People & HR

How to onboard a new hire as Event Agency Founders

People & HRFor Event Agency Founders4 apps12 steps~24 min to set up

When you hire a second coordinator or a part-time event assistant, onboarding them takes you — the founder — off the floor for days. Your process lives in your head: which vendor gets called first for a corporate gala, how you write a first-response email to an inquiry, where the run-of-show template lives in Google Drive, what 'urgent' actually means in your inbox. You're the wiki. New hires shadow you on calls, dig through years of Gmail threads to find a venue contact, and still get it wrong on the first solo event. There's no documented system — just you, explaining the same things over and over.

Build this on Starch → See the apps used

People & HRFor Event Agency Founders4 apps12 steps~24 min to set up

Outcome

What you'll set up

A searchable team wiki built from your existing Google Drive and Notion docs, so a new hire can answer 90% of their own questions without pinging you

An email onboarding path that teaches your new coordinator exactly how you handle vendor threads, client follow-ups, and inquiry first-responses — using real examples from your inbox

A task-tracked onboarding checklist tied to real deadlines (shadow first site visit, draft first proposal, manage first vendor call solo) so you can see progress without micromanaging

The Starch recipe

Apps, data, and prompts

The combination of Starch apps, the data sources they pull from, and the prompts you use to drive them.

Apps used

Knowledge Management Email Agent Task Manager Scheduling

Data sources & config

Starch connects directly to Notion (scheduled sync) and Google Drive from Starch's integration catalog, queried live when the wiki needs to surface docs. Gmail is synced on a schedule so the Email Agent can pull real thread examples to show the new hire your triage patterns. Google Calendar syncs on a schedule to power the scheduling booking page for daily check-ins. Calendly connects from Starch's integration catalog if the new hire needs their own external booking link.

Prompts to copy

Build me a team wiki from my Notion pages and Google Drive docs. Organize it into sections: Vendor Relationships, Client Onboarding, Event Day Protocols, and Proposal Templates. Flag any doc that hasn't been updated in 6 months as stale.

Create an onboarding path for a new event coordinator. Pull from the wiki and build a week-one reading list: Day 1 covers our inquiry process, Day 2 covers vendor communication standards, Day 3 covers run-of-show structure.

Set up the Email Agent so my new hire can see how I triage: vendor quotes go to the Vendors label, client questions marked urgent, and anything with 'contract' or 'invoice' flagged for same-day reply. Show them draft examples in my tone.

Build a new hire onboarding task list with P1–P4 priorities and due dates: shadow a client call by Day 3 (P1), draft a first-response email for review by Day 5 (P1), manage a vendor quote thread solo by Week 2 (P2), run a site visit debrief by Week 3 (P2).

Set up a scheduling link for my new hire's Week 1 check-ins with me — 20-minute daily syncs, Mon–Fri, with a buffer so I'm not jumping straight from a client call.

Run these in Starch → or paste them into your favorite agent

Walkthrough

Step-by-step

1 Connect Notion and Google Drive so Starch can read your existing docs. Tell Starch: 'Build a team wiki organized by Vendor Relationships, Client Onboarding, Event Day Protocols, and Proposal Templates — pull from my Notion databases and Google Drive.' Starch structures it and flags stale content automatically.

2 Review the generated wiki sections and add any tribal knowledge that only lives in your head — venue contacts, preferred A/V vendors, how you handle rain plans. Type it in plain language; Starch categorizes it.

3 Tell Starch: 'Build a week-one onboarding path for a new event coordinator using the wiki. Day 1: inquiry process. Day 2: vendor communication. Day 3: run-of-show templates.' Starch generates a guided reading order with summaries.

4 Connect Gmail (Starch syncs your email on a schedule) and open the Email Triage app. Tell the Email Agent: 'Show my new hire how I handle vendor quote threads, client urgency signals, and contract follow-ups — pull three real examples from the last 90 days and annotate what I did and why.'

5 Set the Email Agent's triage rules so your new hire can mirror your system: vendor quotes to a Vendors label, anything containing 'contract' or 'invoice' flagged same-day, client inquiry first-responses drafted in your tone for their review.

6 Open the Task Manager and tell Starch: 'Create a new hire onboarding checklist with these milestones and priorities — shadow client call Day 3 (P1), draft first-response email for review Day 5 (P1), handle vendor quote thread solo Week 2 (P2), run site visit debrief Week 3 (P2).' Set due-date alerts so you get notified if anything slips.

7 Open the Scheduling app and tell Starch: 'Create a 20-minute daily check-in booking link for my new hire, Mon–Fri for their first two weeks, synced to my Google Calendar. Add a 10-minute buffer after each slot.' Share the link with your new hire on Day 1.

8 On Day 1, walk your new hire through the wiki landing page and the onboarding path. No Slack threads explaining where things are — point them to the wiki and let the AI search surface answers.

9 Mid-week, check the Task Manager view for your new hire's checklist. Any overdue P1 tasks trigger an alert. You see progress without scheduling a status call.

10 At the end of Week 1, tell Starch: 'What sections of the wiki did my new hire search most? What questions came up that the wiki didn't answer?' Use that to add the missing docs while the gaps are fresh.

11 After Week 2, review the Email Agent drafts your new hire sent. If the tone or vendor etiquette is off, update the Email Agent's drafting instructions — Starch applies the change going forward.

12 By Week 3, your new hire is using the wiki, the task list, and the Email Agent independently. You've cut your daily check-in to twice a week. The onboarding path becomes your reusable template for the next hire.

