Academy
Build Your First Business
Fifteen lessons covering the practical sequence of starting a small business: idea, customer, validation, formation, money, website, payments, MVP, launch.
The folders
5 steps, 17 lessons
Work top to bottom. Each lesson is a deck to read, a short list of things to do, and the documents you need to do them.
Step 1 — Decide what you are building
Get from a vague urge to one written sentence describing a business you can actually run.
When this step is done: A one-page description of the business, the customer and the problem.
- 1.1
What Is a Business?
Defines a business as a repeatable system that creates value for a customer and captures part of it as cash.
30 minOpens with enrolment - 1.2
Finding a Business Idea
Teaches a structured method for generating and filtering business ideas using personal experience, market gaps and demand signals.
35 minOpens with enrolment - 1.3
Customer and Problem
Shows how to define a specific customer persona and problem statement precisely enough to be provable or disprovable.
35 minOpens with enrolment
Step 2 — Prove it before you spend
Test demand with conversations and a small offer before any money leaves your account.
When this step is done: Evidence that at least a few people will pay, written down.
- 2.4
Validation Before Spending
Provides a low-cost, staged validation process to confirm paying demand before committing capital to a full product build.
40 minOpens with enrolment - 2.5
Business Model
Guides founders through selecting a revenue model and pricing structure, and building a one-page unit economics model.
40 minOpens with enrolment
Step 3 — Make it a real company
Form the entity, open the bank account, register for tax and set up your identity online.
When this step is done: A registered business with an EIN, a bank account, a domain and email.
- 3.6
Entity Structure and Formation Basics
Explains how to choose between sole proprietorship, LLC and Delaware C corp, with real filing fees, franchise tax and 83(b) timing.
45 minOpens with enrolment - 3.7
Banking, Accounting and Taxes
Covers opening a business bank account, choosing bookkeeping software, and understanding quarterly tax and sales tax obligations.
40 minOpens with enrolment - 3.8
Website, Domains and Email
Walks through registering a domain, setting up professional email, and launching a functional website without overbuilding.
30 minOpens with enrolment - 3.17
The Documents Every Company Needs
The full document set a small company is expected to have, grouped by purpose, with the free official and reputable sources for each — and the short list genuinely worth paying for.
45 minOpens with enrolment
Step 4 — Build it and take money
Scope the smallest sellable version, stand up the tools and start accepting payment.
When this step is done: A working offer with a live payment path.
- 4.9
Stripe and Collecting Payments
Set up Stripe correctly, understand the real cost of processing payments, and choose the right billing model for your product.
40 minOpens with enrolment - 4.10
MVP Scoping
Define the smallest set of features that lets you test your core hypothesis with real paying customers.
40 minOpens with enrolment - 4.11
Baseline Tech Stack and Infrastructure
Choose a minimal, low-cost technology stack for hosting, domains, and infrastructure that scales without early overengineering.
35 minOpens with enrolment - 4.16
Automating the Basics
A step-by-step method for deciding what to automate, in what order, and with which tools — starting with the five workflows that waste the most owner time.
40 minOpens with enrolment
Step 5 — Win customers and launch
Position it, find the first buyers, run the cash and go live deliberately.
When this step is done: First paying customers and a launch you controlled.
- 5.12
Branding and Positioning
Craft a clear positioning statement and minimal brand identity that differentiates you and speeds up customer decision-making.
35 minOpens with enrolment - 5.13
Finding First Customers
Identify and execute the highest-leverage channels for landing your first 10 to 50 paying customers without a marketing budget.
40 minOpens with enrolment - 5.14
Sales, Operations and Cash Flow
Build simple, repeatable sales and operations processes and understand the cash flow math that keeps a small business solvent.
45 minOpens with enrolment - 5.15
Launch Checklist
Run a systematic pre-launch checklist covering legal, payments, product, and marketing so launch day executes without avoidable failures.
30 minOpens with enrolment
Access
What enrolment costs
This programme on its own is $249, including one 15-minute office hour. Both programmes together are $399 with two office hours. If you want us working alongside you week by week, Build With Us is scoped to what you are building and quoted individually. One payment, lifetime access to the complete written programme; recordings are added as produced.