A Startup Feasibility Tool That Will Tell You NO

Most feasibility tools are cheerleaders — praise every idea, hand you a nice PDF, collect the subscription fee. Cortex AIF produces NO_GO verdicts about 40% of the time, because about 40% of ideas don't pencil out. If you want honest signal, start here.

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What feasibility actually means (quantitatively)

Feasibility is not a gut-check. It's a weighted sum across measurable dimensions:

Market size (TAM/SAM/SOM) — is there enough opportunity to matter?
Competitive intensity — how crowded, how defended, by whom?
Unit economics — does CAC fit LTV?
Distribution reality — can you actually reach your customer at scale?
Regulatory / legal constraints — are there blockers you didn't know about?
Team-market fit — does the team's background match what's required?
Capital requirements — bootstrap-able or VC-scale?
Technical complexity — solvable with current tech or R&D bet?

Cortex AIF scores each of these on a 0-10 scale with weights. The weighted total determines the verdict. Below 5.5 is NO_GO. 5.5-7.0 is CONDITIONAL_GO. Above 7.0 is GO.

How we compute the score

The scoring formula is public (it's in the report). Each block of analysis contributes its confidence-adjusted score to the weighted sum. When a block can't find enough data to score confidently, its weight is reduced — not zeroed out, reduced. This is what lets the formula produce a CONDITIONAL_GO: the idea has directional signal but some dimensions need more proof.

Why false positives matter more than false negatives

A false negative (tool says NO_GO to a good idea) costs you one opportunity. You move on, test the next one.

A false positive (tool says GO to a bad idea) costs you 6-18 months of your life and $20-100k of your savings. Most encouragement tools are optimized around false positives — because people pay for encouragement and churn on truth.

Cortex is tuned in the opposite direction. We over-index on NO_GO, with specific reasons, so you lose opportunities you'd have lost anyway faster, and waste less time on ideas that never had a shot.

Who's using this

Solo founders deciding between 2-3 ideas before committing 6 months.
Bootstrappers evaluating a product before quitting their job.
Accelerators screening applicants (batch feasibility scans).
Angels pre-filtering pitch decks before the first meeting.

Feasibility scan in 10 minutes

Free first report. If it says NO, you just saved six months.

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Frequently asked questions

Why does this tool say NO more often than others?

Because ~40% of business ideas, when stress-tested against live market data with a formula, don't pencil out. Most tools are tuned to say GO because it's what keeps subscribers. We're tuned to produce the honest distribution.

Can I override a NO_GO verdict?

You can ignore it — nothing enforces anything. But the report also shows which dimensions failed, so 'overriding' usually means 'I disagree with their TAM estimate because [reason].' Often that reason is fair, and you adjust. Sometimes it's not, and you save yourself a year.

Is this better than a business plan competition judge?

For the quantitative dimensions (TAM, CAC, LTV, regulatory), yes — AI pulls live data, no human has time for that at scale. For qualitative dimensions (founder-market fit, insight quality), human judges are still better. Use both when you can.

How is this different from a lean canvas?

Lean canvas is a framework for thinking. Cortex AIF is a system that fills in the data cells of your lean canvas — with verified numbers — and then scores what you've filled in. Use the canvas to structure, use Cortex to stress-test.