose. It isn't hourly and it isn't open-ended. It's a fixed price for a fixed thing: one spreadsheet, 5 to 7 metrics, 5 business days, credited toward the product.

What you get

Here's the whole flow, start to finish.

The call is short on purpose. We ask who reads the dashboard, what they decide with it, and how often. A weekly staffing decision needs different numbers than a monthly client report, and the answers decide which metrics go on the page.

Your spreadsheet can be Excel, Google Sheets, or CSV, sent by email or as a shared link you control. The dashboard comes with:

• 5 to 7 metrics, chosen with you on the call.
• A plain-English definition for each, which you approve before anything is built.
• A receipt behind every number. Anatomy of a receipt walks through one.
• Every left-out row listed with the reason: totals rows, blank amounts, duplicates.
• The date the data runs through, on every number.

You can see the format in our sample dashboards.

The honest limits

We'd rather you hear these from us now than find them later.

• One spreadsheet. The pilot covers one file. If your numbers live across 5 systems, this isn't the right shape yet.
• 5 business days. A person builds it, so it isn't instant.
• A small studio. Every Number is made by 309 designLab. Your file stays in our inbox or behind your shared link, plus one copy on the work computer of the person building your dashboard. That person is the only one who sees it. We delete our copies 30 days after the pilot unless you keep using Every Number, and we never use your file for training. Details are on our security page.
• No self-serve app yet. Uploading files yourself, the dashboard app, a metrics dictionary with versions, freshness flags, and read-only share links are what we're building. None of them is available today.
• No certifications. We don't have SOC 2 or ISO 27001. If your company requires one, tell us before you send a file.

If you need numbers that refresh themselves every hour, or a tool your whole team can log into tomorrow, the pilot isn't that. Our comparison of spreadsheets, BI tools, and done-for-you dashboards can help you pick.

What happens after the pilot

When Every Number launches, your $99 counts toward your first month. The planned prices are $29 a month for Solo (one person) and $99 a month for Team (up to 5 people). They're planned, not available yet, and nothing is billed until launch.

Your file is used only to build your dashboard. We delete our copies of it 30 days after the pilot unless you keep using Every Number. The rules the person follows today are the rules the software will follow when it does this work on its own.