The field guide
How to hunt well.
Flint works out of the box — press Strike and it does the rest. But hunters who know when to drill, when to fuse, and what a tame verdict is actually telling them get more idea per credit. This is that knowledge.
Pick the right door.
All four doors end the same way — a graded idea — but they start from different truths about you.
Spark from scratch
You bring nothing; the engine brings the collision. Best when you want to be surprised out of your own patterns.
Build on an asset
Name one thing you actually have — a skill, a space, a stockpile, a network. The engine finds the move you wouldn't make on it.
Start from a pain
Name who hurts and when. The engine presses resources against the pain until a business forms around it.
Sharpen a business idea
Paste the idea. The engine decomposes it, grades it cold, then works to lift the grade.
If you're torn between doors, prefer the one where you can be most concrete. A vivid asset beats a vague pain; a vivid pain beats starting cold.
Read the altitudes deliberately.
Every strike lands at three heights, and they're for different moments:
The category the collision opens. Read here when you're mapping territory — what kind of business is this?
The wedge — a specific offer for a specific buyer. The default read: concrete enough to judge, wide enough to grow. When unsure, read here.
The niche — narrow, vivid, immediately buildable. Read here when you want something you could start next month.
You don't need all three. Read one altitude, and only read another if the first one surprised you enough to want a different frame on it.
Know your evolve moves.
After a read, the controls under the card each change the idea in a different direction. This is where the hunt is won:
Drill an angle
One angle of the decomposition surprised you? Drill it — the engine expands that angle alone, holding the rest still.
Regenerate
The angle is right but the take is flat. Regenerate for a different cut at the same depth.
Fuse a second resource
The classic rescue for a tame: strike something unlike into the existing idea and let the grader re-judge the new collision.
Structure moves
Same ingredients, different architecture — who pays, who owns, when money moves. Often the difference between tame and flicker is structural, not material.
Regrade vs a market
Point the idea at a geography. Edge is local: what's a dud worldwide can be a flicker somewhere specific.
Plain words
Every reading can be re-said simply. If the idea stops making sense in plain words, that tells you something too.
Treat verdicts like information, not applause.
Flicker
Real, untaken edge. This is a lead, not a finish line — your next move is outside Flint: talk to whoever the reading says bleeds.
Tame
The idea is sound; the surprise is spent. Don't abandon it — work it: fuse a second resource, or restructure, then let the grader re-judge. The demo's second strike shows exactly this lift.
Dud
Whoever feels this pain is already served. Duds are the cheapest verdicts you'll ever get — a dollar to learn what would otherwise cost you a year. Strike again.
The grade measures surprise and untaken edge — not profit. Plenty of excellent livelihoods are tame businesses. Flint's job is to tell you which is which before you commit.
Phrase your own inputs like a hunter.
When you bring your own asset, pain, or idea, concreteness is everything. The engine strikes best against something with edges.
my logistics background nine years routing refrigerated trucks
healthcare is broken new parents can't reach a paediatrician after 6pm
an app for local services a booking service where retired electricians inspect houses before purchase
Bring one resource, one pain, or one idea per run — not a bundle. The engine's job is to add the unlike thing; leave it room to.
Spend credits like they're ammunition.
Every generative press spends in proportion to the work it does, and your balance is always on screen. A typical hunt — strike to graded idea — runs about a dollar. Three habits keep it there:
Read one altitude before you touch anything else. Drill only the angle that genuinely surprised you. And when a tame appears, choose one rescue — fuse or restructure — and regrade, rather than pressing everything.
Enough theory.
The demo on the homepage plays a full hunt free. Your own hunt starts at a dollar.
Start for $1