The Startup Founder’S Roadmap: From Zero To Market

Step-by-step startup course for founders: validate ideas, build MVPs, gain traction, scale smart, and pitch investors

What you'll learn

How to validate a startup idea through customer discovery, the Jobs-To-Be-Done framework, and real user feedback.

How to design, test, and launch a minimum viable product (MVP) to achieve product-market fit.

How to build an effective go-to-market (GTM) strategy, leverage growth hacking, and generate early traction.

How to select the right startup business model, create pricing strategies, and test willingness-to-pay.

How to track and analyze key startup metrics including AARRR, North Star metrics, retention, and conversion rates.

How to secure funding through venture capital, SAFE notes, convertible notes, and alternative funding options.

How to create an investor-ready pitch deck, negotiate term sheets, and manage investor relationships.

How to structure startup operations including incorporation, equity splits, cap tables, and financial modeling.

How to build and scale a startup team, define culture and values, and manage cofounder conflicts.

How to identify the reasons startups fail and apply lessons from successful startups like Airbnb, Stripe, and Notion.

Requirements

No prior startup or entrepreneurship experience is required — this course is designed for beginners and aspiring founders.

A basic understanding of business concepts is helpful but not mandatory.

Access to a computer and internet connection to explore tools, templates, and resources shared in the course.

An open mind, willingness to learn by doing, and readiness to test and validate your own startup ideas.

Optional: Familiarity with spreadsheets (Excel/Google Sheets) for financial modeling, though we will cover the basics.

Optional: Interest in exploring simple no-code tools for MVP design, but no technical or coding skills are required.

Description

Every great company begins with a simple idea, but transforming that idea into a thriving business requires much more than inspiration. The Startup Founder’s Roadmap: From Zero to Market is designed to guide you through the essential stages of startup success, giving you the tools, strategies, and confidence to move from concept to launch, and eventually to scale. Whether you’re a first-time entrepreneur or an ambitious startup founder seeking structure and clarity, this course will help you master the journey of entrepreneurship step by step.You will start by understanding what a startup truly is, separating myths from reality, and uncovering the mindset required to thrive as a founder. From there, you’ll learn how to discover meaningful problems worth solving through customer discovery interviews and the Jobs-To-Be-Done framework, ensuring your solution is rooted in genuine user needs. By analyzing pain points, market demand, and timing, you’ll build the foundation for achieving product-market fit, the holy grail of every successful startup.The course then moves into practical action. You’ll learn how to design, test, and launch your minimum viable product (MVP)—not just as a rough prototype, but as a tool to validate demand and collect feedback. We’ll explore different MVP strategies, from landing pages to concierge models, and emphasize the importance of feedback loops and iteration. By building an MVP that customers love, you’ll be able to measure traction, identify early adopters, and refine your offering before scaling.Once your idea gains momentum, you’ll dive into go-to-market strategy and growth hacking. You’ll explore how to build landing pages, run smoke tests, create waitlists, and generate early demand through communities, ads, and cold outreach. We’ll cover startup pricing models, from SaaS to marketplaces, and unpack strategies for packaging, tiering, and testing willingness-to-pay. Alongside, you’ll master the critical startup metrics that drive decision-making—AARRR, retention loops, cohort analysis, and North Star metrics.No startup journey is complete without learning how to secure resources. This course provides a clear breakdown of fundraising essentials, including venture capital, SAFE notes, convertible notes, and alternative paths like bootstrapping, crowdfunding, and grants. You’ll learn how to design an investor-ready pitch deck, build an investor pipeline, and negotiate term sheets while avoiding common pitfalls.Beyond funding, you’ll also gain insight into startup operations, from choosing the right incorporation type to managing equity splits, cap tables, and financial modeling. You’ll explore how to build your first startup team, establish culture and values, and create performance systems such as ESOPs. We’ll also cover the human side of entrepreneurship—how to manage cofounder conflicts, prevent founder burnout, and navigate the challenges that cause most startups to fail.Finally, the course concludes with case studies of successful startups like Airbnb, Stripe, and Notion, highlighting repeatable patterns and lessons you can apply. By the end, you’ll have a clear startup roadmap—from validating your idea, launching your MVP, gaining traction, scaling sustainably, and building investor relationships, all the way to market success.If you’ve ever dreamed of launching your own company, this is your chance. This course is more than theory—it’s a hands-on guide to turning ambition into action, and ideas into impact.

