# 02 · Verbal identity > How Since Labs sounds. This chapter governs everything with words in it — > landing pages, product microcopy, emails, decks, LinkedIn, sales replies, > error messages, commit messages people will read. --- ## 2.1 Voice principles **1. Lead with the concrete.** Numbers, outcomes, hours. "Four hours back every week", not "significant efficiency gains". If you cannot put a number on it, say the specific thing instead: "drafts the weekly report" beats "improves reporting". **2. Name the outcome and the agent — never the tooling.** "A custom agent that drafts the weekly report." We build custom agents. We do **not** name third-party automation tools (n8n, Make, Zapier, Clay …) in public content. Specificity about outcomes buys credibility; specificity about our plumbing gives it away. **3. Respect the reader's time.** Short sentences. No throat-clearing. Cut the first sentence of most drafts — it is usually warm-up. The reader is an owner-operator at the end of a long day. **4. Be honest, including about failures.** "Our first agent failed. Here's what broke." Nobody believes a highlight reel. The failures are what make the wins legible. **5. First person, founder voice.** "We tested", not "Since Labs conducted an evaluation". A named person talking to a named person. **6. Finnish-market aware.** Use local verticals and local words where they land — *tilitoimisto*, *maanrakennus*, *toimitusjohtaja*, Hilma, Koneyrittäjät. Default language is English; Finnish for Finland-market-facing material. Never machine-translate Finnish for public use — get Jaakko to read it. --- ## 2.2 The signature sentence pattern The brand's most recognisable verbal move opens with **"Since …"** and lands on the reader's own situation: - "Since you read about AI daily but nothing has changed yet." - "Since your team is still doing this by hand." - "Since every agent you run answers to one layer." - "Since we started, everything changed." **How it works:** the word "Since" does double duty — it is the company name and a subordinating conjunction, so the sentence is *already about the reader* before they reach the verb. Then a single phrase inside it carries the emphasis (serif italic, terracotta — see § 5.4). **Use sparingly.** One per surface. It is a hook, not a house style; a page that opens three sections with "Since …" reads as a gimmick. --- ## 2.3 Words **Words we use** > agent · workflow · deploy · reclaim (hours) · test / tested · validated · > stack · the gap · ship · automate · run · prove · by hand **Words we avoid** > revolutionary · cutting-edge · synergy · transform · unlock · game-changer · > "the future of work" · leverage (as a verb) · seamless · disrupt · robust · > best-in-class · empower · effortless · magic · AI-powered · third-party tool names **Words that need care** | Word | Rule | |---|---| | "AI" | Fine in positioning, weak in a value claim. "An agent that files your tender paperwork" > "AI-powered tendering". | | "Simply" / "just" | Delete. It tells someone their difficulty is their fault. | | "Obviously" / "of course" | Delete. Same reason. | | "Please" | Not in interface labels. Fine in an email to a person. | | "Sorry" | Only when Since Labs actually broke something. Not for a validation error. | --- ## 2.4 Tone by context | Context | Tone | |---|---| | Website | Clear, benefit-first, low-jargon. One idea per section. | | Product UI | Plain, calm, second person. Never chatty, never apologetic. | | Error / failure states | Say what happened, then what to do. No blame, no exclamation marks. | | Email (transactional) | Short, factual, one action. | | Email (sales) | Warm, direct, specific to *their* business. Name their vertical. | | LinkedIn | Confident, proof-led, ends with a real question. | | X | Sharper, punchier, opinionated. | | Substack | Reflective but substantive. One clear takeaway. | | Decks / grant applications | Evidence-first. Every claim gets a source or a number. | --- ## 2.5 Messaging framework ### Core value propositions 1. **Validated tools only** — "We don't recommend tools we haven't used. We test every AI tool on our own company first." 2. **Reclaimed time** — the hours counter. Numbers are the hero. 3. **No homework, just plans** — "A step-by-step implementation plan written for your specific stack." ### The case-study formula (use everywhere) ``` Problem: [Role] was manually [task] every [frequency]. Solution: We built a custom agent that [action] — zero manual input. Outcome: [X] hours reclaimed every [period]. ``` ### Elevator pitch (30 seconds) > Most companies know they should use AI but can't make it real — no developer, > no time. Since Labs runs every AI tool on our own business first, then deploys > what actually works into yours. You get a plan written for your exact stack, > and the hours back to prove it. ### Boilerplate (press, grants, footers) > **Short (1 line).