just keep building and add more features?
You shipped it ...
NOW LET’S GROW IT
Introducing GROW IT an entirely new live online course created by Femgineer and designed specifically for tech founders who have launched a product and are left wondering,
Where in the world are all my customers?
(insert a chorus of crickets)
Now that you’ve shipped your brilliant idea to the circadian tune of crickets, you’re scratching your head and asking just about anyone with a pulse...
SHOULD I ...
SHOULD I ...
lower the price or maybe even give it away for free?
SHOULD I ...
hire a developer or sales manager and grow my team stat?
These uncomfortable questions lead you to one of these ‘popular’ misconceptions:
- You should apply to an accelerator ASAP, obviously.
- You should pivot, pivot, pivot until you discover what works.
- You should cross your fingers and start pitching investors.
stop
You’re shoulding all over yourself!
IT’S TIME FOR A REALITY CHECK ...
You aren’t ready to pitch investors, pivot your focus, or participate in an accelerator.
The days of raising capital based exclusively on an awesome idea are O-V-E-R.
Funding in Silicon Valley startups fell 19.5% in the first quarter of 2016 compared to a year earlier, and is down 10% for seed-stage companies in the first quarter 2016—According to PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association.
Even a prototype isn't good enough to attract investors in today’s competitive market.
Because if you don’t have a track record of successful exits or a powerful network, investors won’t invest in you ...
UNLESS you can prove you have the following:- Domain expertise over the competition and a compelling vision.
- A product with consistent month-over-month growth and/or recurring revenue
- A team they trust to build a solid technical product and acquire customers
- A compelling reason the market needs this NOW
Top accelerators look for the same, because they want to make sure they satisfy the criteria upstream investors care about.
(Plus it's hard to accelerate if there's no gas in the tank!)
You need a proven testing process —
If your product’s going to survive and become a sustainable business than can ...
-
Play hard to get with VCs, because you know your product is the sh*t.
-
Employ and pay a talented team of people without monthly stress.
-
Attract a community of evangelists who are addicted to your product.
-
Generate a solid monthly revenue that will impress your mama, for sure.
You could go at it alone, mirroring what you think you should be doing.
(But you already know the ending to that clichéd startup story.)
You’ll burn through cash you don’t have pursuing the wrong path.
You’ll waste hundreds of hours building a product the market doesn’t want.
You’ll distract yourself from growing the business by fundraising too early.
The top 3 reasons most products fail
( ... and how to guarantee your product won’t take the dreaded Walk of Shame)
#PRODUCTFAIL Scenario 1
The Fundraising Fiasco
Visions of VCs are dancing through your head.
Even though you have yet to invest the time truly needed to understand your audience and your business model, you want an infusion of capital ASAP. Mostly because you’re hell-bent on hiring a developer and a handful of other employees.
What you think is a priority might not be a priority.And this isn’t about you being good enough. If you fundraise too quickly, you could be thrown off track. Your user base could plateau. And you could blow through precious funds with little to show for it.
You don’t need an investor. You need to do the work. Investors won’t hand over that fat check until you can show:
- 1. A thriving user base
- 2. A clear understanding of your target audience
- 3. Recurring revenue and monetization
Time to prioritize the latter and focus on what matters → GROWTH.
#PRODUCTFAIL Scenario 2
The I-Can’t-Stop-Building
The I-Can’t-Stop-Building
Time Bomb
Marketing makes your left eye twitch. We get it.
You like to build. And tinker. And build some more.
So it’s no surprise that you end up wasting hundreds of hours building the WRONG thing for the WRONG audience. You need a proven process for testing marketing channels, monetizing, and growing.
If your product doesn’t bring in the dough, you won’t be eligible for most accelerators. You won’t attract investors. And you won’t have any money to cover your expenses or fund a team of employees.
Maybe you’ve got 2 or 200 or even 2,000 beta users. That’s groovy. But those aren’t actual sales.
- - Investors want to see you convert your beta users into paying customers.
- - Investors want to see you grow for at least a 6 month period.
- - Investors want to see that you have the expertise to build and grow.
Time to stop building. And start growing.
#PRODUCTFAIL Scenario 3
The ‘We Didn’t See That Coming’ Disaster
Early revenue growth can easily deceive you.
Don’t mistake growth—from organic channels—with long-term success.
Sure, it feels like you’re magically making moolah.
But that doesn’t mean you’ve...
- - perfected your business model,
- - nailed your product market fit, or
- - developed a replicable system to help you grow from 1 to 100 to 1000 and beyond.
Maybe you’re focused on the wrong metrics for growth.
And while those metrics look and feel fabulous, Houston, we’ve got a problem.
