01 / 20
Operator playbook

Apex, day to day.

The hands-on guide to running targets, qualifying deals, and moving them through the pipeline.

Corp dev CRM Beta apex.vibetribe.studio
02 / 20
Mental model

Targets, deals, and gated stages.

A target is a company you watch. A deal is one pursuit of it. Every deal moves through four gated stages.

Stage 1QualificationScore the target against your thesis. Pass the gate.
Stage 2EvaluationDo the diligence. Complete the stage milestones.
Stage 3ActiveLive pursuit. Push the deal toward a close.
Stage 4AcquiredClosed and owned. The pursuit is done.

Every advance is gated. A deal can also be marked Passed (walked away) or On Hold (paused).

03 / 20
Step 1

Add or watch a target.

Open Targets. Add a company to the registry, or drop it on the watchlist to keep an eye on it.

1
Open Targets
Find it under Pipeline in the sidebar.
2
Add the company
Name, industry, sector, country.
3
File it
Registry to evaluate, Watchlist to track.
apex.vibetribe.studio / targets

Targets

RegistryWatchlist
CompanySectorCountry
Northwind RoboticsManufacturingDE
Helio SystemsSoftwareUK
Meridian FreightLogisticsNL
Registry · 128 companies
04 / 20
Step 2

Start a deal.

Open the target and create a deal under it. A target can hold many deals over time. Each one opens in Qualification.

01
Open the target
Pick the company from your Targets list.
02
Create a deal
Name the pursuit. It lives under that target, alongside any earlier ones.
03
Land in Qualification
Every new deal starts at the first gate.
05 / 20
Step 3

Fill the scorecard.

Qualification runs on a scorecard from your acquisition thesis. Rate each criterion, enter the financial numbers.

Weighted score
78
IFS Corp Dev Thesis v1 · out of 100
Strategic fit82
AI strength74
Financial profile88
Sanity TestPass
06 / 20
Financial profile

Hurdle versus actual.

The Financial Profile section captures real numbers, each with a hurdle. Apex shows the hurdle against the actual.

CriterionHurdleActualStatus
LTM ARR growth ≥ 20% 32% Meets
Gross margin ≥ 60% 71% Meets
LTM EBITDAC Context only EUR 4.2m Context
07 / 20
The first gate

Pass the qualification gate.

A deal leaves Qualification when the Sanity Test passes and a Conclusion is written. Nothing else blocks the move.

Hands-off: the "Complete qualification scorecard" milestone completes itself the moment the gate passes.

Qualification gate 2 conditions

Sanity Test passedAt least 1 of 3 strategic-value questions is yes
Conclusion writtenA short call on the scorecard
Advance to Evaluation opens
08 / 20
Step 4

Put milestones on the deal.

Each stage carries milestones: the work that must be done. Apply the stage template, or add your own.

Apply a stage template
Each stage ships with a milestone template. Apply it in one click. Admins edit templates in Settings.
Add ad-hoc milestones
Something specific to this deal? Add a one-off milestone alongside the template ones.
Let the system ones run
Some milestones manage themselves, like the qualification scorecard gate. You never click them.
09 / 20
Step 5

Give each milestone an owner.

Every milestone needs an owner and a target date. That is how Apex knows what is due, and who owns it.

1
Open the milestone
Click it on the deal.
2
Set an owner
The person accountable for it.
3
Set a target date
When it needs to be done by.
NDA countersignatureIn progress
OwnerJPJean-Pierre
Target dateFri, Jul 11
StageEvaluation
StatusPlanned → In progress
10 / 20
Step 6

Advance when the work is done.

A deal cannot enter the next stage until its milestones are complete. Finish each with a note, then advance.

Drag it and it stays put. On the pipeline board, the gate blocks the move until the last milestone is done.

Evaluation › Active2 / 3 done

Initial outreach completed
NDA countersignature
Site visit / management callAssigned to JP · complete with a note
1 milestone left🔒 Advance to Active
11 / 20
Overdue

When a milestone slips.

Miss a target date and the milestone goes slipped. Apex flags it. Reschedule to un-slip it, or reopen a finished one.

!
Milestone slipped
2h ago
NDA countersignature was due Friday on Northwind Robotics. It is now overdue.
Due this week
Today
Site visit / management call is due Thursday. Assigned to you.

Reschedule and it un-slips. Reopen a done milestone if the work resumes.

12 / 20
Step 7

Log interactions and tasks.

Record calls and meetings on the deal. Add tasks with due dates. The deal keeps its own history.

1
Log an interaction
Record a call or meeting on the deal.
2
Write what happened
A short note keeps the history straight.
3
Add a task
Give it a due date. Attach it to the deal.
Management call logged
Northwind Robotics · notes attached
Jul 8
Send follow-up deck
Task · owner JP
Due Jul 12
13 / 20
Step 8

Build a report.

Open Reports. Describe what you want in plain English, then refine with the menus. Every number is live and permission-scoped.

apex.vibetribe.studio / reports / new
Describe a report
Compose Start a blank report
Composing the report…
DealLeadNext milestone
Northwind RoboticsJames OkoroIOI signed
Helio SystemsPriya RaoQoE kickoff
Meridian FreightJames OkoroSite visit
Preview · deals in diligence, top 15 rows. Export CSV for the full set.
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Step 9

Reorder columns, then export.

Drag the grip handle to set column order. Preview the top 15 rows. Export CSV for the full set.

