Tiny = Huge
Over the past 5 years, our Launch program and the Tiny Schools project have helped over 50 education ventures and schools get off the ground. Many have gone on to thrive, serving over 140,000 students and families collectively. At the core of each venture is a founder asking a challenging question about the future of school.
These founders matter to us because, at 4.0, we believe real change begins with challenging questions. We also believe that every community in the U.S. should build their own example of the future of school. To do that, we’ll need a lot more founders, and that means taking down a major barrier in entrepreneurship, one we admit Launch perpetuated: the undue pressure to quit your job before you know if your idea has legs.
This pressure is toxic. It forces those that quit too early to scramble for cash, regardless of whether or not that cash is aligned with their vision. Worse, it stops so many would-be founders who don’t have a safety net from even trying to start something. That’s why, beginning this year, we’re pressing pause on Launch in favor of a new experiment that’s accessible to founders before they quit their jobs: the Tiny Fellowship.
The Tiny Fellowship takes everything Launch taught us about what founders need and makes it more accessible to more people at more times throughout the year. Specifically:
- Coaching (from our team and other seasoned entrepreneurs)
- Capital (5k, equity free)
- Community (local and national)
Your job, as a founder, is to ask a challenging question about the future of school and start testing to find an answer. Our job is to help you keep the tests tiny and the ideas big — we learned a lot about how to do this with the Tiny Schools project. Again, you don’t have to be full-time on your idea to participate. In fact, we’d love if you weren’t — we don’t think worrying about your next meal will help you think big.
We’re rolling out a private beta next month — if you want to get involved, sign up here and we’ll share what we’re up to as we roll the program out this fall.
