What started as an impromptu pitch at Tech Alpharetta turned into a pivotal moment in my startup journey. Sharing the vision behind Finciples — a decision-support platform that brings legendary investment principles into the Intelligence Age — sparked challenging but invaluable feedback from seasoned mentors. What resonated most wasn’t just the tool, but the idea that AI should augment human judgment, not replace it — a message that left the room curious, engaged, and ready for more.

“I didn’t plan to pitch… but I’m glad I was asked to.”

This past Friday, I dropped by Tech Alpharetta’s Startup Circle. I expected a quiet seat at back of the room. Instead, Chuck called me out to share what I was working on — and the next 20 minutes was something that I will remember as a part of my Startup journey.

The trio of Chuck, Dale, and Tom - omnipresent as long as I can remember in these meetings - don’t offer flattery. They offer clarity. They’ve seen too many decks, coached too many founders, and carry the kind of scars that make them brutally honest — and invaluable.

So when I shared the idea behind Finciples, a tool for principle-based decision augmentation, I braced for impact.

My starting point? A belief I hold deeply: We are moving from the Information Age to the Intelligence Age. The Arcs I use to navigate the change is : Assist → Automate → Augment → Autonomy

→ The problem isn’t that we don’t have enough information. → The problem is that we have too much — and not enough ways to apply it intelligently.

Decision fatigue is real. We’re forced to make dozens of complex choices every day — often without structure, feedback, or clarity.

That’s what Finciples aims to solve.

Finciples is a decision-support platform for long-term investors that lets users view a stock or financial decision through the lens of legendary thinkers like Warren Buffett or Ray Dalio. Instead of focusing on quantitative indicators alone, it emphasizes qualitative factors like company moat or founder integrity, which are often overlooked but critical to investment conviction. The platform synthesizes views from multiple AI models and allows users to curate and evolve their own decision-making principles over time. It’s especially valuable for independent financial advisors, sophisticated retail investors, and educational settings where learning how to think matters as much as what to buy.

And sure enough — Chuck came in swinging: → “How do you explain attribution?” → “What happens when your AI’s advice isn’t reproducible?” → “What makes your platform different from just asking ChatGPT?”

All fair. All necessary.

Then came Dale, grounding the discussion with a story about his father — who used Value Line and spreadsheets to outperform professionals. What he saw in Finciples wasn’t hype. It was a scalable, structured version of the same diligence his dad practiced: surfacing perspectives you might never have considered, then making your own call.

We had some back and forth with others in the audience. And something shifted. Chuck started looking at things differently — especially when he introduced Reina Lingle. Her expertise in job search strategies, amplified by AI, resonated in a way that pure tech never could.

The tool mattered. But what mattered more? The person behind it and how we connect it to data, process, context in that workflow.

→ AI becomes valuable when paired with real-world judgment. → People don’t want “the AI take.” They want your take — augmented by AI, not replaced by it. → The future isn’t just AI-generated — it’s expert-guided and AI-accelerated.

Someone told me after the talk:

“You’ve inspired me to reexamine how I make decisions.” Another asked: “When’s your next AI session?”

And Tom — quiet through most of my segment — turned as he left and said -

“I think you’re on to something. Let’s catch up when I’m back.”

That meant the world.

I know I have a few more meetings of convincing to do do and thanks to Chuck - I will be speaking at the The Entrepreneurial Hour this August!

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