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Join for freePosted: Wed 4th Nov 2026
Running multiple client relationships takes time. But most of that time isn't spent in meetings; it's spent on everything around them.
Finding the last email. Remembering what was decided. Reconstructing what someone committed to three weeks ago. Preparing for a call you didn't have time to prep for.
In this Lunch and Learn, Ugo Maronilli shares the three-rule client context system he uses to run multiple relationships without a PA, EA or chief of staff, and get back hours every week in the process.
This system works today with the tools you already have – no new software required.
Ugo will also show how AI memory automates the whole thing for founders who want it to run itself.
The two-minute habit that stops context falling through the cracks: What to write down after every client interaction so you never spend time reconstructing it later
The Monday morning review that keeps your client relationships healthy: A five-minute weekly check that catches slipping commitments before they become problems
The four questions to answer before every client call and how to get to those answers in under five minutes, with or without AI
Ugo is a commercial and operational leader with over 20 years of experience managing complex client relationships across global corporations in automotive, industrial and professional services.
He has spent his career finding better ways to do things - and when he couldn't find a tool that solved the context problem every founder faces, he built one.
Kortyx is an AI organisational memory tool that watches your inbox and calendar, extracts what matters, and builds context automatically - so founders and business owners never walk into a client conversation without the full picture.
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Lightly edited for clarity.
Caitriona O’Connor: Hello, everyone, and welcome to today’s Lunch and Learn. My name is Caitriona, and I’ll be your host today. For those of you attending a Lunch and Learn for the first time, Enterprise Nation is a vibrant community platform for startups and small businesses.
I’m pleased to introduce Ugo Maronilli, who’s a senior commercial leader. In this session, Ugo shares the three-rule client contact system he uses to run multiple relationships without a PA, EA or chief of staff, and get hours back every week in the process.
If you have any questions throughout the webinar, please post them in the chat, and we’ll do our best to answer them at the end of the session. Today’s webinar will be recorded, and we’ll send a follow-up email to you with the recording and further resources later today. Over to you, Ugo.
Ugo Maronilli: Thank you very much for the introduction, and good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for having me today – I hope you will enjoy this Lunch and Learn. I’m going to talk about how to stay on top of several clients and projects without keeping it all in your head.
Hopefully, by the end, you will leave with three rules, four questions to ask before and after every meeting, and a one-week challenge. Then towards the end, I will show you a tool that can probably do some of the heavy lifting for you, and I will leave some minutes for questions.
Firstly, a bit about myself. My name is Ugo Maronilli. I’m Italian-born and have been living in the UK for 22 years.
I’m a general manager responsible for global sales at Cummins Components and Software [transcript unclear company name], which is a tier-one commercial vehicle manufacturer. Throughout my career, I’ve always worked in large B2B corporations, managing teams and client relationships across regions. So I have 20 years of experience with this problem at scale.
On the side, I’m also a solo founder and entrepreneur, and I really enjoy building tools that can help me with productivity. Just to name two, PricYX is an AI-enabled negotiation training platform, and Kortyx, which I’ll briefly show you at the end, is an AI-enabled CRM.
I always like to know a little bit about my audience, so I want to start with a little survey. If you can, please take your phone out; I’ll share a QR code in a second that you can scan to answer the questions.
What tool do you mostly use to keep track of projects and clients? Is it your Outlook or your Gmail? I’ll just switch to the page.
Hopefully, you can see the Menti QR code. Is it Outlook, or do you like to write notes in a few places? I can see the bars growing on the spreadsheet and CRM – you’re very organised.
You might already have a CRM tool that you keep up to date, or you use your memory. I have to be honest, I always flip-flop between them, but the one I default to the most is always my brain.
I have this tendency to keep everything in my head, and I’m terrible at taking notes, so it’s good that I’m in the minority. I can see Outlook and spreadsheets are probably head-to-head, which is pretty good.
I’ll give it another five seconds, and then I’ll keep going with the presentation. Interesting – it seems to be pretty even in terms of the tools being used so far.
