Many founders try the quickest fix first: upload the handbook to a custom GPT and tell the team to ask it. That can work. It also has a failure that matters for company rules, so it helps to know which jobs it suits.
Where a custom GPT is a good choice
- Setup is fast and you probably already have an account.
- It can help with open questions where a fresh idea is welcome, such as drafting a message or summarising a document.
- It can read a lot of text at once, so a long file is not a problem.
Where it falls short for team rules
- It can answer from general knowledge when your files say nothing, so a refund or leave question may get a confident answer that nobody approved.
- An answer does not have to show which line of which file it came from, or when that line was last confirmed.
- Nobody is told when the GPT could not find an answer, so the founder never learns what the team is missing.
What an approved-answers clone does differently
- It answers only from answers the founder approved, one by one.
- It shows the source and the date next to each answer.
- When it does not know, it says so and sends the question to the founder, who answers once.
A simple way to choose
- Questions with a right answer that your company decided (refunds, leave, discounts, who approves what): use approved answers.
- Questions that want ideas or drafts: a general assistant is fine.
- Not sure: ask both the same ten questions your team asked this week and read where each answer came from.
Try it
AskMyStartup is in private beta. You can try a made-up example on the home page without signing up, and sign in to start with your own answers.