Know if your idea will survive reality before you build it.
Most founders validate the wrong thing at the wrong time. PRISM runs your idea through 12 evidence lenses, stress-tests it against 60 realistic shocks, and delivers a signed verdict — before you spend a single day building the wrong thing.
Who uses PRISM
Built for founders who want an honest verdict
PRISM is stage-aware. The rubric adjusts from idea-only (where all evidence is inferred) through to post-revenue companies considering a significant pivot. You are never penalised for being early.
Pre-Seed Founders
You have an idea, a problem you believe in, and limited runway to test it. PRISM tells you whether it's worth building — before you spend a single day building it wrong.
- Idea or early MVP stage
- Preparing your first investor narrative
- Choosing between competing ideas
- Deciding whether to leave employment
Series A Founders & PMs
You are extending a product line, entering a new vertical, or considering a strategic pivot. The stakes are board-level. PRISM gives you a structured framework to defend the decision with evidence, not instinct.
- New product feature or vertical
- Pivot after a traction plateau
- Board-level product decision
- Pre-fundraise narrative validation
Corporate Innovation Teams
Running PRISM across your product pipeline at £29 per idea is the fastest way to separate high-probability investments from resource-consuming projects that should never have proceeded.
- Internal product launch decisions
- Innovation pipeline triage
- Pre-build investment justification
- Stage-gate decision support
How it works
From idea to verdict in four steps
No intake interviews. No waiting weeks. Submit your idea, choose your tier, receive your verdict.
Submit your brief
Describe your idea using the structured prompt guide. Include target customer, mechanism, and why now. No call needed.
12 lenses evaluated
Each lens runs its structured rubric — problem fit, market size, moat, unit economics, team, and seven more. Every claim is evidence-graded A–E.
Stress scenarios run
Pro: 15+ realistic shocks. Ultra: 60+ correlated scenarios. Macro, regulatory, competitive, and capital shocks — named and scored.
Verdict + action plan
One of five verdicts. GO includes an Amplification Plan. KILL or PIVOT includes a Salvage Matrix and Rescue Plan. DEFER names the exact re-evaluate trigger.
What a verdict looks like
Five verdicts. Zero flattery
PRISM doesn't produce optimistic summaries. Every report resolves to one of five clearly-defined verdicts — scored, graded, and signed by a named analyst.
Vertical SaaS · SMB accounting automation
Strongest lens: Problem fit (4.8/5) — 3 paying workaround customers identified. Gate passed: CAC payback <6 months at median ARR. Proceed to build.
B2B marketplace · construction procurement
Gate: Moat lens (3.0/5) triggers a conditional. Validate a supply-side exclusivity mechanism before Series A. Three experiments named in Amplification Plan.
D2C supplement brand · performance nootropics
Kill criterion: Regulatory lens triggered — UK MHRA classification requires clinical substantiation. LTV collapses below CAC at compliant acquisition cost. Pivot & Rescue plan included.
Healthcare · GP direct appointment booking
Core idea fails: GP referral pathway cannibalisation creates regulatory and NHS contract conflict. Adjacent opportunity: Private specialist booking at 3× price point. Three pivot experiments named in Rescue Plan.
Autonomous fleet management · urban last-mile
Timing gate: Unit economics are viable, but DSIT AV regulatory framework (expected Q1 2026) is the critical unlock. Re-evaluate trigger defined. Three productive pre-regulatory actions specified.
Start Free. Go deeper when the stakes do
Run the Pulse at no cost. When you need the full 12-lens analysis — evidence graded, verdict structured, human-accountable — choose Pro or Ultra.
- GO / DEFER / KILL signal + reason
- One critical next step
- Delivered via email in 15 min
- Full 12-lens analysis, graded A–E
- 5 synthetic personas (3 buyers + 2 adversarial)
- GO / CGO / PIVOT / KILL / DEFER verdict
- 15+ stress scenarios
- Amplification or Rescue Plan
- 30-day refund guarantee
Submit → secure payment link in 5 min → report in 24h
- Everything in PRISM Pro
- Named human analyst signs the verdict
- 1 strategic follow-up call (30 min)
- Board-ready PDF with citations
- NDA available on request
- 30-day refund guarantee
All prices GBP · VAT may apply · Full refund within 30 days
Corporate or volume? Contact Us →The methodology
12 lenses. One verdict
PRISM doesn't produce a confidence score. It runs 12 structured analytical lenses — each scored 0–5, evidence-graded A–E, carrying a kill-criterion check. Any single kill criterion overrides the composite score.
Evidence grading scale — applied to every claim in your report
Actual customer data, signed contracts, audited financials, or published regulatory documents.
Peer-reviewed research, credible market reports (Gartner, McKinsey, ONS), or industry body data.
Logical extrapolation from B-grade evidence with named assumptions stated explicitly.
Reasonable but unverified. Flagged as a belief requiring confirmation before proceeding.
Unverifiable at this stage. Automatically added to your priority experiment list as a named test.
A report heavy in D and E grades is not a failure — it is an honest map of what you need to test next. That is more valuable than a D-grade report that reads like an A.
Is the problem real and urgent? Do customers pay for workarounds today? Evidence of pain without a solution is the most powerful signal we look for.
Is the market large enough, growing, and accessible at this stage?
Is the ideal customer defined precisely enough to acquire at cost?
Does the solution create a defensible value prop vs. existing alternatives?
