Launching An Academy — Bottling and Exporting Silicon Valley’s Secret Sauce
Inside the GUILD Academy
It’s been quite the learning curve … two months ago we launched the GUILD’s first online program with the promise to teach entrepreneurs to launch their business Silicon-Valley Style in just under 12-weeks. https://www.letsguildacademy.com/
As the founder of the GUILD, it’s a big responsibly to find myself in the education space and what started as a light hearted idea becomes a big endeavor quickly.
Which experts to ask, which resources to share, which message to send? Which tone to choose? Which communication to use? Which exercises to include?
Notwithstanding the even more important questions like “which lipstick to wear on camera”? 💄
As an entrepreneur who started (and sold one of the) 5 businesses in the last decade from art to consulting to consumer product and later tech startups, I have my fair share of lessons learnt and know which advice was helpful to me.
I studied business and can reach deep into the MBA toolbox.
Yet, the imposter syndrome set in regardless and I asked myself “Who am I to tell others how to launch their businesses,…?”
At the end of the day I had to overcome the doubt and say “Screw it - I’m going to put myself out there”. Role models like Marie Forleo and Grace Lever who seem to have an unbelievable amount of self-confidence helped me over the hurdle of launching a program and getting over myself to get more female entrepreneurs to launch their businesses.
The idea of the academy started taking shape when I saw women apply to our founder funder programs we run at my company the GUILD twice a year. While we received hundreds of applications, many women weren’t prepared to pitch to investors. It was rather obvious and I didn’t need the experience from years of pitch reviews and startup competition judging to see that they were missing business fundamentals.
I wanted to solve the problem of closing the investor “introduction / network” gap. However, I realized that while that gap needs closing — because only 12% of VCs are women and access to powerful investors with deep pockets is a networking game mostly played by men on golf courses and in clubs (which results in an one digit % of VC money going to female only founding teams and ~15% to founding teams with at least one woman) — an even bigger problem to solve was preparing the female founders and filling the funnel with high quality pitches for the program so that we could introduce them to the investors for the pitch mentoring and feedback sessions.
As a result I knew we needed more education in this space. When looking at the university entrepreneurship programs and accelerators it struck me that the majority of teachers are men and that the YC tutors seem to resemble the typical tech bro vs. a female entrepreneur that the ladies in the GUILD can identify with.
If you can’t see her you can’t be her.
I started to think of the best speakers and teachers I’ve seen in my 8 year tenure in Silicon Valley. Fortunately, I knew many because I ran 4 women conferences in the last 3 years with over 3,500 women in the audience who also told us via NPS score surveys which speakers or workshop hosts were the best. They also told me which founders, professors, authors and experts they wanted to hear from.
All I needed at that point was someone to nudge me: “the GUILD should have an entrepreneurship program that’s better than the bro-centric accelerator programs out there!”. That person was Yonca Braeckman who on her visit to San Francisco found herself at a GUILD dinner at my house. We then spent a weekend together with a few other female entrepreneurs at a horse ranch in Bodega (since we don’t like to golf…) and the plan was hatched:
We set out to bring one of the best online entrepreneurship programs to women all over the world — 100% remote and with lots of 1:1 support and live access to world experts. The GUILD Academy!
We decided to bottle and export the Silicon Valley startup secret sauce and latest methodologies to anybody in the world.
Said and done … in typical entrepreneurship fashion, I announced the program at the keynote of our annual conference SERENDIPITY in September 2019 and judging by the response, we decided to build the course.
The details of building a comprehensive online course and selling it while you are building it is a story for another time. I learnt a lot about the world of video, I had to overcome my version of “video stage fright” and became much quicker after the first take of a rehearsed intro that filled up my phone’s storage with 30 clips of the same few sentences 🙄
The speakers were amazing and open to this new idea of sharing their expertise with a worldwide audience. Everybody took the time to come to our “studio” at Schoolab or invited me to bring the mobile studio to their offices on Sandhill Road, they prepared to film a 15–20min session — one time even twice when I didn’t hit “record”…
It was so much fun to interview our guest speakers and over time I became a mobile studio and video editing ninja with lots left to learn, but luckily I found a great team that was ready to edit our professional videos. Side note: I was once attacked by the ring light and filmed an intro video with a red streak across my face — thankfully the exposure feature in Splice made it disappeared.