See this running on Starch

Connect your tools, describe what you want, and the agent builds it. Closed beta is free.

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Worked example

Onboarding Jamie, Part-Time Event Coordinator — April 2026

Sample numbers from a real run

Founder hours spent on 1:1 onboarding questions, Week 1	3
Wiki articles auto-structured from existing Notion + Drive docs	34
Email thread examples pulled from Gmail for triage training	6
Onboarding tasks created with P1–P4 priorities and due dates	11
Check-in meetings scheduled via booking link (no back-and-forth)	8

Jamie started on April 7. The wiki Starch built from 34 existing Notion pages and Drive docs — vendor contacts, run-of-show templates, rain plan protocols, proposal format guidelines — was live before Jamie's first morning. The Email Agent pulled six real Gmail threads from the last 90 days: two vendor quote negotiations, two client urgency escalations, and two inquiry first-responses. Each one came with annotations explaining the triage decision. By Day 2, Jamie was reading threads and mimicking the approach without asking you once. The task list had 11 items: three P1 (shadow a site visit by Day 3, draft a first-response for review by Day 5, sit in on a vendor call by Day 4), the rest P2–P3 spread across Weeks 2 and 3. The daily check-in booking link — 20-minute slots, 10-minute buffer — meant you blocked 1.6 hours that week on structured mentorship instead of the usual 6–8 hours of ad hoc questions. By Week 3, Jamie was managing the Flores wedding vendor thread solo and the wiki search showed they'd found the A/V vendor contact themselves. You added two new wiki articles based on the questions that did come up: how to handle a venue that sends a revised BEO three days before event day, and your policy on final guest-count confirmations. Those go into the wiki for the next hire.

Measurement

How you'll know it's working

Founder hours spent answering new hire questions in Week 1 vs. Week 3 (target: down 70%)

Percentage of onboarding milestones completed on time (shadow call, first draft, first solo vendor thread)

Wiki articles created and marked current before new hire's Day 1

Number of Email Agent draft approvals vs. corrections in the new hire's first 10 outbound emails

Days until new hire manages a vendor thread or client follow-up without review

Comparison

What this replaces

The other ways teams handle this today, and how the Starch version compares.

Google Drive folder + manual doc index

Free and familiar, but no AI search — a new hire spends 30 minutes digging for the right run-of-show template instead of asking a question and getting the answer in 10 seconds.

Notion standalone wiki

Better structure than Drive, but building the onboarding path and flagging stale docs is manual work you have to do yourself, not something that auto-generates from your existing content.

HoneyBook or Dubsado built-in client portals

These manage client-facing workflows well, but neither one builds an internal team wiki or teaches a new hire how you triage email — they solve client onboarding, not staff onboarding.

Trainual or Guru (dedicated onboarding SaaS)

Purpose-built for SOPs, but requires you to author everything from scratch in a new tool — Starch starts from your existing Notion and Drive docs and structures them for you.

On Starch RECOMMENDED

One platform — knowledge management, email agent, task manager all running on connected data. Setup in plain English; numbers stay current via scheduled syncs and live agent queries.

Try it on Starch →

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

My process is mostly in my head and in old Gmail threads — does Starch actually have enough to work with?

That's exactly the starting point. Starch syncs your Gmail on a schedule and can pull real thread examples to show a new hire how you communicate with vendors and clients. The wiki fills in from whatever Notion pages or Drive docs you do have; the gaps you fill by typing plain-language explanations directly into Starch, which categorizes them. You don't need a polished process before you start — you build the documentation by describing what you actually do.

I use HoneyBook for proposals and contracts. Can Starch pull from that?

HoneyBook is reachable through Starch's integration catalog, so the agent can query it live when your app runs. If HoneyBook doesn't expose certain data through its API, Starch can also automate it through your browser — no API needed. That means you can pull proposal status or client list data into your wiki or onboarding tasks even if HoneyBook's integration is limited.

Will the Email Agent write emails in my voice or will it sound like a chatbot?

The Email Agent drafts based on examples from your actual Gmail threads — so the more it's seen of how you write to a venue coordinator vs. a corporate client, the more accurately it mirrors your tone. The first few drafts your new hire reviews will need light edits; by the second week, the pattern is usually solid. You're approving and correcting, not rewriting from scratch.

Is my client and vendor email data secure? I'm not SOC 2 certified either, but my clients care.

Starch is not SOC 2 Type II certified today — that's a real limit worth knowing. If you're working with enterprise corporate clients who require SOC 2 compliance from every vendor in their supply chain, that's a conversation to have before connecting Gmail. For most independent event agencies working with SMB or consumer clients, this isn't a blocker, but you should make that call with your own client agreements in mind.

The Task Manager is listed as in development. Can I actually use it now?

Task Manager is currently in development — you can request beta access through Starch. In the meantime, the onboarding checklist can be built as a custom app: describe the milestone structure you want and Starch builds it. It won't have the same polished UI as the finished Task Manager, but the functionality — priority levels, due dates, overdue alerts — is available today through a custom-built surface.

What happens to the wiki when my new hire leaves and I hire someone else?

The wiki stays and keeps syncing from Notion and Google Drive. Starch flags docs that go stale (haven't been updated in a set window), so by the time you're onboarding the next person, the documentation reflects how your business actually works now — not how it worked 18 months ago. The onboarding path you built becomes reusable: fork it and adjust for the new role.