Founder to CEO
An 8-week learning experience
It’s time to move beyond “just winging it.”
It’s okay (and totally normal) that you don’t always know what you’re doing as a business owner. The truth is, no one is good at all the things required to run a business, and there aren’t many ways to learn the fundamentals outside of an expensive business degree or countless hours spent on DIY courses.
That’s why I created a live, cohort-based learning experience: to help busy, overwhelmed founders find their footing and run their businesses with confidence.
What is Founder to CEO?
Founder to CEO is an 8-week, cohort-based learning experience to help women and femme founders build a solid operating foundation for their businesses.
This is not another pre-recorded course you’ll never finish. It’s a group learning experience made up of live workshops, guided exercises, and community support. We’ll be learning and implementing at the same time so you don’t lose momentum (or get lost in homework assignments).
Learn more about my approach to learning by watching the video below:
Meet your instructor, Jill James
I’m not a coach, but clients often call me a “business therapist.” (It’s a compliment, I’m not a mental health professional.) Building a company will expose your limiting beliefs about yourself, relationships, and money — often in the context of learning new business skills. We do the work while we do the work.
I work with self-funded CEO / founders with purpose. Mostly women, but not exclusively. By experience, I’m a business strategist and Chief Operating Officer. I’m really good at helping founders go from early concept to $5–$10 million without giving up equity. I’ve done most of the non-engineering jobs in SaaS and services companies. On the finance side, I have been a personal financial planner, worked in investment banking, and I have an MBA in entrepreneurship and strategy from Chicago Booth.
When you sign up for Founder to CEO, you get:
An intimate learning experience — each cohort is capped at 15 self-funded women founders and led by CEO & Founder Jill James
Eight weekly 90-minute group learning and working sessions hosted on Zoom, recorded and privately saved for rewatch
One 30-minute private Zoom session with Jill, plus full access to Jill and The Jill James team on our virtual community platform throughout the eight weeks
An accountability partner to connect with beyond the live sessions
Worksheets and foundational lessons you can refer back to over and over to level up your business, including our Unit Profit Calculator
Lifetime access to the learning materials and video resource library, plus a lifetime membership to our Founder to CEO alumni community in MightyNetworks
Now, I know what you’re thinking...
Is Founder to CEO for me?
If two or more of these sound like you, the answer is YES…
💼
You are a self-funded founder who identifies as a woman or femme.
🤷🏻♀️
You sort of know who your customer is.
📚
The books get closed most of the time. You’re kinda sorta sure they’re accurate.
🔧
You don’t have an operating budget or a prediction for how much revenue you’ll make this year.
💰
When it comes to paying yourself, you have more aspiration than expectation.
👩🏻💻
You wish you had taken a couple of business classes at some point. It weighs on your confidence.
💸
You’ve bought into a lot of different communities, offers, or DIY courses that haven’t gotten you where you want to be in your business
It’s never too early or too late to learn CEO fundamentals.
If you’re interested but aren’t sure if this offering is a perfect match, send us an email or take the quiz below.
What does it mean to go from founder to CEO?
Does your founder journey feel like whack-a-mole right now? Are you solving one unexpected problem after another?
As you get started, it’s normal to learn and fix things as you go. But after a while, reactivity can suck the life out of you and your business.
When I say I’ll help you go from founder to CEO, I mean I’ll help you set your business on a solid foundation so you can make more strategic, purpose-driven decisions as the CEO of your company.
Founder to CEO Schedule
Week 1: You as CEO
Week 2: Ideal Customers
Week 3: Offers & Pricing
Week 4: Working Session / 1:1 with Jill
Week 5: Finance & Accounting
Week 6: People & Staffing
Week 7: Operations
Week 8: Wrap up & Celebration
Our cohort will meet every Tuesday 10-11:30 AM Pacific from April 18 to June 6, 2023.
During those 90 minutes, we’ll use real-time activities, work sprints, and optional breakout rooms (we’re introvert-friendly here!).
Before and after the live sessions, there will also be optional worksheets, videos, and journaling exercises available for you to do on your own or with your accountability partner.
Your Investment
What Past Participants Are Saying
Frequently Asked Questions
A: No. This is a live, facilitated learning experience that includes an opportunity to connect with a select group of self-funded founders. Each cohort will have its own unique identity, challenges, and questions — all of which we can cover in real-time during our weekly meetings.
A: Not really. If you want to go deeper and have the time, we have videos and self-study materials available in the portal. However, these are all optional. Most required activities will be done during our live weekly meetings.
A: Founder to CEO will help you get clear on what you really want, and how to get there, no matter where you are in your business journey.
If you’re a seasoned entrepreneur lacking clarity and have gaps in your foundational operating skills, doing this work will accelerate your growth and success.
If you’re a newer founder, building your skills proactively can save you time and money as you grow your business.
A: Yes. You’ll have one 30-minute 1:1 session with Jill via Zoom during Week Four, recorded and transcribed if you choose. There will also be opportunities to speak with Jill 1:1 during group working sessions, as well as in our community platform via group chat.
A: We designed this experience with the busy founder in mind. 80% of your success is just showing up; if you can commit to a 90-minute meeting once a week for eight weeks, you’re golden. The majority of the work and implementation will be done together on our weekly calls.
There will be optional worksheets, videos, and journaling exercises you can do outside of our meeting time, but no shame spirals about what you’re not doing.
A: It’s not the end of the world! All live sessions will be recorded and posted in our private MightyNetworks community group to view and come back to indefinitely. There will also be opportunities to discuss session content within your cohort, connect with your assigned accountability partner, and get your questions answered by Jill and the team post-session.
A: Knowing more means you’ll have more questions. You can ask questions throughout the 8 weeks in our private community on Mighty Networks. This is where Jill, The Jill James team, and the rest of your cohort can continue the conversation between sessions.
At the end of the 8-week period, you’ll also be added to the Founder to CEO alumni community. Ongoing access to both groups are included in the cohort price.
A: Yes. You can access all session recordings, our video resource library, worksheets and other learning materials in our Mighty Networks community indefinitely. You will also have access to new videos and iterations of the cohort material.
Have a different question?
Email our team and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
Join the waitlist
Interested in joining the Founder to CEO cohort?
We are not currently accepting applications. Add your name to the waitlist to be the first to know when we open enrollment again.
What’s Included
- Small cohort — capped at 15 self-funded women founders
- Live 90-minute cohort sessions each week for eight weeks
- Recordings of live sessions — privately saved for your cohort
- One 30-minute 1:1 session with Jill
- An assigned accountability partner
- Learning workbook and self-reflection journal
- Access to Jill, The Jill James team, and fellow cohort participants on Mighty Networks
- Lifetime access to learning resources and our Founder to CEO alumni community in Mighty Networks
- A copy of The Passion Economy
- Unit Profit Calculator