Danny Ghitis, PCC
I built CredentialPrep because I needed it. In April 2026 I submitted my MCC performance evaluations to the ICF. I'm in the 18-week review window right now. Every question, every evaluation prompt, every debrief in this product went through my own preparation first. If it wouldn't have helped me pass my own exam, it isn't here.
How I got here
I've never had a job. I spent years as a photojournalist and editorial photographer on assignment before training as a coach, earning my CAPP (Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology) from the Flourishing Center and my PCC credential from the ICF. Along the way I taught myself to design, then to code, and then to build software with AI as a practical tool rather than a novelty.
CredentialPrep is what happens when those threads combine. The same person who understands the credential process from the inside also builds the software, iterating daily against real coaches preparing for real exams.
What makes this different
Most AI-adjacent products in coaching are one of two things. Either they're generic chatbots repackaged with a coaching wrapper, or they're calibration-free evaluation tools that produce plausible-sounding feedback with no grounding in how real ICF assessors think. Neither is enough for someone spending $500 to $3,000 on their credential application.
CredentialPrep is different in shape:
The exam question bank is hand-curated, not generated. Every question has been reviewed against a documented quality algorithm built from my own prep failures. Sub-behavior tags map to the current ICF Core Competencies. Best-and-worst distractor pairs are calibrated for real appeal, not obvious wrongness.
The transcript evaluator is Calibrated Coaching Intelligence: scoring trained on real ICF assessor decisions, not generic AI guessing. Structured system prompt anchored to ICF Core Competencies plus PCC Markers. Every claim in the output cites a specific sub-behavior and quotes the transcript moment it applies to.
I'm still in the credential process myself. I run live PCC study sessions with real candidates. Their feedback shapes what ships next. A question in the bank got a scenario fix this week because a group of coaches debated it during last Friday's live session.
None of that is a single novel AI capability. What's unique is the combination: deep credential expertise, positive-psychology foundation, journalism-trained editorial rigor, design sensibility, self-taught technical fluency, and continuous presence in the community I'm building for. Any single one isn't a moat. The intersection is what makes the product possible.
What I believe about AI in coaching
Three principles I try to hold, even when the shortcut is tempting:
AI amplifies judgment.If you already know what a well-graded coaching session looks like, AI helps you evaluate 100 of them in a week. If you don't, AI just produces plausible output at scale. CredentialPrep is built for coaches who already have the judgment and want to prepare faster and better, not for people looking to skip the work.
Structure beats fluency. A well-worded evaluation that cites the wrong marker is worse than a plainly-worded one that cites the right one. Every AI output in the product is constrained to cite specific evidence, so you can check the reasoning instead of trusting the fluency.
Honest about limits.The product doesn't replace mentor coaching. It doesn't grant credentials. It sometimes misses things a human assessor would catch. Where I can improve accuracy, I do. Where I can't yet, I say so.
What I'm not
Not affiliated with the International Coach Federation or Pearson VUE. Not a coach training program. Not a faster path to the credential. The credential still requires the coaching hours, the mentor coach, the exam, and the performance evaluation, all of which take real time. This is a prep and evaluation tool that fits alongside all of that.
What's next
I'm building a Mentor Coach product (in development, admin-gated, waitlist for everyone else). It's aimed at the 2027 ICF changes that will require mentor coaches to produce Session Observation Forms and Competency Review Forms for every engagement. The mentor coach audience is different from the candidate audience, so it's a separate product, not a candidate upsell.
Talk to me
If you're preparing for an ICF credential and something on this site is unclear, or if you're a coaching school or ICF chapter interested in a cohort partnership, reach me at credentialprepicf@gmail.com or book 30 minutes at cal.com/dannyghitis/30min.