Four stages. Thirteen weeks. One paying customer.
The program runs on a structural rhythm, not a content drip. Each stage has its own instruments, its own deliverables, and a hard gate between it and the next. You move through them once, in order, with me on the other end of the call.
Two calls a week. Thirteen weeks.
Mondays: 60-minute planning call. We set what ships this week, agree on the one outcome that defines a green light, and pre-empt the failure modes specific to whatever stage you’re in.
Fridays: 30-minute retro. What shipped, what slipped, what to do differently next sprint. Exit Sprints— Scrum without the ceremonies, run for one engineer instead of a team.
Twenty-four 1:1 calls across the thirteen weeks. Six personal technical reviews distributed across FORGE and LAUNCH. Async access on Slack or WhatsApp throughout.
Sever the corporate identity from the operator identity.
Three weeks of clearing ground. Most people skip this stage. They start scouting before they have detached, which is why they end up scouting for the same kind of corporate role they just left, with worse pay. Detach is non-optional pre-work: a letter to your future failed self, an honest financial audit, and the inventory of what you actually bring that someone else doesn't.
- Pre-Mortem Letter
- Runway Worksheet
- Edge Inventory Canvas
Mindset cleared. Runway understood. Top three edges documented. Job-hunting paused.
Find the wedge between what you can build and what someone will pay for.
Four weeks of conversations. Not pitches — conversations. The frame is research, not selling. The output is a Problem Statement specific enough that a stranger could repeat it back to you. The shortcut here is the most expensive shortcut in the program. Skip it and you'll build the wrong thing for six weeks.
- Market Mapping Prompt Stack
- Commitment Canvas
- Corner Hunt Framework
- Research Interview Playbook
- Validation Landing Page
Twenty-plus customer interviews. Locked Problem Statement. Real demand signal — not polite enthusiasm.
Build the smallest version that one specific person will pay for.
Four weeks of building. AI-leveraged from the first commit. The scope cut is brutal — most engineers want to ship five problems halfway; you ship one problem completely. Architecture review at week 06. Beta-readiness review at week 08. Launch-readiness review at week 09. The reviews are not optional, and they are not a rubber stamp.
- MVP Scoping Canvas
- ADR Template
- AI Build Stack
- Beta Testing Protocol
- Failure Playbook
Working MVP. Three beta users actively using it. Paid signal validated.
Charge money. Take the deposit. End the program with one paying customer.
Two weeks to charge money. The deliverable is a deposit in your account, not a roadmap deck. Sales conversation drills. Pricing pressure-test. The launch isn't the loud version some indie hackers run — it's a quiet, specific, narrow conversation with a specific person who has a specific problem you've already verified you can solve.
- Launch Narrative Canvas
- Launch Channel Matrix
- First Customer Script
- Customer Multiplication Playbook
- Post-Program Operating Plan
First paying customer. Public launch executed. 90-day post-program plan documented. Founder operating rhythm internalized.
Effort-based. The total is the total.
Show up to every call. Submit every form on time. Do the work. If you finish thirteen weeks without shipping, I keep coaching you — free— until you do.
That is the whole guarantee. I’m not refunding fees if you don’t want to do the work, and I’m not promising outcomes that depend on you. I am promising that I won’t walk away if the calendar runs out before you have a paying customer, provided you held up your end.