point of departure
       n 1: a place from which an enterprise or expedition is launched;
            "one day when I was at a suitable jumping-off place I
            decided to see if I could find him"; "my point of
            departure was San Francisco" [syn: jumping-off place]
       2: a beginning from which an enterprise is launched; "he uses
          other people's ideas as a springboard for his own";
          "reality provides the jumping-off point for his
          illusions"; "the point of departure of international
          comparison cannot be an institution but must be the
          function it carries out" [syn: springboard, jumping-off
          point]