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Founders Weekend · Guide cheat sheet

Six sessions. One business.

The times families have been given: Saturday 10:00 AM–8:00 PM and Sunday 10:00 AM–6:00 PM. Lunch, the breaks, family time and pickup are protected. All times are local to the room.

Teaching, feedback and troubleshooting →Full run of show and live cues →Session templates →Lovable setup →Module guides and decks →CoFounder Jr ↗CoFounder Jr guide sign-up ↗

CofounderJr Guide codes

A code opens one locked module for one student: they type it on the module’s “Enter Guide code” card. Give only the code for the module they are ready for, and never the whole list. A whole room locked at once means the cohort’s pacing hasn’t released it: tell the Weekend Lead.

  1. 1 · Idea••••••SUN-27
  2. 2 · MVP 1••••••BLUE-41
  3. 3 · Offer••••••TREE-63
  4. 4 · MVP 2••••••MOON-58
  5. 5 · Sales••••••APPLE-74
  6. 6 · Plan••••••STAR-92

Day 1

Saturday

Sessions 1–4: an opportunity, an offer, a live page that takes money, and the first real sales calls. Drop-off 10am; collection by 8pm.

  1. 10:00-10:30Drop-off and account checksOps Lead
  2. 10:30-10:45LaunchMC
  3. 10:45-11:00Weekend overviewMC
  4. 11:00-12:00Session 1 · OpportunityWorkshop Guide, then Mentors
  5. 12:00-1:00Session 2 · OfferWorkshop Guide, then Mentors
  6. 1:00-2:00Lunch · laptops downOps Lead
  7. 2:00-3:00Session 3 · MVPWorkshop Guide, then Mentors + technical lead
  8. 3:00-4:00Session 4 · Sales Validation · ReferralsWorkshop Guide, then Mentors
  9. 4:00-4:30Break · laptops downOps Lead
  10. 4:30-5:15Session 4 · Sales Validation · Cold callingWorkshop Guide, then Mentors
  11. 5:15-6:00Session 4 · Sales Validation · Cold emailWorkshop Guide, then Mentors
  12. 6:00-6:30Dinner · parents arriveOps Lead
  13. 6:30-7:35Session 4 · Sales working timeMentors
  14. 7:35-7:50Day close · reflections and shout-outsMC
  15. 7:50-8:00Collection · end of day oneOps Lead

8:30-9:00 Staff · room and device setup · 9:00-10:00 Staff · briefing and table assignments · 6:00-6:30 Parents arrive · dinner · 6:30-7:15 Fireside · for parents · 8:00-8:30 Staff · debrief and Sunday handoff

Day 2

Sunday

Sessions 4–6: more sales, a plan to $10K, then the pitch at a kids' showcase and a parents' showcase. Drop-off 10am; sign-out by 6pm.

  1. 10:00-10:30Drop-off and bufferOps Lead
  2. 10:30-10:45LaunchMC
  3. 10:45-11:00Here's what's happening todayMC
  4. 11:00-12:00Session 4 · Sales Validation · Follow-upsMentors
  5. 12:00-1:00Session 5 · Delivery PlanWorkshop Guide, then Mentors
  6. 1:00-2:00Lunch · laptops downOps Lead
  7. 2:00-3:00Session 6 · PitchWorkshop Guide, then Guides
  8. 3:00-4:00Session 6 · Kids' showcaseMC + Guides
  9. 4:00-5:30Parents' open showcaseMC + admissions rep
  10. 5:30-5:50AwardsMC
  11. 5:50-6:00Weekend close · reflections and shout-outsMC + Ops

9:00-10:00 Staff · briefing and showcase preflight · 4:00-5:30 Parents arrive · open showcase · 6:00-6:30 Staff · debrief and pack down

What to protect when time runs short

Non-negotiable

Never cut, never moved.

