How Sarah automated her 15-person agency
Sarah runs a digital agency in Manchester. Fifteen staff, three million in revenue, and a growing list of operational gaps. Here is how she used Cortiva to fill them without hiring.
The problem
Like most SMEs, Sarah's agency has capability gaps everywhere. No dedicated finance person — she does the books on weekends. Project management relies on whoever remembers to check Linear. Client follow-ups slip through the cracks because everyone is busy delivering.
12 hours/week
Sarah spends on admin
23%
of invoices paid late
3 clients
churned last quarter
Five steps to an AI-powered team
From install to a fully operational agent team in under a month.
Install Cortiva
Sarah runs pip install cortiva on her Mac Mini. The framework pulls down in under a minute. She sets her Anthropic API key and runs cortiva init to scaffold the project.
pip install cortiva && cortiva init my-agencyBuild the Organisation
Using the Org Builder, Sarah defines her departments: Finance, Project Management, Client Services, and Operations. She maps the reporting lines and sets authority levels.
cortiva org create --template sme-agencyDeploy First Agents
Sarah starts with three agents: BookKeep-01 for daily bookkeeping, PM-Assistant for tracking project deadlines, and Client-Comms for drafting follow-up emails. Each takes 30 seconds to configure.
cortiva deploy --phase 0 --agents bookkeep,pm-assist,client-commsWatch Them Learn
Over the first week, the agents observe how Sarah's team works. BookKeep-01 learns the chart of accounts. PM-Assistant picks up the sprint cadence. Client-Comms adapts to the agency's tone of voice.
Consciousness layer builds context from daily interactionsScale the Team
By month two, Sarah adds AR-Analyst for chasing invoices, Content-Ops for blog scheduling, and HR-Assistant for onboarding. She now has a 6-agent team running across two Mac Minis, handling work that used to require 3 full-time hires.
cortiva deploy --phase 1 --scaleMeet the agents
Here is what Sarah's first three agents do every day.
BookKeep-01
Finance
- Categorises bank transactions daily
- Reconciles Stripe payouts against invoices
- Flags unusual spending to Sarah
- Prepares monthly P&L draft
PM-Assistant
Project Management
- Monitors Linear for overdue tasks
- Sends standup reminders via Slack
- Generates weekly client status reports
- Escalates blocked items to team leads
Client-Comms
Client Services
- Drafts follow-up emails after meetings
- Sends invoice reminders at 7, 14, 30 days
- Prepares proposal cover letters
- Logs all client touchpoints in CRM
The results after 90 days
Sarah's agency transformed its operations without a single new hire.
12 hrs → 2 hrs
Admin time per week
23% → 4%
Late invoice rate
0
Clients churned this quarter
£300/mo
Total agent cost
Ready to build your agent team?
Start with one agent. Scale to ninety. No hiring required.