Spend without return
Senior hires, travel and trade shows approved with no expected result and no review of what they delivered.
The problem
Good products fail on unchecked decisions.
Funded startups rarely fail because the product is wrong. They fail because money and time go to work that doesn't move the goals the board agreed, and nobody challenges it until it's too late to undo.
The costly rework
A platform rewrite that serves no customer goal, runs far over its estimate and freezes the roadmap for months.
Feature chasing
Big prospects ask for one more feature before signing. Engineering builds it. Many never sign.
Onboarding drop-off
Customers sign but stall when adoption needs them to change how they work, and churn before value arrives.
Each was a decision made with good intentions. What was missing was an independent, always-on check against the strategy, with the evidence in front of the people deciding.
How it works
Strategy first. Everything links. Compass watches.
Compass runs a continuous loop from the goals your board agrees to the work your team does, and back again.
- 1
Agree the strategy
Goals, strategic bets, a not-doing list and OKRs on live data, approved by the board.
- 2
Link the work
Spend, hires, engineering epics, deals and onboarding are tied to key results inside budget envelopes.
- 3
Set the watch
The board and CFO tell Compass in plain English what to look out for. It tests each rule on your history first.
- 4
Push back in time
Checks run before approval. Alerts arrive with the data trail behind them, while there's still time to act.
- 5
Coach the CEO
Time against the red key results, the board's weekly focus questions and preparation for the next board meeting.
- 6
Report honestly
A weekly board digest and a decision journal that records every call and its outcome, so the company learns.
The differentiator
You decide what the AI watches.
Most AI tools answer when asked, using rules the vendor chose. Compass is briefed by your board and CFO, like a diligent operating partner on day one.
- Write it in plain English. "Warn me and Sam if any event or trip goes over £5k without three booked meetings."
- Check the interpretation. Compass shows the data it will read, when it fires, who it tells and when it escalates.
- Test it on your history. Before it goes live, Compass replays the last 12 months and shows every time it would have fired.
- Tune it as you go. Focus areas, sensitivity, how hard it challenges and who hears first. Noisy watches suggest their own fixes.
Every watch is visible to the CEO, versioned and logged for the board. There are no hidden watches.
Features
An operator's judgement, built into the tools you already use.
CEO focus coach
Compares where the CEO's time went with the key results that are red, then turns it into three concrete moves for the week.
- Calendar time against OKR priorities, private unless shared
- The board's weekly focus questions, including "What decision are you avoiding?"
- The questions the board is likely to ask next meeting
Spend gate
Every significant request names the key result it serves and the result it should deliver. Compass checks it before it reaches the approver.
- Budget envelope, runway impact and past returns in one view
- Flags rules from the board's not-doing list
- Suggests cheaper routes to the same result
Deal desk
Treats feature requests as a trade, not a gift. Each deal is scored for fit and adoption readiness, and moving goalposts are spotted early.
- Ideal customer fit and adoption-readiness checklist
- Feature requests weighed by demand and build cost
- Recommends what to ask for in return, and drafts the email
Onboarding early warning
Catches stalled customers while they can still be rescued, using milestones, product usage and how responsive the champion is.
- Mutual action plans shared with the customer
- Health signals and time-to-first-value per customer
- Rescue playbooks with drafted messages
Technical decision gate
Big technical changes come with options, an AI pre-mortem and their real impact on goals, deals and customers.
- Forecasts using the team's own estimate history
- Shows which deals and customers a delay puts at risk
- Checkpoints and stop rules, logged for the board
Board digest and portfolio view
One honest page for the board every week, drafted from live data. Investors and fractional executives see every company they support on one screen.
- Runway, burn, key results, red flags and decisions
- CEO reviews and adds a note before it's sent
- Cross-portfolio patterns and early warnings
Who it's for
One source of truth for everyone who shapes the company.
Founders and CEOs
Know where your attention should go this week, and walk into board meetings with answers ready.
CFOs and finance leads
Set the rules once. Every spend, hire and envelope is checked against them without chasing anyone.
Boards and investors
Your priorities, applied every day between meetings, with early warnings instead of quarterly surprises.
Fractional COOs and CFOs
Bring the same discipline to every company you support, from one portfolio view.
Works with your stack
Compass sits on top of the tools you already use.
Read-only by default. It writes only when someone approves an action, such as a card limit or a draft email.
Finance
Xero · QuickBooks · Sage · NetSuite · open banking
Spend and travel
Pleo · Spendesk · Ramp · Brex · Navan
Sales
HubSpot · Salesforce · Pipedrive · Gong
Product and engineering
Jira · Linear · GitHub · PostHog · Mixpanel
Customers and people
Intercom · Zendesk · Gainsight · HiBob · Deel
Communication
Slack · Microsoft Teams · Google and Outlook calendars
How Compass compares
Others report. Compass challenges.
Each part of Compass overlaps with a tool you may already have. None of them checks decisions against your strategy as they happen.
| Category | What it does well | What Compass adds |
|---|---|---|
| Startup finance planning | Models, forecasts, variance explanations | Links spend to OKRs, deals and onboarding, and checks it before approval |
| OKR software | Setting and tracking goals | Ties every key result to budgets and live data |
| Spend management | Approval rules and card limits | Judges spend against goals and past returns, not just budget lines |
| Portfolio monitoring | Collecting and benchmarking reported data | Early warnings from inside the company, between board meetings |
| Sales and feature tools | Deal forecasting and request voting | Weighs each request against deal quality and build cost |
| Onboarding tools | Shared plans and health scores | Checks adoption readiness before the contract is signed |
Built for trust
Decision support, not surveillance.
Open by design
The CEO sees every watch, who set it and why, and can reply to any alert on the record.
Humans decide
Compass applies rules your board agreed. It never approves or blocks on its own authority.
Numbers are computed
Figures come from your systems, calculated in code. The AI explains them and never invents them.
Your data stays yours
Read-only connections, opt-in calendar and email analysis, and a full audit trail.
Design partner programme
Help shape Compass.
We're looking for a small group of VC-backed companies, CFOs, boards and fractional executives to pilot Compass with us over 90 days.
- A guided setup on your own systems
- Direct input into the roadmap
- Founding-partner terms