You trick yourself into believing that if you can maintain the organic growth engine, everything will be fine. Hah! If only.
Overlooking an intentional strategy to help you continue to acquire and retain your customers will kill your company.
Time to admit you’ve got a problem. And do something about it.
GROW IT gives you the best TOOLS, FEEDBACK, INSIGHTS, STRUCTURE, and PROVEN PROCESSES you need to reach your goals, just like Alyssa Ravasio, founder of HipCamp.
Alyssa launched a paid prototype and raised $1M in angel investment a year later.
The only thing that limits what you’re capable of is what you believe you can do.
Femgineer offers great crash courses on the non-optional basics of how to build and grow a product that people will love.
Founder of Hipcamp
You’ve probably asked yourself, ‘Is it supposed to be this hard ALL the time?’
Because you’ve seen other founders who are way further ahead. And it leaves you wondering, ‘Am I good enough?’
- Am I good enough to turn this product into a profitable business?
- Am I good enough to make hundreds of decisions alone, daily?
- Am I good enough to attract top talent with little pay?
- Am I good enough to
triplequintuple my user base this month? - Am I good enough to attract investors and raise capital?
Between partnering with a trusted advisor or doing the work alone.
The challenge?
Doing the work alone leads to:
- myopic decision-making and blind spots
- wasted resources: time, money, and energy
- misguided experiments and dead-end roads
- doubting yourself, your product, your ideas
- burning out and giving up
And that my friend, is no bueno.
- You need knowledgeable instructors who have insider, behind-the-kimono insights into growing user bases to the point of profitability and/or funding
- You need a safe place to experiment, test, and fail
- You need a trusted advisor, just like Andrea...
I got SO much more than I expected ...
...because after working with Poornima, my confidence skyrocketed. I learned how to distill my vision into the specific and actionable tasks that my team needed to make progress.
Poornima has been instrumental in helping me INCREASE REVENUE, FIND MY VOICE, and BRING MY PRODUCT TO LIFE on a bootstrapped budget.
She understands marketing and engineering, and she shares what works (and doesn’t) from her time in the trenches.
Now, I’m building my businesses, writing a book, hosting a podcast, and keynoting at amazing events around the world.”
Andrea Goulet
Co-Founder and CEO of Corgibytes, Founder of Nagless, Founder of LegacyCode.Rocks
The REAL work begins ... NOW
If you want to make a product that people will:
TALK ABOUT
GO GAGA OVER
WILL PAY TOP DOLLAR FOR
YOU NEED TO G-TO-THE-ROW WITH:
GROW IT
the blockbuster sequal to our SHIP IT
A live interactive online course designed to help you:
-
Partner with trusted advisors who can provide vital product feedback and no baloney startup advice that will save you from ... yourself.
-
Put your product into the hands of your ideal target audience — rather than wasting time marketing to people who couldn’t care less.
-
Rethink, refine, and reiterate your product based on user insights and experimentation, not guesses and assumptions.
-
Monetize your product and make dolla dolla bills consistently so that you don’t have to stress over payroll.
GROW IT IS NOT A ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL COURSE
We cap our class size at 50 so you can receive as much attention as possible, because we are 110% committed to helping you reach your win.
It’s the very first course of its kind to provide:
LIVE LAB SESSIONS
We’ll challenge you to look at your product, your processes, and your business model differently.
What you can expect
- Participate in 4.5 hrs/week of interactive, case-study driven labs.
- Receive intimate group coaching and personalized feedback from your trusted advisors—expert instructors like Poornima Vijayashanker, Ritika Puri, and Joe Diliberto who have been there and grown that.
- Exchange real world practice and use cases, tested processes, and curated tools to give you an edge in the marketplace.
Maria Brandt
Founder of Plan4Event
“Before paying for anything, I want to know if I’m going to get value.
I had taken cheaper online courses before through Udemy and Stanford Online, but to tell you the truth, I didn’t get anything valuable out of them. I was looking for a tried and tested formula to help me develop and grow my product correctly.
I wasn’t looking for theories, I was looking for 1:1 feedback from instructors who have successfully launched products in the tech space.
Poornima helped me create a process to support the MVP, from identifying key customer segments, marketing communications, partnerships, team creation, and potential funding.
Poornima also provided one-on-one feedback on even small details that helped me elevate the quality of my communications and offerings."
LAB WORK
The ‘real’ work you should be doing in your business weekly (we refuse to give you ‘homework’ that isn’t related to your product and business goals).
What you can expect
- Complete exercises at the end of each lesson, submit them, and receive ongoing weekly feedback from instructors, based on your product and goals.
- Ask your instructors and fellow students ANYTHING related (or not!) to your LAB WORK 5 days/week in our Slack Channel. Expect to be pushed out of your comfort zone (in a good way, of course).
