Beyond CRM: The Intelligence Layer

The Real Problem Isn't Execution - It's Lack of Coherence

Most teams don’t feel unproductive because they aren’t working hard. They feel unproductive because the work is split across too many places.

The customer context is in email. The deal state is in an outdated CRM. The deliverables are in docs. The decisions are in chat. The follow-ups are in someone’s head.

Everyone is constantly piecing things together: What’s true right now? What changed? What did we decide? What’s next?

That hidden tax isn’t just time - it’s cognitive load, anxiety, and lost momentum.

You're Already Collecting Everything That Matters

The problem isn't missing data - it's that none of it connects.

I believe a modern platform should bring all of this together:

• Relationships: contacts, companies, org structure, the web between them
• Communication: emails, meetings, call notes, attachments
• Commitments: tasks, follow-ups, SLAs
• State: deals, renewals, delivery status, risk signals
• Artifacts: proposals, contracts, specs, decision history
• Custom objects: the truth of how your business actually runs

This isn’t “data to report on.” It’s the operating system of a business - structured, relational, and compounding over time.

And when AI can consume and act of that context, you get the intelliegnce layer.

The Shift: From Silos to Coherence

Decades have been spent creating siloed data. The next decade is about building the intelligence layer - connecting it and changing how you work with it.

Coherence isn't just a CRM with a chatbot in the corner. It’s an intelligent layer across all of your workflows:

• it brings the right context into the surface you’re already in
• it reduces the distance between intent and action
• it turns “remembering” into “seeing”
• it makes the system feel like it’s collaborating with you

When you’re in an email thread, the system should behave like it knows everything about the email and the sender. When you’re writing a note, it should understand what entities you’re referencing. When you’re looking at a record, it should surface what's relevant now.

The Intelligence Behind It

AI-native isn’t a feature set. It’s the fundemental part that creates coherence.

It's about being intentionabl about systematic connections and understandability. It means the platform assumes AI will consume and reason over the business graph - continuously - and the UI is designed to expose that intelligence without friction.

That leads to a different product shape:

1) Context is automatic

You shouldn’t have to assemble context manually. The system should understand the record, the relationships, the history, and the current state - and make it available in meaningful ways, everywhere.

2) Interfaces adapt to the work

Static forms and static dashboards are a mismatch for real operations. AI-native, generative interfaces can emphasize what matters for this workflow, this moment, this record.

3) Work becomes a loop, not a pile

The platform shouldn’t just store data. It should help you close loops: follow-ups, next steps, escalation paths, handoffs. All with the intelliegnce of a expreinced co-worker.

A Simple Test: Does your Current System(s) Reduce Cognitive Load?

Most “productivity” tools add features while increasing mental overhead. AI-native platforms should do the opposite.

The goal is not automation for its own sake. It’s a calmer operating experience where you and your teams can stay oriented, make decisions faster, and do their best work.

Better systems + better feeling.

Coherence Is the Intelligence Layer

We're building Coherence designed around:

• a unified business graph (relationships + activity + custom objects)
• rich AI overlays that show what matters where you’re working through generative interfaces
• interaction patterns that reduce friction (linking, referencing, contextual actions)
• human-centered design that respects attention, autonomy, and trust

Because when the system makes sense, we stop fighting it - and start doing our best work. It stops being a filing cabinet and starts being a collaborator.

One personal note: this comes from me living inside fragmented stacks for years as a software consultant. The “work” was often split between real delivery and the endless overhead of updating systems, hunting for context, contacting some team to show me some data in their "walled off" system, and stitching together status across tools. Coherence is my attempt to make that overhead disappear so you can spend more time doing what you’re actually good at - and what you actually enjoy.