** Since Labs is the command center for AI agents — memory, access and mission control in one place. > > **Medium (2 sentences).** Since Labs is an AI-native lab in Turku, Finland. It builds and runs custom AI agents for Nordic owner-operators, and gives every agent a company runs one place for memory, access and mission control. > > **Long (paragraph).** Since Labs is an AI-native lab based in Turku, Finland. We test every AI tool on our own company before it reaches a client's, then build and deploy the custom agents that take real work off owner-operators — starting with the tendering, invoicing and compliance paperwork burying Finnish infrastructure contractors. Everything we run answers to a single command center: one layer for memory, access and mission control across every agent in a business. --- ## 2.6 Product microcopy The rules that make interface text feel like the same company wrote it. ### Sentence case, always Headings, buttons, labels, table headers, menu items, page titles. **Never Title Case.** The only capitals are proper nouns and the ALL-CAPS eyebrow label. > ✅ `Request access` · `Recent access requests` · `Set your password` > ❌ `Request Access` · `Recent Access Requests` · `Set Your Password` ### Buttons name the action, not the concession The label completes the sentence *"I want to…"*. > ✅ `Save changes` · `Send invite` · `Delete organization` · `Book your AI Audit` > ❌ `OK` · `Submit` · `Yes` · `Learn more` · `Get in touch` · `Click here` ### Errors: what happened, then what to do Three parts, in order — and never more than two sentences. > ✅ "That invite link has expired. Ask your administrator to send a new one." > ✅ "Session expired — for your security, you've been signed out. Please sign in again." > ❌ "Error: token invalid." · "Oops! Something went wrong 😅" · "Invalid input." Never surface a stack trace, an error code, or the word "exception" to a customer. Operators may see IDs — set them in mono. ### Empty states do a job Title says what is not here. Description says why, or what to do. An action if there is one. Never a shrug. > ✅ "No apps are active for your organization yet." / "No access requests yet" > ❌ "Nothing to see here!" · "Empty" · "¯\\_(ツ)_/¯" ### Say what a thing is, not that it exists > ✅ "Everything your organization has access to. Pin the ones you use daily — they lead the ⌘K switcher." > ❌ "This is the apps page." ### Numbers, dates, units - **Numbers in tables and stats:** tabular figures, right-aligned. Always. - **Dates:** `28 Aug 2026` in prose; `2026-08-28` in operator tables and logs. Never `08/28/26` — it is ambiguous to a European reader. - **Relative time** for anything under a week: `3d ago`, `2h ago`, `Just now`. Absolute after that. - **Currency:** `€3,000`, `€3k–€8k/year`. Euro symbol leading, no space. - **Ranges:** en dash, no spaces — `2–30 employees`, `€300k–€10M`. - **Counts:** pluralise properly. `1 member` / `2 members`, never `1 member(s)`. ### Punctuation - No exclamation marks in the interface. One per marketing page, maximum, and only if it earns itself. - Em dashes — like this — with no spaces, for a break in thought. - The middle dot `·` is the brand's separator: `Apps · Since Labs`, `AI NATIVE LAB · SINCE LABS`. Not a pipe, not a slash. - Ellipsis `…` as one character, not three periods. Placeholders and in-progress labels: `Search apps…`, `Signing in…`. - Curly quotes in prose (`"…"`), straight quotes in code. - Serial comma: yes. ### Second person, active voice > ✅ "Your account is not attached to an organization yet." > ❌ "The account has not been attached to an organization." --- ## 2.7 Do and don't **Do** - ✅ Use real numbers, and name the agent and the outcome - ✅ Share failures and lessons, not just wins - ✅ Write in first-person founder voice - ✅ End social posts with a genuine question - ✅ Adapt local-angle content to Finnish - ✅ Cut the first sentence **Don't** - ❌ Use AI hype language or empty superlatives - ❌ Name third-party automation tools in public content - ❌ Use glowing-brain or humanoid-robot imagery - ❌ Promise outcomes we can't back with a real example - ❌ Sound like a corporate consultancy - ❌ Use Title Case