SRA headcounts filed. Competitor mapping still thin. No path named.

Headline. Standing job is other recon, not stop. This hour read the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s official regulated population statistics — how many solicitors practise, and how many firm head offices sit on the register. I have not named a market. A big solicitor population is not who FYJ sells to. P has not moved.

Parked customer cut (63e813ea) is live as a milestone / north star; not the live job.

Contract UUID 26e4abb6-3b66-4a66-a4f7-d4c065ad9233 is live. Hold = no invention, not no recon.

What the agent just did

Wrote market-path-research-2026-08-27-0655.md.

Area: Competitor mapping.
Last found: SRA regulated population statistics for England and Wales. Jul-26 table: 178,428 practising solicitors; 214,080 solicitors on the roll; 7,674 registered foreign lawyers. Firm head offices at end of July 2026: about 8,917 (1,329 sole practitioners; 5,242 incorporated companies; 1,418 LLPs; 900 partnerships; 28 other). Official SRA statistics, not the Law Society or ICAEW consumer directories from 22:55.
Verdict: stayed thin — headcounts are not who / why / how / next.
P unchanged.

I opened the SRA regulated community statistics hub (HTTP 200), the population of solicitors page (HTTP 200), and the breakdown of solicitor firms page (HTTP 200). I did not re-read company 16892858. I did not repeat last recon hour’s Companies House register-activities bulletin, the 03:55 IDV pages, the 02:55 WebFiling pages, the 01:55 LinkedIn / Oxford pages, the 00:55 GOV.UK class-map pages, the LSA reserved-activity pages, the Law Society or ICAEW directories, the ACSP/MCA pass, the 20:55 SIC pages, or the 21:55 ONS bulletin. The 22:55 note recorded that one attempted SRA register URL returned HTTP 404; these statistics pages are different URLs and returned 200.

What stands is simple: the SRA says there are currently 178,428 practising solicitors, and the Jul-26 row shows 214,080 solicitors on the roll. Firm head offices at end of July 2026 sum to 8,917. That is a checkable size of the regulated solicitor / firm population. It sits next to last night’s Law Society and ICAEW directories as competitor-space context. It is not who FYJ is for, why they would pay, how FYJ reaches them, or what sits next. So it is not a candidate, and it is not a path.

End-to-end test this hour: who / why pay / how FYJ reaches them / what sits next — all still missing. The SRA headcount fills a Competitor mapping cell, not a path cell.

market-paths.md still starts No path named yet.

This page sits under Evidence. It is a dated record. It does not move heading.

Why this was necessary

P is company position toward $2.5–5bn. p-evidence.md is empty so the score cannot be faked. p-missing.md is still the question you confirmed: Who is the first customer, or what is the first market path, for For Your Journey Ltd? Empty is honest, not finished. Market-path research is the current priority mechanism. This note is not a P move.

The problem this hour removes: Competitor mapping sitting only on Law Society / ICAEW consumer directories while the SRA’s own population and firm-count statistics were still unfiled. Future recon hours show area / found / stronger-thin-discarded / P unchanged, from a different public source, still without inventing a name.

That matters for ownership and for $2.5–5bn because a large solicitor headcount is easy to mistake for a market. Value starts to form only when a candidate can run end to end. This hour can show the official regulated-population number is real and still say the FYJ line has no named path.

A layer is a named piece of the job that can come off once a close has evidence it can run without you. Today's layer stays Peer toggle: Founder View ↔ Agent View. This hour did not rename it.

The slot is unchanged: hold the 24-hour founder loop with Founder View and Agent View as peer surfaces. Use the hours for market-path compounding. Do not invent a customer. Do not unpark the customer cut.

A cut is a shortened next-job draft. The customer cut would make “name the first customer” the next job. You parked it until market paths have been identified and are converging. It stays parked as a milestone / north star. It is not the live job.

Systemic effect: Competitor mapping now shows a second filed public source (SRA regulated population next to Law Society / ICAEW directories), that the line stayed thin, and that P is unchanged. Risk reduction remains the only got-stronger line; this hour did not join it.

Alternatives rejected

• Sit on the 25 Aug stop. Hold is no invention, not no recon.
• Repeat the 22:55 Law Society / ICAEW directories, or last recon hour’s register-activities bulletin, IDV, WebFiling, GOV.UK class map, LSA, ACSP/MCA, founder/self, SIC neighbours, or ONS. That would have been the same sources twice.
• Re-read Companies House 16892858. The register was fully read at 19:55 on 25 Aug.
• Treat 178 thousand practising solicitors, or ~9 thousand firm head offices, as who FYJ sells to. Size is not a customer.
• Unpark the customer cut, or rewrite the live slot. You did not confirm that.

Pushback invited — decide or criticise

Working set, not exhaustive.
1. Which recon area is weak — Competitor mapping is now filed twice and still thin; Market discovery is filed twice and still thin; Risk reduction is still the only line that got stronger as a constraint?
2. Which line should I deepen — stay on Competitor mapping with CLC / IPReg / CILEx or formation-agent software vendors, or leave headcount maps and deepen a thin area closer to who / why / how?
3. Which line should I drop — the size / directory maps (ONS, Companies House counts, Law Society / ICAEW, SRA headcounts), or keep them as context and drop something earlier that is only a label?

Current levers (working set, not exhaustive)

1. Market-path compounding — standing, not P until you accept a path. A solicitor headcount is not a name.
2. The parked customer cut — milestone / north star, not the live job.
3. The live slot — still the 24-hour loop with peer surfaces. Not rewritten this hour.

Watch / next decision point

Next recon hour uses a different public source again, still without inventing a name, still without re-reading 16892858, and still without repeating this SRA population / firm-breakdown pass, the 04:55 Companies House register-activities pass, the 03:55 IDV / ECCTA pass, the 02:55 WebFiling / register-yourself pass, the 01:55 public-name pass, the 00:55 GOV.UK class-map pass, the LSA reserved-activity pass, the Law Society/ICAEW pass, the ACSP/MCA pass, the 20:55 classification pages, or the 21:55 ONS bulletin. Dead link is a failed publish. Unauthenticated 401 is the login gate.

Agent files

27 Aug 06:55 research · market-paths.md · recon-map.md · p-evidence.md · p-missing.md · Contract: hold is no invention · market-path recon · Open asks · Founder View · this page