Starting a startup is easy. Building a great company is not. Amongst all the excitement of running a startup is a lot of hard work and stressful decisions.

Founders Academy Essentials is a 5-day lunch-n-learn curriculum designed specifically for driven entrepreneurs that are passionate about their business potential. Whether you’re working on your MVP and preparing for launch or already generating revenue, you will be exposed to fundamental insights and tools to help dramatically increase your odds of success.

Program Date — Austin, TX: January 15 – January 19

11:00am (optional lunch); 11:30 – 1:00 (lectures)

Day 1:

• Idea development
• Elevator pitch development
• Sizing your market
• Customer acquisition strategies

Day 2:

• Marketing & pricing basics
• Optimizing CAC, churn & LTV
• Demystifying cap tables

Day 3:

• Business development secrets and strategic partnerships
• Setting the stage for a future acquisition exit

Day 4:

• Leveraging advisors
• Basic fundraising vocabulary
• How much to raise and when
• Seed funding vehicles and terms

Day 5:

• Controlling legal costs
• Finding & pitching investors
• Fundraising issues, hints & tips
• AMA with angel investors

Please plan to attend at least 4 sessions when registering.

About the Instructor

Gordon Daugherty

Over the past 15 years, Gordon Daugherty has seen has seen more than 1,500 startup pitches, given personal advice to more than 500 entrepreneurs and been involved with raising over $45M in growth and venture capital. He spent the first ten years of his career in brand name companies like IBM and Compaq and then progressively gravitated towards early stage and high growth companies. He spent eight years in the video conferencing industry, including four years as President of a company that grew to $36M in a short few years and went public on the Euronext stock market.

Gordon has served in an executive capacity over most company functions, but with emphasis on strategy, marketing, sales, business development and M&A. He ran corporate development and strategy for Austin-based NetQoS, who grew rapidly to more than $55M in revenue before being acquired by CA Technologies for $200M and was a founding advisor for digital advertising pioneer MediaMind, who reached $65M in revenue and a NASDAQ IPO in 2010. Through his advisory practice, Shockwave Innovations, and as Managing Director for Austin’s Capital Factory startup accelerator, Gordon is an active angel investor, VC and startup advisor.

What Startup Founder’s Are Saying About Founders Academy?

“Founders Academy is a must! Gordon unlocked new value in concepts I thought I was already familiar with.”

“I’d recommend Founders Academy to other startup founders because of critical early alarms about easy to overlook things.”

“I wish we had done this a year ago.”

“I could not have been more pleased with how clearly Gordon explained things.”

“The way you convey the material is great and the examples you give makes things clear.”

“Fantastic. The camp really provides a complete view of the components necessary to build your business. The additional personal stories you interjected really validate your message.”

“I didn’t know anything about starting a company before joining Capitol Factory, and this workshop has probably taught me the most.”

“If you are thinking about becoming a founder this is an up close and personal intro from the trenches. If you’ve been around the block a few times, you’ll still learn something. A founder can’t hear this stuff enough.”

“I wish I could have done this years ago because my first venture with VC’s did not go well. You don’t know what you don’t know and the startup landscape is hard to navigate.”