  • Every student signed out to an authorised adult: Saturday by 8:00, Sunday by 6:00.
  • Never go anywhere alone. Calls happen with a mentor beside the student.
  • Never type a card, password or key for a student. Stop and get tech support.
  • The five sales rules, and every sale checked against them before it counts on the board.
  • Lunch, the 4:00 break, family times and pickup. Laptops down at lunch and the break.
  • Every student and guide in CofounderJr and Lovable before Session 1.
  • The six I cans at 10:45, and every session's sprint. If it runs short, students pick now.
  • Each session's done-when: opportunity picked, offer priced, page live with Stripe, one real call made and logged, a plan to $10K, a pitch in five beats.
  • Guides never write a student's opportunity or offer. Any business is allowed.
  • Lovable is one landing page with a one-time Stripe checkout. No apps, logins or extra pages.
  • Both showcases and both votes, the reflection cards and the First Dollar Club.
  • Every guide at the 9:00 staff briefing, both days.

Nice to have

Run it in full when on time; shorten it first when late.

  • The full group construction on Example Business 2. The first thing to shorten.
  • The Kettle & Fire story told at length. Tell it faster, never skip it.
  • All four offer layers. Stop at layer two if lunch is close.
  • A polished page. A published one beats it; polishing continues later.
  • The guide's live call in Session 4. Cut to the log entry if short.
  • The room's group email in Session 4c. Every student still emails the ones the phone could not reach.
  • The partner rung of the Pitch Ladder. Everybody still pitches to a small group.
  • Every student's shout-out at day close. Take fewer; keep the cards.
  • The national leaderboard on its own screen, and the checkpoints board.

Optional

Only if the room has time and energy for it.

  • Launch bingo. Keep the cheerleader game.
  • The Sunday sales spotlight. The follow-ups and calls are not cut.
  • Long awards speeches and photos.
  • Board games and outdoor games at the laptops-down breaks.

Before doors · Ops

  • Every adult can see this city's space in CofounderJr. Anyone who can't signs up at foundersweekends.com/join/staff and picks the city and weekend.
  • Name the MC, Workshop Guide, table mentors, technical lead for Lovable and Stripe, leaderboard keeper and the admissions rep as the parents' point of contact.
  • Test wifi, the screen, audio, music and a visible timer. Stage chargers and loaners for 10 to 20 percent of students.
  • Print the six-session wall chart, the checkpoints board, the reflection cards, the launch bingo cards, the QR cards and name tags.
  • Pull the national leaderboard up from CofounderJr on its own screen; it ranks sales across 10 cities. Put the sales rules on the wall. Stock board games and outdoor games for laptops-down breaks.
  • Check CofounderJr and Lovable access on each student's own laptop at drop-off, that every student has a phone for Session 4, and their list of ten friends and family.

At the tables · Guides

  • 10:30 is energy only. 10:45 is the finish line, Kettle & Fire, the six I cans and the CofounderJr demo.
  • Every session: theory, the Kettle & Fire worked example, group construction on Example Business 2 — laptops closed for all three — then templates, a sprint of 30 minutes or less, one share per table.
  • Know each Example Business 2 reveal before you teach it: Me & the Bees, Domino's, Zappos, Girl Scout Cookies, Ben & Jerry's, Mo's Bows. The room guesses first; then compare with what really happened.
  • Keep it tight. When time is up, students pick and move on.
  • Lovable is for one landing page with a one-time Stripe checkout. Say no to apps, logins and extra pages.
  • Session 4: the five sales rules first. No selling to parents or anyone at home; parents can't sell for you; only CofounderJr Stripe payments count; every sale has a buyer in the log; never go anywhere alone. Calls first, email for the rest.
  • Laptops down at lunch and the 4:00 break. Eat with the students.

Sunday afternoon · Everyone

  • Session 6 at 2:00: five beats, then the Pitch Ladder — a partner, then a small group with a guide or mentor.
  • Kids' showcase at 3:00: half present, half walk, then swap. Every student votes once for their favourite.
  • Parents' showcase from 4:00: every student at their table with the page open. Parents score by QR on idea, solution, sales and plan.
  • Test the QR voting before doors, including the registration-email log-in. Call last votes at 5:20.
  • Awards at 5:30: the players' player and the parents' favourite, then the First Dollar Club. Sign every student out to their authorised adult by 6:00.

Leave with: an opportunity people already pay for, a priced offer, a live page that takes money, a log of real calls and sales, a plan to $10K, and a pitch told to students and families. Review open decisions with the weekend lead before doors.