I used to think that this was a discipline problem. I used to think that if you write everything down and keep your spreadsheet and CRM super up to date, everything works perfectly – until it doesn’t. You miss a key piece of information, and your hard work is gone.
You might not remember, or you’re squeezed for time and forget to update your tools. What I came to realise is that the business, of course, doesn’t have a memory – only you have. So I started to work on three rules that could fix most of the issues I was finding, at least for me.
Before the three rules, a quick look at how memory works. I’m not a psychologist by any means, but psychologists often describe it in three stages.
The first one is encoding – you take something in. You’re in a meeting listening attentively, or you’re reading a book, and you capture the information that’s in front of you.
The second stage, of course, is that you store it. Afterwards, your brain does something wonderful: it sorts the information and links it automatically to what you already knew – what came first, who said what.
The last step is retrieval – that’s the memory coming back. You pull it back when something else cues it: a name, a call, an email.
Now, if you think about a busy week, back-to-back meetings leave no time to sort anything. The first two stages are squeezed, so the third one fails.
That’s the moment you open your inbox, perhaps even too late, and you can’t remember what you agreed to, or you remember that you owed something or there was a task that was overdue. So using these three rules and dividing them into stages gives you a system.
Unfortunately, most of the tools we have today are only good at one thing, which is capturing. Nowadays, with AI, tools are certainly getting better at doing the other two steps: connect and remember.
I want to ask another question: what do you do after a meeting? Then I’ll show you how I apply the three rules. I’ll put the second survey up.
Do you go straight to your next meeting, write the notes the same day, update your CRM or client file, or jot something down if you remember? In most cases, we’re really busy, so we perhaps procrastinate, or we’re simply too busy to write it down, and we wait until later.
If you have a meeting in the morning, by the afternoon you might still remember the gist of it. After a week, you’ll probably remember that someone said something, but you’ll lose most of the context.
To be honest, that’s what I do as well – jot something down if I remember. As I said at the beginning, I used to rely a lot on my brain.
So here’s how I organise my work. The first step, as I said, is capture. I thought that taking good notes was about furiously writing down the full transcript of a conversation.
However, because I’m terrible at writing notes, right after the call, before I do anything else, I need 30 seconds up to two minutes to write three things down: what we decided, who committed to what by when, and what is still open. The important piece is that everything has to be in the same place all the time.
If you need to think about where to store that information, then you won’t do it. Or perhaps you’ll write it somewhere else, and you won’t be able to retrieve it.
So the first step, capturing, is very simple. Then every Monday, spend two minutes, five minutes maximum, looking across it so you refresh your memory, and that becomes your muscle memory.
The next step is to connect it. Connect is the sorting phase – the new information has to be linked to what came before.
I keep one page per client or project in whatever document you already use – spreadsheet, tab, notes app – and make sure that I follow the first step. I file it, at three lines per page, no more than that, and keep it up to date.
I close, move or change commitments, and make sure that everything stays up to date. I link to other projects and people if I find synergies, make sure that all the stakeholders are connected to what I’m writing about, and spot any gaps.
Was any task missed? Was there anyone who didn’t respond – maybe a lead went quiet? That way, I can also monitor the interactions I have with my stakeholders at the same time.
Again, that takes about five minutes to review every week, so that you keep your memory up to date. By the way, if anyone wants a template, I can send it via email afterwards – just get in touch.
And I promise this is the last survey. I want to know about your remembering phase: you have a meeting in 20 minutes, so how do you prepare for it? I’ll flip back to this.
Do you search furiously in your inbox, trying to remember if there were any communications? Do you check your notes, if you can find them? Sometimes I have multiple notebooks, and to be honest, I don’t even remember where I put them.
Or do you look at your CRM if you have one, or just go in and wing it? Sometimes that might work. Interesting – the numbers are still climbing.
Okay, so it looks like most people look at their notes or search their inbox. Let’s go back to the presentation.
