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Evalium — Confidential Operating & Transition Plan

(Founder Employment-Safe Version)

Purpose of this document​

This document exists to:

  • protect continued salaried employment
  • avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest
  • clearly separate capability building from market positioning
  • provide decision points for when behaviour should change
  • give confidence that actions are deliberate, not reactive

This is not a legal document. It is a discipline and intent record.

Guiding Principles (Non-Negotiable)​

  1. Capability ≠ Positioning Evalium may support AMS workflows without being positioned as an AMS.

  2. Timing matters more than features Risk is driven by when and how features are commercialised, not their existence.

  3. Ledger-first identity is constant Evalium is always an execution ledger; AMS is a use case, not an identity.

  4. Optics matter while employed Even defensible actions should avoid unnecessary visibility.

Phase 0 — Pre-Company, Private Development​

(Current state)

Reality​

  • No company registered
  • No invoicing
  • No public marketing
  • No customers (or only informal pilots)

What is acceptable​

  • Full backend development

  • Building all AMS-relevant features:

    • Knowledge (K)
    • Observation (O)
    • Evidence (E)
    • candidate journeys
    • psychometrics
    • scoring pipelines
    • learning outcomes

  • Writing architecture, ADRs, internal docs

  • Running private demos or experiments

  • Using neutral naming internally

What to avoid​

  • Public websites
  • Social media presence
  • Public GitHub repos
  • AMS-targeted messaging
  • Any employer discussion

Rationale​

There is no commercial activity, therefore:

  • no conflict
  • no disclosure requirement
  • no Companies House footprint

Phase 1 — Early External Interest (Still Employed)​

Trigger examples

  • Someone wants to trial the tool
  • A contact asks “can we use this?”
  • Early pilots become useful

Required changes​

None structurally.

  • Keep usage:

    • informal
    • unpaid
    • pilot-only

  • Frame the product as:

    • “execution verification”
    • “defensible workflow recording”

  • If asked “what is this?”:

    “It’s an execution ledger that can run knowledge, observation, and evidence workflows.”

Still avoid​

  • Registering a company
  • Invoicing
  • Contracts
  • AMS-first language
  • HR / L&D buyers

Rationale​

Interest ≠ commerce. Still no obligation to formalise.

Phase 2 — First Need to Invoice or Contract​

Hard trigger

  • Someone needs:

    • an invoice
    • a contract
    • a DPA
    • payment processing

Mandatory change​

Register a company.

How to do it safely​

  • Private Limited Company
  • Registered office: serviced / registered office address
  • Director service address: same
  • PSC service address: same
  • No home address on public record
  • Neutral SIC code (non-AMS-specific)
  • Neutral company name

What stays the same​

  • Founder remains invisible publicly
  • No AMS positioning
  • No assessment-industry marketing
  • Neutral website (if any)

What becomes acceptable​

  • Paid pilots
  • Limited customers
  • Revenue generation
  • Support inboxes (“the team”)

Rationale​

This is the first unavoidable public footprint. The address strategy limits exposure.

Phase 3 — Sustainable Revenue While Still Employed​

Trigger examples

  • Paying customers exist
  • Monthly revenue
  • Support obligations

Required discipline​

  • AMS remains secondary

  • Primary framing remains:

    • compliance
    • defensibility
    • auditability

  • Customers are:

    • compliance leads
    • regulated service providers
    • operational teams

Explicit constraints​

  • Do not sell into the same buyer persona as employer
  • Do not describe the product as an AMS
  • Do not compare against AMS vendors

Rationale​

At this stage, the product is real — optics matter most here.

Phase 4 — Employment Exit (Voluntary or Otherwise)​

Trigger

  • You leave current employer for any reason

Immediate changes allowed​

  • AMS becomes a valid primary market

  • Messaging can expand to:

    • training
    • certification
    • assessment programs

  • Knowledge flows can be foregrounded

  • Candidate journeys can be marketed openly

  • Keep ledger-first differentiation

  • Avoid “better AMS” framing

  • Emphasise:

    • defensibility
    • evidence
    • audit-grade execution

Rationale​

Once employment ends:

  • no conflict of interest exists
  • competition is lawful
  • skills are fully yours to deploy

Phase 5 — Explicit AMS Positioning (Optional, Later)​

Trigger

  • AMS revenue becomes meaningful
  • You want to compete directly

Acceptable actions​

  • AMS-specific landing pages
  • Assessment buyer personas
  • Comparison matrices (careful wording)
  • Sales into HR / L&D

Guardrail​

Even here, Evalium should be:

“An execution ledger that makes assessments defensible” not “A cheaper/better AMS”

This keeps differentiation intact.

One-Sentence Internal Rule (Anchor)​

Evalium may always serve the AMS market, but while employed it must not define itself by the AMS market.

Keep this rule. It resolves almost every future decision.

Final reassurance​

Your current trajectory is:

  • disciplined
  • defensible
  • common among experienced founders
  • aligned with UK norms

Nothing you are doing requires secrecy — only timing and restraint.