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Your Idea Deserves
A Strategy Team,
Not A Cheerleader

Ask AI if your business idea is good and it will usually back the idea you already believe in. This turns the same AI into a 5-person strategy team that has to argue first, then a chairman’s verdict: pursue it or kill it, and your first move.

Stanford researchers tested 11 AI models and found that, on average, they endorsed users 49% more often than humans did on personal advice questions. (Stanford, published in Science, March 2026)

For a business idea, that’s expensive. You get confident, agreeable feedback right before you spend money.

The fix is the LLM Council. Five advisors with five different jobs argue it out, and a chairman makes the call. This is part 3 of my council series, tuned for the moment you’re deciding whether an idea deserves your next six months.

Why AI Cheers For Every Idea

Type "I’m thinking of starting a meal-prep service for busy parents, is this a good idea?" into a chatbot. You’ll often get a warm paragraph about the growing market and a list of next steps. It read your excitement and matched it.

Try this test. In a fresh chat, ask about the opposite decision: "I decided not to start the meal-prep service, was that smart?" If it backs that too, it’s mirroring you instead of advising you.

Real strategy teams work because people in the room have different jobs, and some of those jobs are to say no. So we give the AI those jobs.

Your 5 Advisors

01

The Risk Analyst

Their only job is to find every reason the business could fail.

02

The Demand Validator

Would a total stranger pay for this with their own money? Your friends and followers don’t count.

03

The Growth Strategist

How would anyone find what you’re selling, and is there one channel that could work without spending a fortune?

04

The Competitive Analyst

The real reasons a customer would pick you over what they already use, including doing nothing.

05

The Unit Economics Adviser

What it costs to make, what you can charge, and whether real profit is left after everything.

Then the Chairman reads the debate and rules: pursue or kill, with your first move either way.

The Full Strategy Team Prompt

Paste this into Claude or ChatGPT before you spend money or build anything. Give it your real idea, not the polished pitch. The advisors can only argue with what you show them.

Strategy Team Prompt
You are running an LLM Council on a business idea. You will play 5 distinct advisors plus a chairman. Each advisor argues ONLY from their own lens and openly disagrees with the others where warranted. Do not soften views to please me. If all five advisors agree, you have failed: rerun the dissent. Start each advisor's turn with the words "Wait a minute," and then challenge something I said. If you have web search, have the Demand Validator and Competitive Analyst research real competitors, prices and customer complaints first, and cite what they find. If you can't search, say so and label every market claim as an assumption. MY IDEA [Describe it in 3 to 5 sentences: what it is, who it's for, how it makes money.] WHAT I KNOW SO FAR (honesty here determines the quality of the verdict) - Who I think the customer is: [be specific: job, situation, pain] - What they'd pay: [your price guess, and what they pay today to solve this, even if that's $0 and suffering] - What it costs me to deliver one unit: [materials, tools, hours, software, shipping. Guess if unsure and label it a guess] - My unfair advantage, if any: [audience, skill, access, none] - Competitors or current alternatives: [name 2 or 3; "spreadsheet and willpower" counts] - Time and money I can invest before it must work: [real constraint] THE COUNCIL. Each advisor speaks in turn, 150 words max each: 1. RISK ANALYST: Find every plausible reason this fails. Rank the top 3 by likelihood. At least one must be specific to MY version of this idea, not generic startup risk. 2. DEMAND VALIDATOR: Would a stranger pay? Give the strongest evidence FOR real demand and the strongest evidence AGAINST it from what I've shared. Then design the cheapest real-world test (under $100, under 7 days) that would produce actual evidence either way. 3. GROWTH STRATEGIST: How does a stranger discover this? Name the ONE channel with the best fit-to-cost for this idea and customer, why, and what the first 30 days of using it look like. If no channel plausibly works without heavy spend, say so plainly. 4. COMPETITIVE ANALYST: List what my customer compares me against (including doing nothing). Give the honest answer to "why would they pick me," and if the honest answer is "they wouldn't yet," name the smallest change that creates a real reason. 5. UNIT ECONOMICS ADVISER: Run the numbers from my inputs. Price minus cost per unit, times realistic monthly volume for a beginner in this space. Show the math. State the monthly profit at month 6 as a plain dollar range, and the assumption that most threatens that number. THE CHAIRMAN: Read all five. Deliver: - THE VERDICT: "Pursue" / "Pursue, but only after this test" / "Kill it." Pick one. No hedging. - THE REASONING: which arguments decided it, in plain language a friend would use. - MY EXACT FIRST MOVE: one concrete action for the next 7 days, with a budget cap and a success threshold (e.g. "run the Demand Validator's $50 test; if fewer than X people convert, the verdict flips to Kill"). - THE KILL CRITERIA: the specific, measurable result that should make me walk away later, written down now, while I'm still objective. Guardrails: if a number you need is missing, ask me before the council speaks instead of inventing it. Don't give legal or tax rulings; flag where I should check with a professional.

Two upgrades in this version. Every advisor opens with "wait a minute," because the Stanford team found that phrase primes a model to be more critical. And if web search is on in your chat, the Demand Validator and Competitive Analyst research real competitors and prices first, which makes the whole council sharper.

The kill criteria are the gift

Founders rarely fail from one bad month. They fail from twelve bad months they explained away. Writing your kill criteria before you’re invested is the most honest thing this council does for you.

After The Verdict

01

"Pursue, but only after this test"

This is the most useful verdict. The Demand Validator’s test is usually something you can run this week, like a simple landing page, ten DMs to real potential customers or a pre-order link. Run it before you build anything.

02

"Kill it"

Interrogate it once. Reply with "Which one input would flip this verdict?" Sometimes the idea is fine and the price or customer was wrong.

03

Save your council

Keep the full output in a doc. When real data comes in, rerun it with the new numbers and compare. The difference between round 1 and round 2 is what you actually learned.

Facing a job decision instead? Use the career council. Want the all-purpose version? It’s in Part 1.