This is how I prepare for an imminent meeting. I do two things: I look back, and I look forward. I look at what we agreed and discussed last time, what I owe them or what they owe me, what has changed since we last spoke, and what outcome I want from this call.
To give an example, I spoke with Chris last week. I promised to give him quotations for piece price and development funding.
He went on holiday, and I sent some questions. I said I could perhaps give him the piece price, but I needed more information on the scope of the project to give him a development funding quote.
He hasn’t sent that, so I couldn’t provide the quotation. Today, we’re going to meet again.
What has changed since we last spoke is that I was able to put together an indicative quote, but I still have some open questions. What I want from the call is to find out more about the scope and whether he understands my constraints, so that I can give him a new commitment. That’s just a very quick look back and look forward on how I prepare for the call.
So, the three things I wanted you to take away. If you’re looking for a system to stay more organised, remember how our brain works and how you can connect things: capture, connect and remember.
There’s no software needed for that – as I said, you can use anything. One page per client, one spreadsheet, Copilot or one of the other AI tools – they’re becoming pretty good at it.
Prepare with your four questions before every client call, and make sure you capture after every call. Try that for your week ahead – today is Thursday, so maybe start on Monday. See how you get on, and whether it really helps.
For the last part of my presentation, I want to introduce a tool that I’ve built, which does exactly the same thing but does all the heavy lifting. That leaves space for me to think about the strategic piece: what do I want to achieve, and how do I make the right decision?
I’ll show you a 30-second video, and I’ll stay quiet for 30 seconds just to show you what it looks like.
So how does Kortyx do this? Basically, it uses the same principle that I explained before – that’s where it comes from, really.
It captures everything that’s in your inbox or calendars. It doesn’t modify them, and you don’t even have to interact with them – it’s a filtered layer in your daily work.
Everything then folds into the right place and is filed against the right client, and your network map is updated automatically. So you can see who’s close and who you need to reach out to.
What you get at the end is basically a briefing back. It works pretty much as a contextual memory, so it grows as you receive more information.
It will start by simply saying, “Let me know a little bit about yourself.” Then as you work with it, the memory will grow and bring more context to it. I call it my second brain.
I usually get lots of questions – I know we’re getting towards the end of the presentation. The question I usually get is, how is Kortyx different from Copilot, ChatGPT or Claude?
First of all, the workflow is different. Copilot, ChatGPT and Claude start from questions: you interact with them, you ask them, and they make you think.
They write with you, they think with you, they summarise, and they can give you some context from interactions. Kortyx acts as a noise filter, if you like. It connects all the projects and stakeholders together, and then gives you a briefing only when you ask for it or automatically – for instance, I have one briefing every morning and one at the beginning of every week.
And the last slide for me before we get into Q&A. Like any AI tool, of course, no sensitive data – before you use any AI tool, check the privacy and training settings, and check your company policies.
Don’t let AI send emails for you – it’s a really bad habit. Of course, it can draft them, but you decide what to send.
It doesn’t replace a CRM if you already have one and keep it up to date. However, it probably helps keep the CRM more up to date without you having to continuously update it yourself.
It doesn’t record calls or meetings, at least not yet. At the moment, it connects to Google Calendar and Gmail simply for ease of connection. It can also work with Microsoft applications, but it’s not at that stage yet.
Does it replace meeting notes? No – it doesn’t take notes in your meetings. However, it covers the work between meetings: what you need to do, how to stay organised, how to update the project and so on.
So that was my last slide. If you want the template, please reach out. If you want to find out more about Kortyx, you can scan the QR code, or you can ask any questions now.
Caitriona: Thank you so much, Ugo. If anyone has any questions, please do pop them into the chat. In the meantime, I’ve seen a few questions asking about the recording.
Just to confirm, the session is being recorded, and we will send a follow-up email later today with the recording and further resources. If we look at this question here: does your approach change depending on the size, complexity or strategic importance of the client?
