Three structures
| Solo Maker | Pod | Guild Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Size | 1 | 2–5, standing | Unlimited, assembled per job |
| Job ceiling | ~$750 · ~40 servings | ~$5,000 · ~150 servings | No ceiling |
| Lasts | — | Ongoing | One job |
| Accountable party | The maker | Pod Lead | Job Lead |
| Best for | Recurring small orders, one category | Mixed-category events — boards and pastry and florals | Conferences, launches, holiday volume, anything seasonal and huge |
Solo Maker
One person, one lane. Own kitchen or commissary, own license, own delivery. This is where almost everyone starts and where many should stay: a Solo Maker with four repeat corporate accounts has a genuinely good small business and no management overhead.
Pod
Two to five makers who work together repeatedly, usually across complementary categories. A florist, a baker, and a board maker can sell a whole event that none of them could sell alone — and that is what a corporate buyer actually wants to buy.
One member is the Pod Lead: single point of contact for the network and the buyer, owns final QC, owns the delivery, and carries the consequence if it goes wrong.
Pod money. Each member quotes their own portion using Pricing Your Work. The Pod Lead is the contracting party — the buyer pays the Lead, and the Lead pays each member their quoted portion within 7 days of delivery. The Lead adds a coordination premium of 10% of job value for carrying the client, the QC, and the transport. Todo Tasteful invoices the buyer separately for its own fee; it never sits inside the Pod's money.
Forming one: three makers, complementary categories, at least one at Rung 3 (Getting Started), each individually verified, one named Lead, a written split. Register it with the network and it gets routed as a unit.
Guild Job
The mechanism for ambitious work. The network posts a Job Card; makers claim lots; an appointed Job Lead owns the spec, the QC gate, and the single delivery.
This is what lets a person with no business and no license participate in a $20,000 job (as a Contributor, Getting Started §2), and what lets a Pod Lead with four good jobs behind them run one.
How a Guild Job runs
1. Network qualifies the job (How an Order Runs steps 1–2)
2. Network appoints a Job Lead — an experienced maker, named
3. Job Lead + Network write the Job Card — the Job Card
4. Job Card posted to the network — lots, prices, deadlines, standard
5. Makers claim lots — first come, verified, capped per maker
6. Lots close; float capacity confirmed — §5
7. Build day(s) — lots produced to spec
8. Staging & QC gate — Job Lead inspects every lot, by lot
9. Single delivery — the buyer sees one team, one contact
10. Lot payments within 7 days — Lead pays contributors
11. Close — How an Order Runs step 9
The buyer sees one contact and one delivery. That is the entire product. Whether it took one maker or fourteen is not their concern, and should never become their concern.
The rules that keep this cheap
- One accountable human per job, named on the Job Card before a single lot is claimed.
- Lot prices are set before claiming and are not negotiated. Take the lot or don't. No haggling means no coordination overhead and no leverage games against newcomers.
- A claimed lot is a commitment. Dropping a lot inside 72 hours costs routing priority for 30 days. Twice, and Guild access ends.
- The Job Lead is the contracting party. Buyer pays the Lead; the Lead pays lots. One invoice for the buyer, one accountable party, and no platform escrow (Invariant 4).
- Contributors are paid within 7 days of delivery, at the price on the Job Card, whether or not the buyer has paid the Lead yet. The Lead carries that timing risk — that is what the coordination premium is for.
- Non-payment of a contributor permanently ends Lead standing. No appeal. This single rule is what makes it safe for someone with no leverage to say yes.
- The QC gate is per lot, not per job. A bad lot is rejected and rebuilt or dropped; it never becomes the whole delivery's problem at 6am.
Sizing an ambitious job
makers needed = ceil( total units ÷ per-maker daily capacity ) + 1 float
Planning assumptions — calibrate these against real build times after ten jobs and update this table. They are estimates, not measurements.
| Unit | Per maker, per build day |
|---|---|
| Individual grazing box | 100–140 |
| Small board (serves 8–10) | 20–25 |
| Large board (serves 25+) | 8–10 |
| Pastry platter (serves 20) | 25–30 |
| Centerpiece arrangement | 30–40 |
Always the +1 float. Somebody's car breaks down, somebody's kid gets sick. On a job of any size, one maker failing without a float is a failed delivery, and a failed corporate delivery costs more than the float maker's lot ever will. The float is paid a standby fee whether or not they are activated — nobody holds a build day open for free.
The progression ladder
Each rung has entry criteria the network verifies. Nobody is promoted for enthusiasm.
| Rung | Entry criteria | Can |
|---|---|---|
| Contributor | Legal-gate record · works under another's permit · standards briefing | Work build days, be paid per day |
| Solo Maker | Own license for their rung · insurance on file · 3 portfolio pieces · costing worksheet | Take routed jobs to $750 |
| Pod Member | 5 completed jobs · 100% on-time · 100% QC pass | Join a standing Pod, take mixed-category work |
| Pod Lead | 15 completed jobs · Rung 3 licensed facility · 2 references · no unresolved complaints | Contract with buyers, carry a Pod's money |
| Job Lead | 3 Pods or Guild Jobs led · commercial-scale kitchen access · clean payment record | Run a Guild Job of any size |
The ladder is the entrepreneurial journey, made checkable. A person can enter with no license, no capital, and no business, work three build days, get certified out of what they earned, take small jobs, join a Pod, and lead a conference — and every rung has a stated door rather than a favor.
Disputes
- A lot's quality is disputed → the Job Lead's QC photos decide it. That is why §7 of The Standard requires them.
- A lot's price is disputed → the Job Card decides it. It was posted before the claim.
- Payment is disputed → the network verifies against the Job Card and applies rule 6. There is no mediation, because mediation is overhead.
Every dispute mechanism above resolves against a document written before the work started. That is deliberate: it is the only kind of dispute process a two-person startup can actually afford to run.