Run mode · pick a weekend

Choose a city and the app becomes one screen: who is in the room, every block on that weekend’s real clock, and what is still left before doors.

Part one · The weekend and the story you tell

A business by Sunday.

Every kid leaves Sunday with a real product and evidence from customers. They also have a plan to $10K, unless the evidence tells them to stop.
01Why this

You're about to run one. This is everything we know about how.

  • How to read it
02Five outputs

Five things they walk out with.

  • A spiky POV
  • A live artifact
  • An offer
  • Outreach data
  • A 90-day plan + filmed presentation
03Twenty strangers

Your goal is to get every kid in front of twenty strangers.

  • How it plays out
04Two speeds

Two speeds, and one block you have to carry.

  • How it plays out
  • Friday
  • Saturday
  • Sunday
05Judging

Four equal quarters. Revenue is a tiebreaker.

  • How it plays out
  • Spiky POV · 25%
  • Shipping · 25%
  • Data · 25%
  • Honesty + Plan · 25%
  • Say this early
06Rollout

Seattle is the beta. The Hamptons is the flagship.

  • How it plays out
07The payoff

What they leave with.

  • Mentor session
  • First Dollar Club
  • Everyone leaves with

01Where this comes fromWhy this

You're about to run one. This is everything we know about how.

Nat has run these rooms enough times that most of it lives in his head. That doesn't scale to a weekend a month in every Alpha city, which is the plan. So this is the brain-dump: the story you tell on stage, the six modules, the hour-by-hour, and the specific things that go wrong.

How to read it

Read it with a grain of salt. Every room is different and you're the one leading it.

02The challengeFive outputs

Five things they walk out with.

Every kid, by Sunday evening. If you only remember one page of this playbook, make it this one. Every block is manufacturing one of these five.

An unconventional belief about a niche they know. Most people in that niche would disagree with it.
First draft of a landing page in Saturday's whole-room sprint, then ripped and rebuilt around the offer. Ready students can begin as soon as they have a team. Public and shareable, something a stranger can react to.
Clear price, rough cost-to-deliver, a read on the market. The business-acumen layer where most people stop.
Twenty conversations with strangers documented: who, where, what they said, what they did. Real asks to real customers, not friends and family.
Where I started, what I built, what happened, why I'm continuing or not, my plan to $10K. The video every kid takes home.

03What the weekend is forTwenty strangers

Your goal is to get every kid in front of twenty strangers.

The target is twenty documented conversations with strangers. A smooth schedule means little if the students never make the asks.

How it plays out

Everything else serves that. The landing page exists so there's something to show a stranger; the offer exists so the stranger has something to say yes to. A kid who talks to twenty strangers and fails has had the weekend. A kid with a beautiful page and no conversations has had a craft project.

The decks cover the material in thirty minutes. Spend the other ten hours with the kid who is stuck, embarrassed, or ready to quit after a rude reply. Mentors float at one per five to eight kids so someone can sit down before that kid disappears into the back of the room.

04The rhythmTwo speeds

Two speeds, and one block you have to carry.

The opening runs on novelty. The last day has a finish line. Saturday afternoon is the block you have to carry because that is when the twenty conversations happen. Save your energy for it.

How it plays out

Ages run 8 to 16 and the spread is real. Ready to rip: already has an idea, high agency, wants a keyboard. Let them go for it, but everyone should go through the idea-generation exercise regardless. Slow and steady: needs the ideation modules first, then builds. More mentor time early, less later. Later cities may split into two age tracks; for now, run one room and staff the difference.

Pick an idea and decide the team. Ready students may take the optional fast track and begin an ugly page; everyone builds together Saturday.
Rip it apart and rebuild. Designed offer. Live URL. Conversations with 10+ strangers. Grind.
Close the outreach gap. Build the 90-day plan. Present live, get judged on results.

05What gets gradedJudging

Four equal quarters. Revenue is a tiebreaker.

Sunday's judging is a walk-around, not a sit-down. Mentors circulate with the rubric and interview each kid at their station: artifact, offer, outreach log and data on display. A pitch competition graded on real results, not a craft fair.

How it plays out

Sales count. Signups count. Rude no's count the same as polite ones. A polished deck with no real customer contact is last place.

Revenue is a tiebreaker, not a requirement. First Dollar Club members are recognised regardless of placement.

A real belief, or something generic?
A real thing in front of real people?
15+ documented conversations, against a target of 20.
Did they say what failed, and can they carry out the plan?
Continue, pivot, or stop are all winning answers if the reasoning is real. Kids need that permission on day one, not Sunday morning.

06Where we areRollout

Seattle is the beta. The Hamptons is the flagship.

Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles through the summer, then an iteration window in late August, then the Hamptons. Monthly in every Alpha city from Fall 2026.

How it plays out

Every city ends with a Monday retro on the same template: what broke, what converted, what changes in the box. If you find something that breaks, that's the product working. Write it down. It goes into the next version of this app.

07The payoffThe payoff

What they leave with.

Winner(s) get a mentor advising session. First Dollar Club members get recognised. Everyone leaves with a plan to $10K.

Mentorship from the Founders School team

Anyone who makes a real dollar during the weekend. Exclusive swag, recognised at the close regardless of placement.

A real business started, a shipped landing page, their filmed presentation, tool credits, permanent CoFounder-Light access, and an invitation to the 30-Day Demo Day.