Overview

Section 1: Week 1 – Introduction & Founder Mindset

Lecture 1 What is a Startup? Definitions, Myths, and Realities

Lecture 2 Founder-Market Fit vs. Product-Market Fit

Lecture 3 The Startup Lifecycle (Idea → MVP → Traction → Scale → Exit)

Lecture 4 Common Startup Myths and Why Most Fail

Section 2: Week 2 – Problem Discovery & Customer Insight

Lecture 5 Identifying Problems Worth Solving

Lecture 6 Customer Discovery Interviews (How to Talk to Users)

Lecture 7 Jobs-To-Be-Done (JTBD) Framework

Lecture 8 Analyzing Pain Intensity and Frequency

Section 3: Week 3 – Market Research & Competitive Analysis

Lecture 9 Understanding Market Size (TAM, SAM, SOM)

Lecture 10 Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Market Research

Lecture 11 Competitive Landscape & SWOT Analysis

Lecture 12 “Why Now?” – Timing and Market Trends

Section 4: Week 4 – Crafting Value Proposition & Positioning

Lecture 13 Building a Value Proposition Statement

Lecture 14 Positioning Frameworks (Blue Ocean, Laddering, Bowling Alley)

Lecture 15 Defining Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

Lecture 16 Storytelling: Framing the Problem and Solution

Section 5: Week 5 – MVP Design & Validation

Lecture 17 What is an MVP? Minimum Viable vs. Minimum Loveable Product

Lecture 18 MVP Types: Landing Pages, Prototypes, Concierge, Wizard-of-Oz

Lecture 19 Experiment Design: Hypotheses, Metrics, Success Criteria

Lecture 20 Usability Testing & Feedback Loops

Section 6: Week 6 – Early Traction & Demand Testing

Lecture 21 Building Landing Pages & Waitlists

Lecture 22 Smoke Tests & Pre-Orders

Lecture 23 Channels for Early Traffic (Communities, Ads, Cold Outreach)

Lecture 24 Measuring Conversion and Validating Demand

Section 7: Week 7 – Pricing, Business Models & Monetization

Lecture 25 Startup Business Models (SaaS, Marketplace, Freemium, etc.)

Lecture 26 Principles of Startup Pricing Strategies

Lecture 27 Packaging & Tiers (Basic, Premium, Enterprise)

Lecture 28 Testing Willingness-to-Pay (Surveys, Pilots, Experiments)

Section 8: Week 8 – Go-To-Market Strategy

Lecture 29 Introduction to Go-To-Market (GTM) Planning

Lecture 30 Sales Models: PLG vs. SLG vs. Hybrid

Lecture 31 Growth Loops and Virality (Network Effects 101)

Lecture 32 90-Day GTM Launch Plan

Section 9: Week 9 – Building the Product & Tech Basics

Lecture 33 Build vs. Buy Decisions (No-Code vs. Custom Code)

Lecture 34 Tech Stack Basics (Cloud, Databases, APIs)

Lecture 35 Security, Privacy, and Compliance Foundations

Lecture 36 Cost Management & Scalability Concerns

Section 10: Week 10 – Activation, Retention & Growth Metrics

Lecture 37 AARRR Metrics (Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue)

Lecture 38 Designing Onboarding Flows & First-Run Experience

Lecture 39 Retention Loops & Cohort Analysis

Lecture 40 Growth Metrics & North Star Metrics

Section 11: Week 11 – Startup Operations & Legal Basics

Lecture 41 Choosing Incorporation Type (C-Corp, LLC, etc.)

Lecture 42 Equity Splits, Vesting, and Cap Tables

Lecture 43 Contracts, IP Protection, and Employment Basics

Lecture 44 Financial Modeling, Runway, and Burn Rate

Section 12: Week 12 – Fundraising Essentials

Lecture 45 What is Venture Capital & How It Works

Lecture 46 Funding Stages (Pre-Seed → Seed → Series A → Growth)

Lecture 47 Alternative Funding (Bootstrapping, Crowdfunding, Grants)

Lecture 48 SAFE, Convertible Notes, and Equity Rounds

Section 13: Week 13 – Pitching & Investor Relations

Lecture 49 Anatomy of a Winning Pitch Deck

Lecture 50 Investor Pipeline: Finding & Approaching VCs

Lecture 51 Negotiating Term Sheets & Avoiding Pitfalls

Lecture 52 Building and Managing Investor Relationships

Section 14: Week 14 – Scaling the Team & Culture

Lecture 53 When and How to Hire Your First Employees

Lecture 54 Building Startup Culture & Values

Lecture 55 Performance, Compensation & ESOPs (Employee Stock Options)

Lecture 56 Managing Cofounder and Team Conflicts

Section 15: Week 15 – Why Startups Fail

Lecture 57 Top 10 Reasons Startups Fail (CB Insights Data)

Lecture 58 Postmortems: Case Studies of Failed Startups

Lecture 59 Stress Testing Your Startup for Weak Spots

Lecture 60 Founder Burnout & Mental Health

Section 16: Week 16 – Success Patterns & Capstone

Lecture 61 Case Studies of Successful Startups (Airbnb, Stripe, Notion)

Lecture 62 Scaling Playbooks (Sales, Product, Ops)

Lecture 63 Ethical Startups: Doing Good While Growing Fast

Lecture 64 Capstone: Present Your Startup Idea & Pitch

A first-time founder with an idea and no clear roadmap to launch.,A student or professional curious about entrepreneurship and startup building.,An early-stage startup founder seeking to refine your MVP, gain traction, or achieve product-market fit.,A business professional considering launching a side hustle or new venture.,An aspiring entrepreneur interested in fundraising, pitch decks, and attracting investors.,A corporate innovator or intrapreneur who wants to apply startup principles to new projects inside an organization.