Building something real together.
This is a document about where I think we can go, and why I believe the timing is right to start thinking about it properly.
Jonas — I want to start simply.
You and I have worked together for over two years now. You've been reliable, you've been professional, and you've been there when I needed you. That matters more than most people think.
I've been having some genuinely exciting conversations recently, particularly with people in the American market. And I think there is a real opportunity in front of us, not just for the business, but for you personally.
I wanted to share this clearly, early, and calmly. Not to pressure you. Not to create confusion. Just to give you the full picture of where I think this is heading, and why I believe it is worth building carefully together.
The Opportunity
Something has shifted in the last few months. The inbound interest is growing. Conversations are getting more serious. And the kind of editing work I am starting to see is recurring, relationship-based, and potentially significant in volume.
I am not talking about one-off projects. I am talking about the kind of clients who come back month after month because the relationship is strong and the output is consistent.
The editing side of the business has always been something I believed in. Now I think the conditions are forming where we can actually build it into something structured, reliable, and scalable.
"The goal is not just more work. The goal is the right kind of work, structured around relationships and consistency. That is what becomes a real business."
If we execute this well, this could become a meaningful recurring revenue stream with proper systems, workflow, and eventually a small team around it.
Why I kept investing
I want to be straight with you about something, because I think it matters to the context of this conversation.
There were periods over the last two years where I did not have enough work to fully justify keeping you on. The pipeline was inconsistent. The editing volume was not always there. And I kept paying you anyway.
I want to be clear about why, because it was not an oversight.
I am not saying this to create obligation. I am saying it because I want you to understand the seriousness with which I approach this partnership. And because it is the same level of thought and commitment I want to carry into the next phase.
The Vision
Let me describe what this could actually look like, if we build it properly.
The long-term picture
| Today | Future | |
|---|---|---|
| Video editor | → | Head of Editing |
| Receives projects | → | Oversees delivery workflow |
| Edits individual videos | → | QA's team output, maintains standards |
| Fixed monthly arrangement | → | Base + revenue-linked upside + leadership override |
| One-to-one contribution | → | Leveraged contribution through juniors |
The role I am describing is not a promotion for the sake of a title. It is a genuine evolution of responsibility that comes with genuine growth in earning potential. The more the operation scales, the more valuable your position becomes.
And my focus shifts too. The more the editing operation becomes self-managing, the more I can focus on sales, client relationships, and bringing in the work that feeds everything. That is how a real operation functions.
"I do not want to always be the person managing delivery. I want to be the person growing the revenue that you and the team deliver against."
The 3 Chapters
This does not happen overnight. And I am not asking you to take on risk before the work exists. Here is how I see this unfolding in stages.
Continue building
Nothing changes in the current arrangement. We continue improving quality, growing client relationships, and proving out the model. The foundation needs to be solid before anything evolves.
Transition to a performance structure
Once we have consistent, recurring editing revenue for several months, the structure evolves. A guaranteed base, plus a percentage tied to editing volume and output. Your upside grows with the work.
Head of Editing role becomes real
Junior editors are introduced. You QA their work. You maintain standards. You help train. And you earn a leadership override on the revenue they contribute to, on top of your own editing income.
Chapters II and III only happen when the business is ready for them. Chapter I is not a holding pattern. It is an active growth phase. Nothing is being rushed.
How compensation could work
I want to be transparent about how I am thinking about the future structure, using illustrative examples. These numbers are here to explain the logic of how the system could work, not to set final figures.
The structure, simply
Three components that grow as the operation grows.
guaranteed
editing revenue
junior revenue
Scenario A — Early stage
Scenario B — Scaled with leadership
The pattern is clear. As revenue grows, as responsibility grows, so does the earning potential. The structure is designed so that your income scales with the operation, not against it.
Where the money actually goes
This might be the most important section in this document. And I want to explain it carefully, because it is genuinely misunderstood in most business conversations.
If the business collects $5,000 in a month, and you receive $1,000 of that, a natural reaction might be: "Okay, so Harv keeps the other $4,000."
That is not how it works. That $4,000 is not profit. It is not sitting in a personal account. It has to move through a set of real obligations before anything becomes actual business profit, and even then, what remains carries risk and responsibility attached to it.
I want to show you exactly how that money flows, because I think understanding it changes how the structure feels.
The waterfall — $5,000 collected
The business operates internationally. It has international client expectations, tax obligations across jurisdictions, software infrastructure, and owner-level operational responsibility. When you see the top-line number, you are seeing the beginning of the journey, not the end of it.
"Revenue is the starting line, not the finish line. The business has to be healthy through every step of that journey, or there is no business left to grow."
What the founder is actually carrying
Beyond costs, there is something harder to quantify. Every client in that $5,000 was found, pitched, managed, and retained by the business. If a client disappears next month, the business absorbs that risk. If a payment is late, the business absorbs that risk. If a revision goes sideways, the business absorbs that risk.
That is founder risk. It is real. And it is the reason the structure has to make sense for the business before it can be sustained for the people in it.
Why this structure exists
Performance-linked compensation is not a way to reduce pay. It is a way to align incentives so that the people doing the work benefit directly from the success of the work.
A fixed structure works well at the beginning. But as the business grows, a hybrid model is what creates genuine upside for everyone. The base provides stability. The variable component means your income grows as the work grows. And the leadership override, when the time comes, means you benefit from the team you help build.
Works well at the beginning. Provides stability and predictability while a business finds its footing. But it does not create upside for anyone if the operation starts to scale.
As the business grows, a hybrid model creates real upside. Base ensures stability. Variable ties income to output. Leadership override builds leverage over time. Everyone's incentives stay aligned.
The business must maintain healthy margins. Not because I want to keep money, but because thin margins mean no buffer, no new hires, no slow month protection, and eventually no business. Every element of the structure is designed to protect the sustainability of the operation that employs everyone in it.
"More responsibility creates more opportunity. That is the honest version of how growth works in a business that wants to last."
The long-term goal
Here is where I want this to end up, if we build it right.
That is the full picture. Not a vague promise. Not a corporate mission statement. A specific and considered description of what this becomes if we execute it together.
Closing
I am not asking you to make any decisions today. I am not changing anything immediately. I am not asking you to take on risk that does not exist yet.
What I am doing is giving you the clearest possible picture of where I want to take this, why I think the timing is right, and how I want us to approach it together.
The honest answer is: I think you are in a good position. You have put in two years of genuine, reliable work. You have developed into someone I trust with the output of the business. And I think the next two years, if we execute well, could be materially different in terms of what this means for both of us.
I believe in building things carefully. I believe in transparency before decisions, not after them. And I believe that the people I work closely with deserve to understand the full picture, not just the parts that are comfortable.
If you have questions, I want to hear them. If something does not make sense, I want to explain it better. If something feels wrong, I want to know.
The goal is to build something sustainable together. Not something that benefits one side at the expense of the other. Something that actually works long-term, for all of us.
This document is a vision and alignment resource. It is not a legal agreement, a contract, an employment document, or a binding commitment of any kind. All compensation figures are illustrative examples only. Any formal structure changes will be communicated and agreed separately.