Alternative · Business Coaching

An alternative to a business coach
for the calls between sessions

A great coach asks the right questions and witnesses your decisions. SynthBoard is the alternative to a business coach for the hours in between: a board of opposed experts, so you walk in with sharper questions.

Start free See how it works

In short

No. A great coach builds a multi-year relationship, witnesses your patterns, holds you accountable and reads what you are not saying. SynthBoard cannot. Use it between sessions — to stress-test the idea you will bring to your coach, or for the calls too small to spend a session on.

Last reviewed October 1, 2026

An example

One ask, start to finish.
What comes back is a memo.

How a board takes a call like this: her read, who sits, what they ask first, then the call — with how sure they are, who disagreed and the first step.

Business Coaching

Example · Board of 3

Should I take this enterprise deal that will distort my product roadmap?

Chief of staff

This one needs a board: The Empath, The Strategist and The Skeptic. The Empath reads the emotional, cultural, and team dynamics behind the decision. Each researches alone first, then they react to one another — and on a decision, two of them take opposed sides.

The EmpathPeople Advocate
The StrategistCompetitive Expert
The SkepticRisk Assessor

Asked first

Who does this land on hardest, and do they know yet?

They knowNot yetNot sure who

The board’s call

Take the enterprise deal but with three protective constraints: cap implementation scope, require a 60-day pilot clause, and earmark the revenue as runway extension, not roadmap funding.

The roadmap distortion risk is real but recoverable if scope is capped. Revenue framing matters — runway, not roadmap, removes the temptation to overbuild.

Confidence70 · Moderate

The Skeptic disagreed

“Implementation creep is the #1 failure mode — name the cap before signing”

First step Test what The Skeptic flagged before you commit.this week

Board of 3 · up to 135 credits on the card · an example, not a recorded run

Other asks people bring here

Several asks in one message become several rooms, each with its expert and its own price on the card. Keep or drop any, then convene them together.

Is my co-founder relationship the bottleneck — or am I avoiding the harder fix? — The Strategist, up to 85 credits
How do I price a one-on-one offering without underselling myself? — The Skeptic, up to 85 credits
What is the steel-man case that I should fire my best-performing salesperson? — The CEO, up to 85 credits

What you get

What she handles.
On this kind of call.

A board for the questions you are not ready to surface

Put the question to The Strategist, The CFO, The Empath, The Skeptic and The CEO before you bring it to your coach. Walk in with thinking, not noise.

One expert when one is enough

A consult is one named expert, about a minute, up to 85 credits on its card. Decision matrices, pre-mortems and plans come back in the shape the question needs.

The board’s call

Take the enterprise deal but with three protective constraints: cap implementation scope, require a 60-day…

Confidence70 · Moderate

What would flip it

Your CTO is already over-allocated; this needs an honest conversation first.

The Skeptic disagreed

Implementation creep is the #1 failure mode — name the cap before signing.

First step Test what The Skeptic flagged before you commit.this week

A next step, not just clarity

Every board ends with a memo: the call, who disagreed and why, and a first move with a date you can debrief with your coach.

Why SynthBoard

Why SynthBoard for this.
Not one voice. A board.

There at 11pm on a Sunday

Coaches see you weekly or fortnightly. Your Chief of Staff is there for the question that arrives at 11pm on a Sunday.

Opposed perspectives at once

A coach holds one perspective masterfully. A board seats several experts, and on a decision at least two are assigned opposed positions.

Priced per call, on the card

A board shows its price on the card before it runs — up to 135 credits for a 3-seat board on Free — and a board never bills above its card. Business coaches range from $200 to $2,000 a session.

Built to disagree

A coach holds space for your thinking. The board is built to challenge it — a different mechanic, with complementary value.

Who sits

The experts for this call.
Each one holds a position.

Your Chief of Staff proposes who sits for the call, and every board is built with someone whose job is to argue against the obvious answer. Name an expert and they take a seat; tell her who you want on your board and they sit by default. How many seats a board has depends on your plan.

People Advocate

The Empath

The plan works on paper. Now, who has to hear about it first, and from whom?

The Empath People Advocate

Best on: Layoffs, hard conversations, co-founder tension, team changes.
Won’t let you: Forget the people who have to carry the decision out.

Try asking The Empath

Start with

The EmpathOpen on every plan, Free included

Pick an expert

Hover, tap or tab throughSwipe, then tap one

GPT
Claude
Gemini
Grok

Seats are spread across model families: GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok and more.

In their words

Your coach hears the question you finally know how to ask. SynthBoard helps you find the question.

The Empath People AdvocateThe Empath on the role each one plays

Questions

Fair questions.
Straight answers.

What people ask before they bring this call to a board.

Does SynthBoard replace my business coach?

When should I use SynthBoard instead of my coach?

When the question is tactical and time-sensitive, when you want opposed input rather than reflective listening, or when the call does not warrant a full session. Many founders use both: a board for the decision, the coach for the patterns.

When is a coach still the right call?

When the issue is relational — co-founders, team, partners. When you need to be witnessed, not analysed. When you are repeating a pattern and need a human to name it. When accountability over months matters more than one sharp answer.

How does the price compare?

SynthBoard prices each call on its card; a coach charges by the session. Free to start — 150 credits every month + 250 to start. Talking to your Chief of Staff costs nothing. A board shows its price on the card before it runs — up to 135 credits for a 3-seat board on Free — and a board never bills above its card. Paid plans are $20, $50 or $99 a month (1 credit = $0.01 USD). Business coaching typically runs $200–$2,000 a session, with retainers from $500–$5,000 a month.

What does SynthBoard NOT do that a coach does?

Your Chief of Staff keeps what you tell her on file, but there is no accountability outside the room, no reading of unspoken patterns, no witnessing of your growth over years and no emotional attunement. SynthBoard is a thinking room, not a developmental relationship.

Can I bring SynthBoard output into my next coaching session?

Yes, and it makes the hour denser. Bring the memo — the call, its confidence, who disagreed and why — and your reaction to it. Your coach can spend the hour on the patterns instead of the surface analysis.

SynthBoard (synthboard.ai) is one place for your business, your life, and every hard call. Your Chief of Staff keeps what you tell her on file, and 24 named experts on different AI models take the calls — one expert for a consult, a board with opposed seats for the hard ones — and hand back a memo with the call, the dissent and the first move. How it works.