What is the durable competitive advantage? Which of Helmer's 7 powers applies?
Does the model reach viable unit economics at realistic scale? CAC:LTV, payback period, and gross margin stress-tested against three scenarios.
Is there a credible first-customer acquisition path without paid scale?
Can this be built and delivered at the cost and quality the model requires?
Regulatory pathway mapped with timeline, cost, and clearance type.
What shocks kill this? Pre-mortem written. Full 60-shock battery included in Standard.
Does the team have the capability to execute the critical path?
Is the timing right? What needs to be true for this to work now vs. in 3 years? The synthesis lens — integrates all signals into a final timing assessment.
After the verdict
Every outcome has a next step
A verdict without a plan is just a score. PRISM Standard delivers an actionable roadmap regardless of the outcome — because a well-structured KILL with a rescue path is more valuable than an unexamined GO.
Amplification Plan
When your idea passes, you get a structured plan for turning the validation into momentum — not just a thumbs up.
- →Next competitive power to acquire (Helmer's 7 Powers ladder)
- →Lens-by-lens ceiling-break actions, ranked by delta-per-cost
- →Adjacent expansion sequence + what not to do this year
- →Pricing escalator and named flywheel with its bottleneck identified
Pivot & Rescue Plan
When your idea fails, you get a structured recovery — because the assets you've built have value even when the idea doesn't.
- →Salvage Matrix — 8 assets scored: preserved / partial / written off
- →3 adjacent problems your team could attack in 30 days
- →Pivot type from Ries' ten, with riskiest assumption identified
- →Revisit trigger: specific condition that would change the verdict
Timing Assessment
Your idea is structurally viable, but a named external condition must change before the economics work. DEFER is not a failure — it's a precise statement of when to act.
- →Named trigger condition — exact event that changes the verdict
- →Earliest realistic re-evaluation date with rationale
- →3 productive actions to take while the market catches up
- →Leading indicators to monitor: the signals that mean it's time
What £29 gets you
Inside a PRISM Pro report
18–28 page PDF. Delivered within 24 hours. Board and investor ready.
Composite score, verdict, single critical reason, three next actions. 90-second board scan format.
Each lens scored 0–5, graded A–E, with kill-criterion check and the specific claim driving each score.
3 buyer archetypes + 2 adversarial challengers. Each responds to your value proposition with real objections and blockers.
Base, optimistic, pessimistic, wildcard shock — each with score impact and the one assumption that flips the verdict.
Five failure stories from 24 months out. Named root causes — not generic risk categories.
GO: Amplification Plan with ceiling-break actions. KILL/PIVOT: Salvage Matrix + Rescue Plan with three adjacent pivots.
Every D/E-grade claim becomes a named experiment with hypothesis and success metric. Your validation roadmap, ready to run.
Honest comparison: including doing nothing
Gut feel, AI chatbots, and expensive consultants are the usual options. PRISM sits in the gap — structured, evidence-graded, fast, and human-accountable. The most honest column isn't any alternative: it's doing nothing, and finding out the verdict 12 months and a runway later.
| Criterion | PRISM · ThriveFinity | DIY Frameworks | AI Chat Tools | Consultants | Doing Nothing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Structured verdictOne of five verdicts: GO / CGO / PIVOT / KILL / DEFER | ✓ | ✗Prompts only | ✗Opinion, not verdict | ~Varies by scope | ✗ |
| Evidence graded A–EEvery claim scored from verified evidence to pure inference | ✓ | ✗ | ✗Hallucination risk | ~Varies | ✗ |
| Stress scenariosMacro, competitive, regulatory, and capital shocks — named and scored | ✓15–60 (Pro–Ultra) | ✗ | ✗ | ~At extra cost | ✗ |
| Amplification or Rescue PlanGO gets an Amplification Plan; KILL/PIVOT gets a Salvage Matrix | ✓Every outcome covered | ✗ | ✗ | ~Varies | ✗ |
| Turnaround timeFrom brief submission to verdict | 15 min – 24h | Self-paced (weeks) | Instant | 6 – 12 weeks | Months of wasted runway |
| Entry priceLowest cost to get a useful output | Free | Free (your time) | Free – £20/mo | £15K – £150K+ | Founding team salary × months |
| 30-day refund guaranteeFull refund if the report doesn't hold up | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Human-accountable verdictA named verifier signs the report — not just an AI output | ✓ | ✗ | ✗AI only | ~At high cost | ✗ |
| EU AI Act compliantAI assistance disclosed, sources licensed, EU-hosted data | ✓ | ✗ | ✗No disclosure | ~ | ✗ |
Start your PRISM
Run your first validation
Select your tier and tell us about your idea. We'll take it from there.
The KILL verdict saved us six months. We were about to hire a dev team. The rescue plan gave us three better ideas to test instead.
— Founder, B2B logistics startup · PRISM Standard
A 5-question diagnostic. Verdict in 15 min. Returns a GO / DEFER / KILL verdict with one critical reason and one next step — free, always.
Full 12-lens analysis with evidence grading, 15+ stress scenarios, and a structured verdict. Delivered in 24 hours.
Everything in Pro, plus a named human analyst signs the verdict. Board-ready, investor-grade. 30-min strategic follow-up call included.
Idea validated? Now verify your claims
PRISM tells you whether to build. Pre-Launch Verification tells you whether your claims will survive investor and customer scrutiny. The Sentinel stack is designed to run in sequence.
Explore Pre-Launch Verification →