1
Drag the grip
Reorder columns by hand, or use arrow keys.
2
Preview the top 15
Check the shape before you export.
3
Export CSV
The full result set, not just the preview.
⋮⋮Deal
⋮⋮ARR growth %
⋮⋮Stage
⋮⋮Lead
⋮⋮Gross margin %
Preview (15)Export CSV
15 / 20
Cmd K

Ask in plain English.

Hit Cmd K anywhere. Type the question the way you would say it. Read the answer, and what it assumed.

⌘Kdeals James is leading
asking the database nicely…
3 deals · James Okoro leads
Northwind Robotics · Bolt-on talksActive
Helio Systems · 2025 approachEvaluation
Meridian Freight · Roll-upActive
Confidence: highAssumption: James = James OkoroFilters dropped: noneClaude Haiku
16 / 20
Board deck

Generate a board deck.

Apex assembles a board-ready narrative for a deal from its own data. Fixed report types, AI-assisted drafting.

DECKNorthwind Robotics · Bolt-on talks
01Deal_Summary
02Financial_Profile
03Thesis_Fit_and_Scorecard
04Milestones_and_Timeline
05Risks_and_Next_Steps

5 sections, auto-built from the deal. Edit before you present.

17 / 20
The network

Build the deal's network.

Add the people at a target with an owner and a strength. Link an intermediary, like a banker, to the deal.

Contact
Priya Nair
CFO · Northwind Robotics
Relationship ownerJP
StrengthStrong
TypeExecutive
SourceReferral
Intermediary
Goldman Sachs
Advisor · DACH industrials
Linked dealBolt-on talks
RoleBanker
CoverageManufacturing
ContactM. Bauer
18 / 20
Notifications

Tune your notifications.

Choose what reaches you, and where. Every type has an in-app and an email switch. Email is on by default.

Notification typeIn-appEmail
Upcoming milestone
Slipped milestone
Assigned to me
Stage moves

Settings, then Notifications. Per type, per channel.

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Admin

What admins control.

Four roles, one guardrail. The buttons are convenience over real server authority: every gate is a database policy underneath, so the UI can never grant what the server would refuse.

People and roles
Invite by email, assign member / admin / stakeholder, deactivate, or delete.
Notification cadence
Set the org-wide schedule per alert type: countdown thresholds, recurring intervals, per-target rate limits.
Email delivery
A last-7-days outbox with queued / sent / failed counts, and a clear banner when the pipeline is switched off.
The rules of the deal
Acquisition thesis, sub-stages, screening areas, milestone templates. The gates every deal runs through, firm-wide.
AI spend and data
Admins watch spend; super-admins set the cap and run the seed / flush / reset data tools.
20 / 25
Admin · People

People and access.

Four roles, in order of reach: super-admin, admin, member, stakeholder. Admins run the team; the top tier stays locked down.

1
Invite and assign
Add people by email as member, admin, or stakeholder. Change a role from a dropdown.
2
Deactivate or remove
Revoke access in a click. Delete is blocked for anyone who owns deals, so history is never orphaned.
3
The guardrail
No one can mint a super-admin from the UI. That tier is SQL-only, by design.
Users+ Invite
JPJake ParkAdmin
JOJames OkoroMember
RSRina ShahMember
BOBoard observerStakeholder
?new.hire@ifs.comInvited
21 / 25
Admin · Notifications

Set the cadence once.

You pick your channels. Admins pick the rhythm, org-wide, so alerts stay useful instead of noisy.

1
Countdown
Fire once at each threshold before a date. NDA expiry, bid deadline, milestone due.
2
Recurring
First on detection, then every N days, capped. Slipped milestones, deal-at-risk, watchlist.
3
Per target
Rate-limit news signals so one company cannot flood the feed.
NDA expiry reminders
Countdown · days before
3014731
Deal at risk
Recurring
First on detection, then every 7 days, up to 3 times.
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Admin · Milestones

The gate at every stage.

Admins set the milestones each stage owes. A deal picks them up when it enters the stage, and cannot advance until every one is done with a note.

1
Templates per stage
Defined once in Settings, admin-only. New deals inherit them automatically.
2
Applied on entry
A milestone lands on a deal the moment it reaches that stage, not before.
3
Forward-only
Add one to a stage a deal already cleared and it is skipped for that deal. Deals yet to reach it still get it.
QualificationCleared
✓ Thesis fit✓ Scorecard
EvaluationCleared
✓ IM receivedNew milestone
Active · deal is hereIn progress
DD packSite visit
AcquiredAhead
Signing+ New milestone
23 / 25
Admin · AI spend

Every cent the AI spends.

There are several features that use Anthropic's AI services. What they cost is visible to the cent: per month, all-time, and down to the single request.

$
A monthly cap you set
Go over it and new answers are turned away, not billed. Raise it and they resume at once. Enrichment is never capped.
·
Per-request receipts
Query, cost to four decimals, tokens in and out, latency, citations.
Honest to a fraction of a cent
A tenth of a cent shows as <$0.01, never $0.00.
Ask Sherpa · this month
$18.40
USD · resets at the start of each month
$18.40 of $50.00 cap37%
19 / 20
Good habits

A few shortcuts worth keeping.

  • Cmd K. Search anything. Query the whole database in plain English, from any screen.
  • All / My. Re-scope on the fly. Flip any report, the dashboard, or the milestone timeline to just you.
  • Milestones. See what is due. One page, grouped by slipped, this week, next week, later.
  • Focus pins. Keep deals close. Pin the deals you care about on the Dashboard.
  • Replay the tour. Super admin only. Re-run the first-run walkthrough from Settings, then AI Spend.
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One more thing

It is beta. Tell us.

Report anything broken or strange through Settings, then Suggestion. That is how Apex gets better, fast.

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