Getting started with Advicity

What it is

Getting started is the short path from a new account to the first answer from your board, plus the everyday basics of signing in and signing out. Once your account is open, one screen asks "What's on your mind?": you write what you are weighing, choose your first advisor if your plan asks you to, and press one button to ask. Nothing else stands between you and that first answer. There is no tour to sit through and no long form to fill in.

Advicity is a private board of AI advisors. The first thing you give it is what is on your mind, mess included, and the first thing it gives you back is an answer. Your North Star comes later: your board learns it from what you tell it.

Why it matters

Advice is everywhere now. Advice that is built for you, and remembered, is rare. A general chat window starts from zero every time you open it. Your board starts from what you told it about your goals, your values and how you like to make decisions, and it remembers it.

That is why your first question comes first, and your North Star is learned from it rather than asked for as homework. When the answer depends on your goals, your Chair asks one or two quick questions first, and an answer says what it assumed, so you can correct it. Once you save your first decision, your board shows you what it learned about you, and once you keep it, every answer starts from it.

How it works

1. Sign up with your email address and confirm it from the email that arrives. Open the link on the device you signed up on and it takes you straight to your board. Your board is created only after you confirm. There is no password to choose. When the sign-up page offers Continue with Google, you can use that instead: Google has already confirmed your email, so there is no email to wait for.
2. You agree to the Terms on the sign-up form. Your board opens only after you agree, and Advicity records that you agreed and when.
3. If you chose the Ink plan or the Brass plan when you signed up, Stripe's checkout opens next, and you come back to your first question.
4. Your first visit is one short path to your first saved decision, and each screen says where you are, from "Step 1 of 4 · Say what's on your mind" to "Step 4 of 4 · Save your decision". The first screen asks "What's on your mind?". Write what you are weighing in your own words. Messy is fine. The box shows one example question in grey, which is never sent.
5. On the same screen on the Paper plan, the built-in advisor that best fits what you write answers your first question. To pick a different one, open "Your advisor: we pick the one that fits best". You choose again for every question after. On the Ink plan and the Brass plan there is nothing to choose: all five built-in advisors are already seated on your board, and your Chair picks who answers.
6. Choose Ask my board. The screen tells you plainly that your advisors are AI, not people. On every plan, when the answer to your first question truly depends on your goals, your Chair first asks one or two quick questions you answer with a tap, and your last tap sends the question. You can choose "Skip, just answer" instead. Most first questions go straight to your board. After your first question, when one missing fact would change the answer, such as whether a cost is one time or every month, your Chair asks one short question first, with answers you tap. "Just answer" sends your question as you asked it.
7. While your board answers, the screen says "Your board is meeting" and about how long it takes. The answer opens on the call first, in one large line, with how confident it is, what would change it and your first step; "See what each advisor said" shows the full answer. If it had to assume something about your goals, it says so in one line, and "Tell me if not" lets you correct it. With "Save this decision", save your decision: what you decided, how confident you are, and the date you will know how it worked out. Once it is saved, your board tells you the date it will check in, then shows "Here's what I learned about you. Is this right?" with what you are working toward, what matters most to you and how you like to make decisions filled in from what you told it. Change any line and keep it as your North Star, or choose "Not now".
8. If you leave part way, what you typed on the sign-up form and your first question are still there when you come back on the same device.
9. Next time, enter the email address you signed up with on Log in and we email you a link that logs you in, or use Google if you signed up that way. If you set a password in Settings, you can type it on Log in instead. Your board is where you left it.
10. When you are finished, log out. Anyone using the same device after you will need to log in to reach your board.
11. On your first visit a week or more after you join, one card asks "If you could change one thing about Advicity, what would it be?". Write your answer and choose Send to Mat, or close the card. It shows once.

Which plans include it

Every plan starts here. Every new board begins on the Paper plan, which seats all five built-in advisors after step five and asks one of them per question, your choice each time. On the Ink plan and the Brass plan you can ask the whole board every question. To move to the Ink plan or the Brass plan, choose the plan in Your plan and pay through Stripe; your board moves up when Stripe confirms the payment, and everything you wrote in getting started comes with it.

Privacy and what the board keeps

Your board keeps your North Star, the advisors on it and the questions you ask with their answers. Only the people on your board can read them. Nothing you write in getting started is shown to any other board. If you answer the one-week card, your answer is kept with your account and emailed to Mat, the founder of Advicity. It is not sent to your advisors. Your advisors give perspective on decisions. Advicity is not a doctor, a therapist, a lawyer, an accountant or a licensed financial adviser. Your advisors will not tell you to buy a named stock or security.

Related features

• Your North Star
• Your board and the built-in advisors
• Plans and switching plans