Discover the truth about your business idea in 12 weeks
A validation program for people with a real idea and a real job. You'll run real experiments with real customers and come out with evidence — either that it works, or that it doesn't.
You're good at what you do. That was never the question. The question is whether the thing you keep thinking about at 11pm is real — and right now the only way to find out is to quit, spend two years and most of your savings, and discover the answer the expensive way.
There's a cheaper way to find out.
Learn the validation method
Insight-Driven Iteration, taught week by week through videos and a structured online course — the proprietary process for moving from thinking to knowing.
Explore the method →Software to run your experiments
The Founder's Workbench walks you through each experiment and collects your validation data — every insight and decision in one place, with the AI Sensei.
See the Workbench →Guidance from David Linhardt
Direct mentoring from a 14-time founder — weekly live sessions plus two private 1-on-1s on your specific situation.
What you walk out with
A Fundamental Thesis backed by real customer evidence, and a documented decision you can defend — proceed, pivot, or a clean kill.
The Fundamental Thesis
Every experiment and insight rolls up into one shareable, investor-ready document: what you believe, the evidence behind it, and the decision it points to. It's the artifact advisors and investors actually want to see — and the thing most founders can never produce.
See how the Workbench builds it →Every week runs an experiment and produces data and evidence
Specificity is the point. You always know what you're testing this week and what you'll have to show for it.
Kickoff & the Riskiest-Assumption Map
Customer–Problem Scan
Problem Interviews at Depth
Problem Validation Decision
Solution Concept & Value Hypothesis
MVP 1.0 Demand Test
Pricing & Willingness to Pay
Solution Validation Decision
Path-To-Customers: Channel Tests
Repeatable Acquisition
Business Model Roll-up
Fundamental Thesis & Decision
Insight-Driven Iteration
Our proprietary validation method, in three phases, each broken into experiments. Run a test, capture the Customer insight, then proceed, pivot, or kill — until you've earned a business model that scales.
Concise, testable, and honest about what "success" requires. Every experiment in the program moves one term of this equation from assumption to evidence.
FounderDojo Is A Difference Maker
"FounderDojo helps you block out the noise. It helps you focus on what really matters to make your startup successful."
"I owe 100% of my success to FounderDojo. Whatever else you're thinking about doing, stop and sign up. It will save years of your life."
"FounderDojo taught me how to listen to Customers. Now I know how to get insight from Customers and use it to improve my business."
David Linhardt — 14-time founder
Ex-Amazon, ex-P&G. I left the corporate hierarchy, started a business in my house with $5K, and learned the hard way that a startup is nota smaller version of a big company. It's fundamentally different.
I've built fourteen startups and now run a studio applying this exact validation process. In the program, I coach every cohort personally.
Read the full story →The real objections
FounderDojo Is The Best Value
MIT charges more than we do for four days. Harvard charges nearly four times as much for seven. We're twelve weeks, and you leave with evidence about your own idea rather than a framework.
HBS fee includes lodging and most meals. Competitor prices verified 14 August 2026 and move by term.
Do the work, and you don't leave without a result.
Complete all 12 experiments. If you finish without signed evidence or a documented kill decision, you keep the Workbench free for a year and we work 1-on-1 until you have one.
It's gated on your behavior, not your satisfaction — because the only way this fails is if the work doesn't get done.
You already know most startups don't make it. What you don't know is whether yours would.
Twelve weeks and $5,000 to find out — while you still have your job.