Hi {{first_name | Reader}},

I used to start every AI conversation from zero.

Copy the context. Paste the numbers. Re-explain what good looks like. Re-explain how I work. Get a decent answer. Close the thread. Open a new one. Start over.

Claude Projects made it better. You could upload files, give background. But every project was still its own island. Fundraising deck in one project. Budget model in another. Board prep in a third. None of them talking to each other. Need something that crossed two projects? Back to copying and pasting.

That was three months ago.

Today I open VS Code, start a conversation, and my AI already knows. Every project, every deadline, every meeting note, every financial model, every decision I've made in the last six months. It knows what quality looks like because I told it once and it remembered.

I call my CFO skill. It pulls the brief, checks the latest financials, and drafts a cash flow analysis. I call my CMO. It pulls newsletter stats, checks the content calendar, and writes the next send. My CTO reads the codebase, the product roadmap, the open tickets. Then writes the code.

They even collaborate. The CMO flags a case study opportunity, the COO checks client satisfaction first, the CTO builds the landing page.

The result: work that used to take me a full afternoon now takes minutes. The AI isn't smarter. It just never starts from scratch.

This is the "get 1% better every day" principle at full display. Every success compounds on yesterday's success. Every piece of context I add makes every future task faster.

Here's what sits underneath all of it. An IDE. An AI coding assistant that lives inside it. One file that tells the AI who you are. And a folder structure that organizes everything you know.

That's it.

The setup took me a few hours because I was figuring it out as I went. It shouldn't take you more than 30 minutes.

Step 1: Install VS Code. Free, runs on everything. This is your workspace. If you already have it, skip this.

Step 2: Install Claude Code. This is the AI layer that lives inside VS Code. It reads your files, understands your project structure, and executes tasks. Not a chatbot in a browser tab. An assistant that works inside your actual work environment. Install the extension, sign in, done. Free to install. You'll need a Claude account (there's a free tier, you'll burn through it fast).

Step 3: Create your CLAUDE.md This is the file that changes everything. A plain text file at the root of your project that tells the AI: here's who I am, here's how I work, here's what matters, here's what good looks like.

Think of it as a personality transplant. Without it, you have a generic AI. With it, you have YOUR AI.

What goes in it: your role, your standards, your common workflows, the mistakes you don't want repeated. Write it like you're onboarding your sharpest new hire.

Step 4: Set up your folder structure. Create three folders: one for your knowledge (strategies, decisions, meeting notes), one for your tools (scripts, automations), one for your workflows (how things get done). The AI reads this structure and understands what lives where.

One thing that tripped me up: I spent hours perfecting my CLAUDE.md before I had any real workflows to reference. Don't do that. Start with five lines about who you are and what you do. You'll refine it every week as you actually use the system.

That's it. You just built the foundation.

Everything I showed you last week, the Warren Buffett analysis, the autonomous pre-meeting briefs, the multi-entity cash position checks, all of it runs on this exact setup.

Your setup won't look exactly like mine. That's the point. This scaffolding gives you the foundation. What you build on it is yours.

Even if you don't set this up today, bookmark this email. When you're ready, it takes 30 minutes and this guide won't expire.

Next week: we give the system context. I'll show you how to connect your emails, your meeting notes, your company description, so the AI doesn't just have structure, it has substance. That's when it starts knowing things you forgot you knew.

Do not get intimidated. Do not put this off for later.

Did you set it up? Reply with a screenshot of your VS Code. I'll review your structure and tell you what I'd change. Even if you just got through Step 1, I want to hear about it.

-- Samer

P.S. Know someone who's still copying context between ChatGPT threads? Forward this. They'll thank you.

P.P.S. Haven't mapped your finance function yet? The Scalable Finance Wheel takes 3 minutes: