The same idea looks different to different founders. We do not pretend otherwise.
Every IdeaTwister run is calibrated against five things you tell us before the engine starts: your revenue goal, time horizon, available capital, weekly hours, and technical skill. These five inputs change what gets scored highly, what gets killed, and what shows up in the closing brief. Generic advice is the failure mode this product is built against.
Revenue goal
$25K side income · $100K solo · $500K small team · $2M+ scaledHow big the business needs to get for it to be worth your time.
What this shiftsScore caps shift. A $20/mo consumer SaaS that needs 50,000 paying users is fine for a $50k/yr goal and structurally broken for a $1M/yr one. The engine refuses to rate directions higher than their math allows.
Time horizon
30 days · 90 days · 6 months · 12 monthsHow soon you need to see the first dollar.
What this shiftsDirections whose typical time-to-first-dollar is much longer than your horizon get their revenue-speed score capped. A 90-day enterprise sales cycle does not earn a high score when you need revenue in 30 days.
Available capital
$0 · under $500 · $500 to $5k · $5k to $25k · $25k+Your budget for paid acquisition, infrastructure, contractors.
What this shiftsCapital-heavy plays (paid acquisition, two-sided marketplaces, anchor tenants) get capped when you have no capital, and unlocked when you do. A marketplace can earn an honest 8 with $50k+ runway. The same idea scores below 5 with $0.
Weekly hours
Under 10 · 10 to 20 · 20 to 40 · Full-timeHow many hours a week you can realistically commit.
What this shiftsBandwidth-intensive mechanics like enterprise sales, two-sided marketplaces, or concierge services get capped when your hours are limited. The engine knows a 10 hour/week founder cannot run an enterprise sales motion.
Risk tolerance
Low · Medium · HighHow much asymmetric upside you are willing to chase.
What this shiftsCalibration target distribution and Devil's Advocate severity shift. Risk-tolerant founders see more high-upside / high-uncertainty directions ranked at the top. Risk-averse founders see a flatter, safer top.
Technical skill
Non-technical · Semi-technical · TechnicalWhat you can realistically ship without hiring.
What this shiftsDirection feasibility shifts. A "build a Postgres replacement" direction scores low for a non-technical founder. A "manual concierge with a Notion frontend" direction scores high. The engine matches mechanic complexity to your declared skill.
The profile is not a form we collect and forget. It threads through five distinct phases of the pipeline, and changes the output of each one.
The kill argument names goal-mismatch and capital-mismatch directly. A $1M/yr goal idea that can only realistically reach $50k/yr gets killed on Money Math.
Seven code-enforced caps read your profile. Caps fire twice in every run: after initial scoring and again after calibration. Calibration can never push a capped variation back up.
The target distribution is goal-aware. Side-project founders see more 8.5+ scores because lots of directions clear that bar. Venture-scale founders see far fewer, because most directions honestly cannot clear that bar.
Antithesis tests whether each direction can plausibly reach your goal in 12 months and whether it clears the bar set by the Devil's Advocate. Goal-mismatched directions get high kill-risk and lose composite.
The closing brief speaks to you specifically. "Given your $5k capital and 20-hour weeks, the strongest direction is X because..." Generic advice is the failure mode the brief is designed against.
Every direction carries a founder-fit shield in your dashboard.
Four match dimensions: skill, hours, capital, channel. 0 to 4 shield levels. Hover any shield to see the breakdown. Sort the whole dashboard by founder-fit instead of by raw composite, and the “top picks for you” almost always differ from “top picks overall.”
That is the point. A direction can be objectively strong and a poor fit for you specifically. The dashboard shows both views so you can pick the right one for your life, not just the highest-scoring one on the page.
Ready for a run calibrated against you?
Start with a $19 Quick Twist. Your profile carries forward to every run, so future Twists stay calibrated without filling it out again.
Run My Reality CheckFailed runs are refunded automatically. See the refund policy.