Five Sessions. All the Essentials.
WEEK 1
HEADSPACE
Get to the essence of why you want to start a company, what to expect, and how to go into it with eyes open.
WEEK 2
PEOPLE
How to attract and align people to a vision and how to think of entrepreneurship as a team sport.
WEEK 3
PRODUCT-MARKET FIT
What product-market
fit is, why it’s so important, and how to pursue it
with discipline.
WEEK 4
PITCHING
How to tell your story and win fans, investors, and customers to your cause so you get the results you need.
WEEK 5
FUNDRAISING
How to put all the pieces together and secure the resources to build the company of your dreams.
WEEK 1
HEADSPACE
Before you build a company, you need to build your mindset. This session cuts through the hype and lore you’ve probably absorbed about being a founder and helps you get brutally honest about why you want to start a company. Is it ego? A mission? Wealth and fame? All fair game — but you’ll need to know. We’ll talk about what you’re really signing up for: long hours, emotional swings, ambiguity, and constant rejection. But also: clarity, ownership, meaning, and a truly important way to solve the world’s problems. You’ll leave with a clearer picture of what a startup demands and whether this is really what you want — not the romanticized version, but the one that actually shows up when it’s just you and the work.
WEEK 2
PEOPLE
Startups don’t happen in a vacuum. You need people — to co-build, challenge you, sell, ship, fund, and believe. This session covers how to find the right ones, how to bring them into your circle, and what makes great early customers, cofounders, collaborators, employees, and advisors worth their weight. We’ll talk about how to structure, set expectations, and how to use the human dimension of startups to motivate and create momentum for yourself and others. You’ll also get real about the founder’s job: telling the story, setting the tone, and making people give a damn about what you’re trying to do. No one builds anything alone — and the wrong team will always kill you faster than a bad product.
WEEK 3
PRODUCT-MARKET FIT
Here’s why most startups fail: building something no one wants. This session unpacks what product-market fit really means, how to distinguish it from problem-solution fit, how to measure it, and why chasing it without discipline burns time and money. We’ll break down how to listen to users, find a real pain point, and test quickly without deluding yourself. It’s not about building a beautiful product — it’s about solving a worthwhile problem well enough that people pay for it. If you don’t get this part right, nothing else matters.
WEEK 4
PITCHING
Whether you’re talking to investors, users, or teammates, you need to be able to tell your story — fast, clear, and compelling. Human beings are storytellers – we live our lives and react to the world through the lens of the stories we’re told. This session covers the nuts and bolts of a great pitch: not just what to say, but how to say it so people get it, believe it, and want in. We’ll walk through frameworks, examples, and the deadly sins of startup storytelling. You’ll practice pitching, get tough feedback, and learn how to make your story resonate — not with jargon, but with conviction.
WEEK 5
FUNDRAISING
Money alone doesn’t build great companies – but it gives them a shot. Turns out that the stories you’ve heard about how fundraising works are nonsense for the overwhelming majority of founders … perpetuated by people with a strong motivation to keep your valuation low and your dependency high. In this session we dig into the five proven ways to raise money (and the only one that really matters), how and when to approach outside sources, what they actually look for, and how to stack the odds in your favor. No B.S. about “networking” – just a clear plan to get meetings, run a process, and close. If you want to fundraise, do it with your eyes open. This is how.
