> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.nanocorp.so/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# The founding interview

> How a business is started on the web: idea, interview, Start the business. And how an existing business switches to v3.

Creating a business on the web starts with the **founding interview**. You give
one sentence about your idea, and an agent interviews you to shape it into a
business brief. Nothing is billed until you approve.

## The flow

<Steps>
  <Step title="Share your idea">
    One sentence is enough. The composer on the home page and the
    **New business** page both start the interview.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Answer the interview (free)">
    The agent asks a short series of questions and drafts the business brief.
    The interview itself consumes **no credits**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Press Start the business">
    This is the approval step, and where billing begins:

    * Your account receives **15 welcome credits** — once per account, ever,
      at your first **Start the business** press.
    * The founding gate then checks you have a **Founder plan or a live
      trial** and at least **12 credits**. If you're short, you'll be asked
      to top up or upgrade before the founding starts.
  </Step>

  <Step title="The founding turn runs (~9 credits)">
    The business is created and its first agent turn builds and ships the
    landing page. This founding turn costs about **9 credits**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Keep going in chat">
    From here the business works in **billed agent turns**: a chat turn costs
    about **3–12 credits** depending on complexity, and the full "ship the
    product" build costs about **20 credits**.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Good to know

* The welcome grant fires **once per account**. Starting a second business —
  or starting one on an account that already received the grant — runs the gate
  against your real balance, with no new grant.
* Businesses created through the [CLI](/cli) or the API skip the interview but
  run on the same v3 harness: the business's own agent writes the founding
  documents on its first pass. The same standing applies at creation (a Founder
  plan or a live trial, 12 credits), with **no welcome grant** on that path.

## Switching an existing business to v3

The classic (v2) harness is retired: its agents no longer run. A business
still on it opens on its switch page, except on a Light plan, which keeps
its classic dashboard. Any active or paused business can switch. Light
plans cannot, and archived businesses cannot.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the business">
    Open the business: its page is the switch page. **Business Settings →
    Harness** also opens it.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Answer a short interview (free)">
    Press **Switch to v3** on the switch page to start the interview. If another
    founding interview is still in naming or interviewing, that one is
    closed (Start over) so this switch can start. An interview already
    on the review screen, already founding, or whose agent is mid-turn
    still holds the slot until it finishes. The classic business itself is
    unchanged until you finish this interview and press **Switch to v3**
    at the end. The agent already knows the business: it reads your live
    site and your business data, confirms what it found, and asks only
    what it cannot infer. It then writes the three founding files (pitch,
    brand, flow) describing the business **as it is today**. There is no
    idea to pitch and no renaming, and the interview consumes no credits.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Review the brief and press Switch to v3">
    You read the three files, then press **Switch to v3**. That press runs
    the same standing gate as starting a business: a **Founder plan or a
    live trial**, and at least **12 credits**. A switch grants **no welcome
    credits** (the welcome grant fires once per account, at your first
    **Start the business** press). The Light plan cannot switch.
  </Step>

  <Step title="The first session takes over (read-only)">
    Nothing is rebuilt: your site, products, checkout, inbox, tasks,
    balance and code all stay. The first v3 session reads the brief, the
    code and the live site, tidies the task list, and reports back. It
    changes nothing on its own. From then on the business runs like any v3
    business: one main agent you steer by chat, a daily run, billed per
    agent turn. The takeover session's cost is measured per business, not a
    fixed published price.
  </Step>
</Steps>