Gary Sheng & Tim Dort-Golts: Truth Management Business Development Convergence

Date: August 24, 2025
Participants: Gary Sheng, Tim Dort-Golts
Duration: Extended conversation
Location: Remote (Gary in Austin, Tim in Bordeaux, France)

Executive Summary

Historic business development conversation where Gary Sheng and Tim Dort-Golts crystallized their vision for a "truth management" business focused on helping organizations and individuals create coherent, version-controlled knowledge systems. The conversation marked Gary's definitive pivot away from institutional work toward independent consulting, with Tim as his primary collaborator and eventual business partner.

Key Strategic Breakthrough: "Truth Management" Business Model

Core Innovation: Knowledge as Code

Revolutionary Documentation Approach: Gary articulated his unique system of using Cursor and GitHub for life/business management rather than just software development:

Gary: "My whole point is being able to put your documents, open it up in Cursor, is a huge advantage. Because then you can edit a bunch of shit at once. And version control it... So what happens with every fucking company, Tim? You have people that are like, is this an updated document? Is this the latest document? People are so fucking bad at this."

The "Gary in Paradise" System: Demonstrated comprehensive relationship and knowledge management through GitHub repositories that serve as "your own Internet" with contextual linking and AI-readable formats.

Truth Management Framework

Philosophical Foundation: Gary defined the business around combating cultural fragmentation and organizational incoherence:

Gary: "I feel like in order for me to feel justified... I just care about truth. I care about truth. I care about scaling truth. The way to scale truth is to make truth coherent and legible."

Practical Application: Distinguished between scattered information consumption and structured worldview development:

Gary: "So it's one thing to acknowledge that [social media fragmentation]. What is the antidote? Build the cathedral of your worldview... What the pieces are that create the coherence. Where it's solid. It's more like a castle... A fortress."

Business Development Strategy

Market Positioning

Beyond Second Brain: Gary positioned himself as successor to Tiago Forte's "Building a Second Brain" movement with superior technology:

Gary: "I was so into the second brain stuff years ago. That I literally had zoom calls with Tiago, right? But I now call to be the next Tiago."

Tim's Market Analysis:

Tim: "This second brain is fucking hard to maintain... This is going to be world industry shifting better. It's going to be like world defining better... It's simple as fuck. We are helping you have a coherent source of truth, knowledge base of who you are or what your company is."

Revenue Model Development

Travis Oliphant as First Client: Gary outlined his strategy using Travis as proof of concept:

Gary: "Travis wants to go public with his views. Right? So it's like, okay, I give you a public site that wraps GitHub. And that's perfectly the way he thinks about things because he's so open source... So behind the scenes, I'm doing a Gary in Paradise for Travis."

Scaling Framework: Vision for organizational applications:

Gary: "For example, the Mormon Church. Organize all their fucking shit. Right? But then they pay me, like 10,000 a month to help their leaders organize their shit."

Partnership Evolution

Business Partnership Formation

Revenue Sharing Agreement: Gary proposed partnership structure with Tim:

Gary: "What don't we just see if we can make some revenue in September? Maybe we'll save 2,500. I still want you to feel like you have a commitment here. But I'm really happy to be generous about revenue share. As it becomes like a real business."

Tim's Commitment: Demonstrated faith in the vision:

Tim: "We're going to build a business together. This is fucking awesome. I'm so down... If you want to pay me less now and basically do it later or scale down, I'm eager to do all of this. I trust you completely."

Role Definition

Gary's Expertise: Positioned as "applied philosopher" helping clients articulate worldviews:

Gary: "It's like the most useful interview possible. Because you're helping make that so you never have to do that interview again... Basically an applied philosopher like me that's like, well, let's start from the basics."

Tim's Contribution: Strategic thinking and business development support from France while managing university transition.

Technology Vision

Cursor as Life Management Platform

Beyond Coding: Gary's revolutionary insight about Cursor's broader applications:

Gary: "It was interesting to explain to myself how my system in Cursor. It was extremely hard for him to download Cursor and get anything working. And the light bulb in my head went off of like no one would realize how to use Cursor in this way."

