A 15-minute self-test that shows how pressure is shaping your decisions – and what to focus on so you can stay clear, resilient, and keep your venture moving.
72% of founders feel mentally drained - stress hijacks your “CEO brain.”
Nearly half delay or avoid tough calls - fear-driven choices pile up.
65% of startups fail due to people issues, not product - pressure leaks into culture and home.
If you’ve been stretched thin, second-guessing at 3 a.m., or quietly burning out while leading your company – you’re not alone.
Most startups don’t fail because the idea was wrong. They fail because the founder breaks before the business has a chance.
Business has frameworks for everything – finance, ops, strategy.
But the inner world of the founder? The clarity, resilience, and intuition that decide whether you scale or stall? Uncharted – until now.
The Founders Compass Institute™ was created to change that.
We research and map the inner game of entrepreneurship.
The Founder Readiness Assessment™ (FRA) is your entry point –
a first-of-its-kind way to measure the human side of scaling.
And what gets measured can improve.
Every founder runs on an inner operating system – but most never update it.
When pressure spikes, stress hijacks judgment, intuition fades, and performance erodes.
Founder Readiness™ is that upgrade: a complete inner architecture built on four masteries
This isn’t your destiny. It’s your starting point for transformation into a world-class entrepreneur.
This gave me the self-awareness to lead without burning out.
— Golddy Kaur
“I had the extraordinary fortune of crossing paths with PJ Jackson precisely 10 weeks before my TEDx talk. Little did I know then that she would become an instrumental part of my journey to the TEDx stage. PJ’s coaching expertise is truly unparalleled, marked by an exquisite blend of intuition, empathy, and a profound ability to catalyze transformation.”
— Dr. Janet Palmer
“PJ is a truly remarkable person whose presence lights up every room she enters. Her big smile, contagious warmth, and boundless energy make her someone you’re instantly drawn to—and someone you can trust to guide you in ways you’d never have discovered on your own. Her intuition is nothing short of magical, seeing straight into the heart of who you are and what you need, often before you even realize it yourself.”
— Phil Neil
“PJ and mine’s relationship started out as a coaching relationship where she prepared me to rock the red dot as a TEDx speaker. Over the course of our 10+ weeks together, I grew to trust and rely on her knowledge and expertise. By the time I was ready for the stage, I felt fully prepared and confident to deliver my message to the world from the TED stage. She is a coach like no other not because of her knowledge, but for the person she is. She cares deeply about her clients and creates long-lasting relationships. She is in-tune with her clients and always knows what they need. She is incredibly talented and loves coaching. I think the world of her and emphatically recommend PJ as your personal coach!”
— Evita Salles
“PJ Jackson is the reason I am a professional speaker. She chose to guide me when I was an up and coming speaker, mentoring me for a TEDx. Our 10 weeks together, meeting regularly on-line helped me grow tremendously and polish my style. I learned the TED way and now incorporate it into my keynotes.“
— Captain Martha LaGuardia-Kotite, US Coast Guard (retired) & award-winning author
“I wanted to share with you a truly transformative experience I recently had. Perhaps you, like me, were once feeling stuck and overwhelmed, unsure of how to move forward from past traumas. I remember those days when my brain insisted I should be getting things done, but my body felt frozen. Months went by, self-doubt crept in, and rumination took over. I kept asking myself, How can I get back to helping others? Why can’t I move? I felt like time was slipping away, with 10 hours passing by in the blink of an eye and nothing to show for it.”
— Dr. Kim Martin
“When I think of PJ, the words that come to mind are inspiration, change agent, and innovative collaboration. PJ and I first worked together at Lockheed Martin and have stayed in touch since. She has coached me to be a keynote speaker, she has guided me through personal development, and she has advised our company (Lattitude) since the idea was born in 2018. PJ walks the walk and talks the talk.”
— Pete Schramm
“I recently had the privilege of being coached by PJ and taking an Emergenetics test. This was one of the best decisions of my life that I made this quarter. As you may have noticed, I’ve been absent from active LinkedIn posting and engagement for a while. This is because I needed some clarity on how I wanted to impact people on this space. But I felt frozen, and my thoughts were like a complex web. The more I tried to gain direction, the further entangled I became.”
— Nora Agbakhamen
“Our journey began at World Congress where she led a session as the author of the book we had read for my leadership cohort (“The Labyrinth Influence: Awaken the Wisdom Within”). Her story both resonated and inspired me. I was feeling conflicted about work and life decisions. I asked PJ to lead a session on her book for our local NCMA Chapter and then to lead a workshop focused on Self Care for our NCMA Tysons chapter members. As I learned, I felt I had more questions than answers.”
— Colleen Timmer
“I had the pleasure of working with the kind, gentle heart that is PJ a couple of years ago. Like so many, I was struggling during the quiet and slowdown of the pandemic—both personally and professionally. Feeling a huge disconnect between my daily activities and my purpose, I contacted PJ and spent a number of weeks with her.”
— Wanda Wallace
“PJ’s coaching masterfully guided me through a process that allowed me to develop the compassion needed for expanded awareness. With PJ’s coaching, she helped me do the difficult personal work that helped me shift my insights. We covered important topics, what drives my creativity, my sense of purpose, how I communicate and use my voice, etc. With PJ’s coaching, I could start to balance my focus on who I am, and this caused a ripple effect of change.”
— Denita Acker
“My coaching sessions with PJ mark a significant transformation in my life. PJ’s course was one of several self-help and healing projects I was integrating into my journey at the time, as I was determined to grow spiritually and ascend to higher levels of clarity and abundance. PJ took the time to learn about the other endeavors I had going on and found ways to incorporate them harmoniously with her course.”
— Doyle Holz
“At my first meeting with Patrice Jackson (PJ), she asked me my expectations of her. I replied unabashedly, “A miracle!” She has delivered exactly that.“
— Joanne S. Schoonover, Vice President Defense Acquisition University
Grounded in lived founder experience and the latest psychology of stress and decision-making.
Developed by the Founders Compass Institute™, the research home defining the field of Founder Readiness™.
Already resonating with a 20 K+ strong founder community shaping this movement.
After selling my first company, I jumped into a new build and crashed — not from strategy, but because my inner game collapsed. Founders Compass™ is the system I wish I’d had: practical tools, candid peers, and a standards-driven path to steadier leadership.
Today, we’re defining a new discipline – Founder Readiness™.
It’s not therapy, not operations. It’s the human infrastructure that keeps companies scaling sustainably.
Every founder runs on an inner operating system – but most never update it.
When pressure spikes, stress hijacks judgment, intuition fades, and performance erodes.
Founder Readiness™ is that upgrade: a complete inner architecture built on four masteries—
Begin in minutes. 15-20 min of real-world founder scenarios.
Instant Archetype + 4-domain readiness profile.
Get your focus area and growth plan delivered instantly.
“We designed it to feel like a conversation with yourself – not a test.”
Turns ideas into traction - risks burning out.
Adapts fast - but hesitates in complexity.
Builds durable systems - can over-plan.
Inspires and aligns others with clarity.
After you finish, you’ll receive your Archetype badge and readiness snapshot.
Founders love comparing results – it gives language to struggles we all feel but rarely name.
About 15–20 minutes.
No. Just answer based on real founder moments.
Yes — private by default. Research opt-in is anonymized; no data is ever sold.
Yes — plus your archetype, top focus, and one practical action step.
Absolutely. Comparing results builds a shared decision language.
Become the founder your venture needs.
Take your free Founder Readiness Assessment today.
