Compass Origin · before you start a business
You know you want to build something. You don't know what.
Six guided steps that turn your experience, values and constraints into a shortlist of business ideas that fit you.
One payment. No subscription. Stop and come back any time.
The problem
This isn't a research problem.
Maybe you have four ideas and can't choose. Maybe you have none, and you're waiting for one to arrive. Either way you've been looking outward — at markets, trends, what worked for someone else.
The answer isn't out there. It's in what you've already done, what you value, and how you want to live.
What this is
A way to decide. Not an idea generator.
Origin is
- Six steps, in order
- A conversation, not a form
- Every idea judged against your values, experience and constraints
- A shortlist you can defend
Origin isn't
- A market report
- A list of trending niches
- Ten ideas from a chatbot
- A promise you'll be trading by Friday
The sequence
Six steps. In order, for a reason.
Each step opens when you confirm the last one. Change anything, any time.
Who are you at your core?
What have people paid you for?
What actually excites you?
What have you already been considering?
How do you want to work?
Where do you want to be in five years?
You talk it through
A real conversation that follows what you say. Not a questionnaire.
You approve every summary
Each step ends in a written summary. Read it, edit it, confirm it.
Only what you confirm is saved
The conversation isn't kept. Your account holds the version you signed off.
What you get
The Business Idea Shortlist
Three ideas in full — the name, the case for it, and why it fits you. Plus three to five ranked alternates. Ideas you brought yourself are marked as yours. It's written when all six steps are confirmed, and only when you ask.
Business Idea Shortlist
Confirmed · 6 of 6Fits because: eleven years in healthcare ops, and you'd rather have twelve clients than two hundred.
Fits because: the work people already pay you for, inside the four-day week you called non-negotiable.
Fits because: the highest ceiling on your list — but it needs a hire in year one.
Any chatbot can list ten ideas in twenty minutes. That isn't this.
Every idea here traces back to something you said. The list is the output. The trace is why you can trust it.
How long it takes
This is not a twenty-minute quiz.
Six steps of real thinking, usually over a few sittings. It saves every time you confirm a step.
You won't have a business by Friday. Deciding what to build is the part people skip — and skipping it is how you end up three years into the wrong thing.
After Origin
You've decided what. Clarity is how.
Compass Clarity picks it up from there: purpose, core values, vision and mission, who you're for and who you're not for, and a 12-month plan walked back to 30 days. Your account and every confirmed step carry over.
Plenty of people run Origin and go build. That's a good place to stop.
Before you start
Fair questions.
Then Origin probably isn't for you. It's built for the point before that decision.
Nothing is written until you've confirmed all six steps, and every idea comes from your own answers.
The conversation is temporary. Only the summaries you confirm are saved, and you can change them later.
All six steps, unlimited revisits, and your shortlist saved to your account. One payment.