Startup Program

The Honcho startup program — the early-stage developer/founder funnel: applications, tracking, program emails, and terms.

Tracked in Linear: Startup Program

To be updated once remainder from this artifact is completed.

Current flow

• Applications — public Typeform, tracked in PostHog (application funnel + pipeline dashboards).
• Automations — spend-trigger automations and program emails.
• Terms — program terms and credits, decided as one unit with the broader Pricing & Credits rework.
• Verification — program accounts kept honest in Monaco.

History

This pipeline previously ran on Attio (CRM) + Loops (email), both retired in 2026 — see tech stack. The old Discord-reaction approval step (Plastic Bot) is being reworked. The end-to-end automation as it ran is documented below for reference.

Honcho Startup Program Automation Pipeline (retired)

End-to-end automation pipeline for the Honcho Startup Program, connecting Typeform applications to AI scoring, Discord review, and email outreach.

Pipeline stages: Applied → Reached Out → Call Scheduled → Credits Issued

Workflow 1: Typeform → AI scoring → Discord notification

Notify Discord of new Startup Program leads from Typeform

• Trigger: Typeform submission (startup program application).
• Steps:
  • Creates a Person record in Attio.
  • Runs AI Research Agent to score and summarize the lead.
  • Posts high-fit leads to Discord via webhook (appears as the “Attio Leads” bot).
  • Embed includes email in fields and record_id in the “Attio Entry” field.

Plastic Bot: Discord reaction → approval

Repo: plastic-labs/plasticbot. Files changed: plasticbot/bot/client.py (+78 lines), plasticbot/config.py (+7 lines).

• Trigger: 📧 emoji reaction on an Attio Leads message in Discord.
• Bot behavior:
  • Listens for on_raw_reaction_add events.
  • Filters for: emoji = 📧, message author = Attio Leads bot (case-insensitive display-name match + bot ID check).
  • Extracts email from embed fields and record_id from the “Attio Entry” embed field.
  • POSTs to Attio incoming webhook: { event: "lead_approved", record_id, email, approved_by }.
  • Replies in channel: ✅ Outreach triggered for {email} by {user.name}.
• Idempotency: tracks processed message IDs in memory — only the first 📧 reaction per message triggers the webhook.
• Environment variables:

Variable	Purpose
ATTIO_WEBHOOK_URL	Self-authenticating Attio incoming webhook URL
ATTIO_LEADS_BOT_NAME	Display name of Attio Discord webhook bot
ATTIO_LEADS_BOT_ID	Discord webhook/bot ID for verification

Workflow 2: Approval → email outreach

Enroll applicants in Honcho startup program

• Trigger: incoming webhook from Plastic Bot (lead_approved event).
• Steps:
  • Parse JSON block extracts the webhook payload.
  • Find Records block locates the Person by record_id.
  • Enrolls person in the Honcho Startup Program Application Follow-Up email sequence.