The big moment came in January when we hit “publish” and knew that we would change the life of quite a few women. With an online course that moment is very anticlimactic though, which is why we’re planning a better “launch” moment for our second cohort. We’re also changing the way how we form mastermind groups to create better accountability early on.
Because we are drinking our own Kool Aid and designing this program with a prototyping and design thinking mindset, we are constantly iterating and improving the experience.
To talk about the program itself, let’s hear from the participants — the testimonials say more than I can explain …
“Terrific resources, tools, and weekly challenges that push me to take actual steps and help me to get closer to my dream. Plus the opportunity to ask questions and receive support anytime :-)”
“I absolutely love the GUILD Academy materials (packed with nuggets of wisdom) and the guest speakers are super helpful. This journey is amazing, I learned so much. It challenges me in so many ways, nudging me to be courageous, and yes, the journey is indeed the reward!”
“This week was so incredibly helpful in helping me realize exactly what I need to focus on both now and later down the line in my business model! It is awesome to see everything coming together so cohesively as we move forward in the program!”
“The GUILD Academy already challenged me in the first month to redefine my problem statement and to translate that into a clear feasible mission, a sustainable solution and an effective marketing strategy.”
“This was the most useful session on pitches. I learned a lot just by listening to the investor’s feedback”
“My favorite part of the academy is that it creates a community all around the world. As a “solopreneur” it can be very challenging to get feedback on your project or to be able to brainstorm with others and the GUILD makes that possible by connecting me with like-minded women from all over the world.”
“This program is really truly one of a kind. And what has been built is nothing short of extraordinary. Each week the lessons are thought out with pristine detail providing us with copious amounts of material and support. One of my favorite parts of the academy are the weekly live ask me anything sessions with an industry superstar. During these sessions not only do we get to learn from these experts we also get to ask individual questions and most importantly we really get a chance to make a connection with them. Being in this program I’ve been set up for success for my startup. I will be forever grateful for this program.”
I received such great feed back during my 1:1 with Anne…Thank you Anne for encouraging my thought process. If you haven’t taken time with Anne 1:1, I encourage you to do so!
It’s been an incredible journey that I wouldn’t want to miss and each time a participant asks a questions and gets clarity, has a break through in their business model or launches their product, I have goose bumps and can’t help it but feel proud of my students and this next generation of female entrepreneurs.
“After the game is before the game”, as a famous German soccer quote goes which means we are preparing for the next cohort of the GUILD Academy kicking off on April 20th with the next group of female entrepreneurs ready to turn their dream into reality.
Are you ready for a 12-week program taking you from idea to launch?
Visit https://www.letsguildacademy.com, download the curriculum and apply today to secure a spot in this limited group of badass women, taking the leap and doing so knowing that there is a community that provides a feeling of safety and makes it all bit more fun.
Thank you for sharing with your friends and colleagues who have a great idea and want to make it a reality and those who already have a prototype and want to launch their business.
If you are not the right person and you don’t know anybody who tells you about their great idea all day (come on, really — you don’t have that friend!?), but you love what we do and want to support a woman who can’t afford the program, you can follow the example of an entrepreneur I admire - Fran Heller - and the German Accelerator and sponsor a scholarship.
We match every scholarship given!
About the Author:
Anne Cocquyt is a serial entrepreneur and super connector in Silicon Valley. She is the CEO and founder of the GUILD, an AI tech startup and global network for female entrepreneurs, innovators and leaders. In 2019 she launched the GUILD Academy, an online program dubbed “mini-MBA” for women to “Launch their Business Silicon Valley Style” to change the odds for female entrepreneurs.