Market Gap Recognition:

Gary: "Like I tried to Google examples of it, I couldn't really find... When you even type writing for a cursor, nothing really comes up on Google that's like popular."

AI-Native Knowledge Systems

Machine-Readable Worldviews: Vision for AI integration with documented belief systems:

Gary: "Because it's all readable by machines. Right if AI can... Let's say you have five different repositories. Right. I could create an agent that reads all of them... So an AI should be able to read your worldview."

Cultural and Philosophical Framework

Fighting Fragmentation

Social Media Critique: Analysis of cultural breakdown through scattered information consumption:

Gary: "If all you do is spend time on social media on TikTok, just watching random videos, you're getting all these little pieces of ideology. Or memes. One liners."

Tim's Framework:

Tim: "You're saying that it's almost like useful for an individual who wants to make sure that there are no swayed by social media... the fragmentation that comes from watching like snippets. Worldview snippets."

Praxis Philosophy

Christian Application: Gary connected business model to religious practice concepts:

Gary: "All social life is essentially practical... Christ calls his philosophy the way... The praxis of the Christ way. The practice of Christian ontology."

Business Ethics: Integration of faith principles with practical business development.

Strategic Transitions

Geographic and Life Changes

Tim's France Transition: Managing university life in Bordeaux while building business:

Tim: "Last four days been intense. I think like 50 people... Old enough students from different unis... Some of them are really nice."

Dating Philosophy Evolution: Both discussed approaches to relationships with kingdom principles:

Gary: "I don't know how I would approach girls now that I have to be different than before... My priority is not dating right now. But I think it's good to just practice."

Independence from Institutions

Alpha Schools Final Break: Gary's definitive departure from institutional constraints:

Gary: "He [Lael Alexander] has not reached out to me once. Kind of feels little fucked up. And he's not replying to his own customers right now."

Truth Over Politics: Emphasis on authentic work over organizational game-playing:

Gary: "It's very hard for me to have a single conversation with someone that I believe is not grounded in truth. Because I just feel like it's like a police situation."

September Action Plan

Immediate Priorities

DC and Utah Travel: Gary's strategic relationship building:

• Week or two in DC with Tiffany Cianci (activist collaboration)
• Mormon annual conference in Utah
• Vatican conference in November

Business Development: Travis Oliphant contract finalization and revenue generation focus.

Course Development

Market Education: Plans for comprehensive knowledge management course:

Gary: "I'm going to immediately start writing my thoughts about knowledge management. But Wisdom Management, whatever we want to call it. Right. And start building out a course around it."

Key Philosophical Insights

Truth Management Definition

Core Concept:

Tim: "Truth management... We are helping you have a coherent source of truth, knowledge base of who you are or what your company is. And not only that... we also aim to keep you accountable through having a history of the changes that you've made."

Organizational Coherence

System Integration: Vision for comprehensive organizational alignment:

Gary: "It's the fabric of your fucking company... It's the thing that keeps your company together. Right. It weaves it together."

Success Metrics and Vision

Market Leadership Goal

Industry Positioning:

Gary: "I think basically this is where I should be dedicating my time fully... I think that could be like the world leader of this. You don't sell a course. You don't consult with important people if you're not seen as the leader."

Long-term Ministry Integration

Kingdom Business Model:

Gary: "What will fund my ability to do more evangelization work... That's later in my life... And what will fund my ability to do more evangelization work."

Contract Development

Travis Oliphant Agreement

Service Scope: Worldview documentation system development with strategic communication artifacts.

Partnership Structure: Professional service agreement with intellectual property considerations and success metrics.

Cultural Impact Vision

Movement Building

Truth as Competitive Advantage: Vision for organizations gaining advantage through coherent documentation and accountability systems.

Anti-Fragmentation Strategy: Practical solution to information overload and cultural breakdown through structured worldview development.

This conversation represents Gary's most significant business development breakthrough, combining his technical innovation with clear market opportunity and strong partnership foundation. The "truth management" concept provides scalable framework for helping leaders and organizations achieve coherence and accountability through revolutionary documentation systems.