Open decisions before doors
  • The structure is v5, from the program design call on 25 September: six sessions (Opportunity, Offer, MVP, Sales Validation, Delivery Plan, Pitch), each theory → Kettle & Fire worked example → group construction → templates → sprint → share. The per-block game was dropped.
  • Example Business 1 is Kettle & Fire in every session, from Justin Mares's article “How I validated my idea for Kettle & Fire” (justinmares.com). The article covers the idea, the offer, the page and the first sales; it says little about delivery, so Session 5 uses what it does say — sell first, work out the making after.
  • Example Business 2, the same in every city: Session 1 Me & the Bees Lemonade, Session 2 Domino's, Session 3 Zappos, Session 4 Girl Scout Cookies (with Steve Jobs calling Bill Hewlett in the cold-calling workshop), Session 5 Ben & Jerry's, Session 6 Mo's Bows. The facts in each reveal are from memory and need checking against a source before guides teach them; Ben & Jerry's start-up money matters most. Session 6 needs the Shark Tank clip queued in every room.
  • The call set Saturday 3:00–6:00 for Sales Validation with a break around 4:00. The split into referrals (3:00), a break (4:00), cold calling (4:30) and cold email (5:15) is ours.
  • Saturday evening: dinner at 6:00 as parents arrive, and a parents-only fireside at 6:30 while students keep selling. The 7:35 day close (reflection cards, then shout-outs) and collection by 8:00 are ours. Name the fireside host and guest.
  • The 10:30 launch is energy only — rock-paper-scissors cheerleader, find-someone-who bingo, a countdown. The finish line, Kettle & Fire, the six I cans and the CofounderJr demo all sit in the 10:45 overview. The feedback stems are taught at Session 1's share, the weekend's first.
  • Ask families to send students with a list of ten friends and family, and a phone. Both are checked at drop-off.
  • Stripe payment links are built into CofounderJr: the student copies theirs into the Lovable pay button. Name who owns a link that fails on the day.
  • Family-facing times changed from the published parent guide: parents arrive at 6:00 on Saturday (was 5:55); on Sunday the parents' showcase runs 4:00–5:30 and awards at 5:30 (was finals at 4:30 and awards at 5:15). Update parents.foundersweekends.com/founders.
  • No finalists and no judges. Everybody who wants to present, presents. Two awards: the players' player (student vote at the kids' showcase) and the parents' favourite (QR votes on idea, solution, sales and plan, logged in with the registration email). Decide where the QR voting lives and who builds it.
  • Lovable replaces Replit for Founders, at about $25 per student, as a deliberate limit: a landing page, not an app. Confirm Lovable to Stripe checkout end to end, on Founders School's own Stripe account.
  • Every student needs a phone for Session 4. Add it to the family checklist. Decide what under-11s without one do.
  • National leaderboard (decided 29 September): one board across all 10 cities, ranking sales. It lives in CofounderJr, and the guide pulls it up on screen from there — CofounderJr needs to show it (city ranks and top students) before 3 October; confirm with Bryan. Each city's sales freeze at Sunday's 4:00 submissions close. Cities finish in different time zones, so decide when the national winner is announced: once the last city closes, or Monday.
  • The five sales rules (29 September) are on the wall, in Session 4a, on the Session templates page and in both parent welcomes: no selling to parents, guardians or anyone at home; parents can't sell for you; only CofounderJr Stripe payments count; every sale has a buyer in the ask log; never go anywhere alone. Add them to the family checklist and the parent guide page.
  • CofounderJr's order doesn't match the run of show (29 September feedback). The app runs Idea → MVP 1 → Offer → MVP 2; the run of show runs Opportunity → Offer → MVP. Decide the order guides follow and tell Bryan, and confirm the app's step names the slides point to (Idea, Offer, MVP, Selling, Pitch).
  • CofounderJr's MVP step still builds in Replit; Founders builds the page in Lovable. Students paste CofounderJr's prompt into Lovable once, as it is, then make at most three one-line changes. Ask Bryan to point the MVP step at Lovable.
  • The Sunday 11:00 sales block's shape (follow-up blitz, then the three closest, on a live leaderboard) is ours; the call said only to keep it structured, not open time.