Founders Compass™ pioneers Founder Readiness™ – the operating system for the human behind the venture.
When you strengthen the founder, the company follows.
Consent-first · Private by default · Dive Circles never recorded
After selling my first company, I thought I had it all figured out.
Then I watched my partners burn out – and eventually, I did too.
It wasn’t strategy that broke us. It was the invisible load: the stress spikes, the 3 a.m. doubt, the quiet erosion of clarity.
That collapse became my wake-up call. I stopped chasing tactics and started mapping what was really missing – a system for the human behind the venture.
Out of that work came the frameworks now used at Founders Compass™ – the Inner Edge OS™, Waterline™ communication model, and Founder Readiness Assessment™.
They weren’t invented in a lab. They were forged in the same fire you’re in.
“I learned the hard way that the first domino of startup failure isn’t on a spreadsheet. It’s inside the founder - when pressure breaks decision quality, or worse, the founder themselves. Founders Compass™ exists to make sure that domino is never pushed. We build founders the world doesn’t break.”
Startups rarely die from bad strategy. They die when a founder’s capacity runs out of runway – stress spikes, decisions blur, trust erodes.
Neuroscience shows that chronic stress floods the brain with cortisol and shuts down the prefrontal circuits responsible for judgment and creativity.
When the human operating system falters, even the best business plan collapses.
We exist to prevent that.
Founder Readiness™ turns science into structure – practical tools and training that rebuild clarity under pressure and make resilience measurable.
We’re codifying what’s been invisible: the inner skills that sustain outer performance.
Through the Founders Compass Institute™, we:
Research what actually improves decision quality and resilience under pressure.
Publish the annual Founder Readiness Index™ to benchmark the field.
Partner with universities, accelerators, and funds to embed readiness into the startup stack.
Because when founders stay clear and steady, companies grow stronger, cultures stay healthy, and innovation sustains instead of consuming its people.
Our framework integrates neuroscience, storytelling architecture, and 30 years of executive coaching:
Regulate state so your best thinking shows up on time.
Cut noise, bias, and decision debt with repeatable frameworks.
Balance data and gut – align values with velocity.
Build cadence and habits you can actually sustain.
Courageous Honesty · Ownership over Ego · Confidentiality & Consent · Service Mindset · Respect & Inclusion · Do the Work
Trust is our first metric – because clarity can’t grow where safety isn’t protected.
Phil Neil – Founder & Lead Instructor
Phil Neil is a serial entrepreneur, educator, and creator of the Founder Readiness™ framework. Drawing from years of building, investing in, and advising startups, Phil focuses on one mission: helping founders stay clear, decisive, and steady as their companies scale.
He combines neuroscience, leadership psychology, and real founder experience to teach the practices that keep clarity intact under pressure. Known for his calm presence and candid, founder-to-founder tone, Phil helps leaders protect decision quality and trust — the real infrastructure of performance.
He’s deeply passionate about entrepreneurship and helping bring bold ideas to market — the kind that change industries without breaking the people who build them.
Learn more at PhilNeil.com.
PJ Jackson – Applied Scientist & Pattern Recognition Expert
PJ Jackson is an applied scientist and leadership researcher known for her warmth, precision, and deep intuition about human patterns. She studies how stress and unseen loops shape clarity and decision-making – and helps founders see what they couldn’t see before.
Her work bridges science and empathy, turning complex research into simple, compassionate frameworks that restore confidence under pressure and reconnect founders with their best thinking.
Bo – Platform & Member Experience
Bo designs and protects the experience layer of Founders Compass™, ensuring every interaction – digital or human – reflects clarity, simplicity, and consent-first trust.
Practitioners of the inner game, not gurus of the outer one.
Calmer leadership under runway, hiring, and board pressure.
Better decisions, less decision debt.
Higher-trust teams and stronger culture.
Resilient energy that outlasts the chaos of growth.