Ugo: Yes, absolutely – I try to use an 80/20 rule. Of course, in my portfolio, I have clients that are strategic and important. I’d say they’re my gold customers.
Those are the ones I interact with more often, and they bring more revenue, so they’re certainly prioritised in making sure I don’t lose anything. Others could be leads – warm or hot leads, it depends – which I’d start to monitor slowly before I decide to jump in and do the full client page.
Caitriona: Thank you. We have a few other questions here, so let’s start with this one from Paul. Paul is asking: is the privacy in Kortyx the same as free AI – for example, don’t put in data that’s not GDPR compliant or sensitive?
Ugo: Yes, it is. Also, Kortyx doesn’t use your data for training, and it’s securely encrypted. There is, of course, a security and privacy policy, which I can always point you to on the website.
If you have specific requirements, please reach out, and of course we can discuss them. But I’d say refer to your own company policies on what you can put into AI.
Caitriona: Thank you. Then a question from Youssef, who’s asking, how does it connect to other business brains of my business? Does it have an API?
Ugo: We probably need a clarifying question on this one. At the moment, the API is connected to Google – that’s where it gets information. It can connect to other software where you can retrieve data, for instance, SAP or Oracle, but it really depends on the specifics.
At the moment, it’s meant to be a CRM, and I have to say it’s in an early development phase. That’s why you’ll see on the website that it’s by invitation only, just to make sure I capture all the requirements from potential future clients.
Caitriona: Thank you. Then a question from Michelle. Michelle says, I struggle with notes, and I’m a photographer, so most of my calls are by phone.
They do a questionnaire, but over the phone, they get connected more closely to customers. How can they record the notes to make a summary and add it to a CRM?
Ugo: I have the same problem, because all my clients and even team members are all over the world, so most of my meetings are on calls. Today, there are already tools that record, for instance, Zoom or Teams – they record and do a transcript for you.
If you want clear instructions on what’s important from the transcript, Kortyx does some of that. If you have calls with the same client over and over again, it will learn what’s important to them, start writing a profile and point out how they interact and what they say. But there are already many tools out there that can record meetings.
Caitriona: Thank you. If anyone has any other questions, please do pop them into the chat. I have another question here: what’s the biggest mistake people make when trying to manage multiple client relationships?
Ugo: I’d say probably thinking that every client is the same. There’s certainly an initial discovery phase where you need to build the relationship, and in most cases, of course, your experience helps you understand how you dealt with clients in the past.
But assuming that all clients want only one thing could be one of the biggest mistakes. It’s about understanding what they really need and what they really want from you.
Caitriona: Thank you. How do you balance automation with the personal attention and relationship building that clients expect?
Ugo: That’s a very good question. I don’t let automation get in the way of my personal relationships – I let automation make me more productive so I can think.
As I said, because I struggle to take thorough notes, having this system – the three rules, or Kortyx summarising an email for me – helps me focus on what I really need to do. But in open communication with the customer, they would never see that I’m using this. All the decisions and strategic moves come from me.
Caitriona: Thank you. We’re just coming towards the end of the session now, so if anyone has any final questions, please do pop them into the chat. In the meantime, I have this question here: what’s the easiest way to introduce this system when you already have existing client relationships and a lot of historical information?
Ugo: Another very good question – it depends on where your client relationships are stored. If you’re using something like Salesforce, changing from Salesforce to this could be quite difficult because of the structure.
I’d say the first point of entry for this is definitely a solo founder or SME starting to build new relationships. If you have a huge portfolio, I think it will be extremely challenging.
However, there is an import feature where you can at least import all your customer contacts. But it wouldn’t start with the history of what you’ve already discussed with them.
Caitriona: Thank you so much. I don’t see any other questions in the chat, so I think we’ll leave it there today. Thank you so much, Ugo, for your presentation.
Thanks, everyone, for joining us today. We’ll be sharing the recording and further resources in a follow-up email this afternoon. Thank you.
Ugo: Thank you. Bye, everyone.
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