- We cap our class size at 50 so you can receive as much attention as possible—we care about helping you reach your win.
Chloe Marten
Co-Founder of Betty & Accepted into Idea Accelerator Miller with the Mill, 2016
“The lab work allowed us to practice what we learned in class.
Poornima’s marketing assignments were super helpful and the templates provided gave me a solid foundation to build upon.”
ACCESS TO TRUSTED ADVISORS (AKA YOUR INSTRUCTORS)
Our experienced instructors will support you as you learn, experiment, and confront a variety of daily challenges.
What you can expect
- Top-notch instructors who listen more than they talk, genuinely care about your success, and are willing to go above and beyond to support you.
- Trusted advisors to support you through problems like: improving co-founder and team communications, focusing on critical next steps, avoiding burnout, monetization, building a business model that works, and more.
- Mindset shifts to help build your confidence and prepare you to pitch investors.
Jose Valdes
Co-Founder of LendSquare
“Even though we had launched a product and were making money, there were things we didn’t know.
We learned how to improve the signup process for customers, perform tests, and grow our customer base.
And we received introductions to investors that helped us join the 500 Startups Accelerator Program.”
CURATED TOOLS
We’re not only recommending the tech tools our instructors can’t live without, but we’re also recommending the most effective tools our students have used to achieve sustained growth.
What you can expect
- Exposure to the most efficient and effective tools we’ve tested for you.
- Forget general information. We show you step-by-step how to use each tool so you don’t have to waste your valuable time figuring it out.
- We’ll introduce you to the respected ‘industry standard’ tools that will help you grow your product.
COMMUNITY
We vet our community via application process to ensure you’re learning in a (digital) room filled with a talented crew of founders who are excited to support each other.
What you can expect
- Receive individual check-ins from instructors and other students, who will act as your accountability partners to make sure you stay on track!
- Access to all alumni (in Facebook) and a supportive community of like-minded classmates (in Slack).
GROW IT is perfect for you if:
- You’re a talented tech founder, engineer, designer, or product manager who loves to learn.
- You have thick skin, value constructive feedback, and don’t take yourself too seriously.
- You participate in labs, support your fellow students, and dig networking.
- While you might be interested in fundraising down the line, you realize that you have A LOT of work to do before you’re ready to meet with investors.
- You’ve got grit, drive, and moxie–‘nobody puts Baby in a corner.’
AND, you currently have one of the following web or mobile apps in the market:
- An online marketplace
- A financial software service
- A healthcare solution
- A consumer internet application, content site, or game
- An enterprise application
- A software infrastructure product
GROW IT is NOT for you if:
- You have an idea, but no product. (Don’t stress, you can turn your idea into a product with our SHIP IT Course instead.)
- You’re o b s e s s e d with fundraising and more focused on introductions to investors, rather than doing the work. Work that will make you an attractive investment long-term. Basically, you want quick results, not sustained growth.
- You tend to pile your plate too high and flake out. If you want to experience real results, you need to free up time to focus.
- You just want to learn how to code. This course does not teach you how to code, but it will teach you how to transform your product, grow your user base, and build a sustainable financial model.
- You’re strapped for cash and not ready to invest in your learning. If you can’t afford this course right now, we recommend you check out our free resources instead.
- Your business is not based on a software product.
- You’re a drama queen (...and 'ain't nobody got time for that!').
AND NOW A WORD FROM YOUR TRUSTED ADVISOR AND THE LEAD ‘GROW IT’ INSTRUCTOR…
Hey there. I’m Poornima. The Founder behind Femgineer.
I’ve worked with 100+ startup founders — from around the world — over the past 2 years as the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at 500 Startups.
You could call me an entrepreneur, an engineer, an author, a speaker, or even a yogi. I do all of the above.
And most of you know me as the founding engineer at Mint, where I helped build, launch, and scale the product until it was acquired by Intuit.
I’m currently the lead mentor-in-residence at Techstars in New York, where I’m advising 15 companies. I’m also a guest lecturer at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering. Go Blue Devils!
What do I do better than anyone, you ask?
I rally people to get sh*t done … and make the world an iota better each day.
Poornima forced us to experiment with higher pricing, which brought us more valuable customers and allowed us to grow by +20% MoM during 2015.
So basically, Poornima helped us to realize how mistaken we were in terms of our business model and pricing strategy. We’ve continued to follow her approach since then to make further iterations in our strategy.
jose cayasso (caya)
Co-Founder of Slidebean
TOTAL EQUITY FUNDING
$480,000 raised in 6 Rounds with 5 Investors
You don’t need us to TELL you what to do, you need us to SHOW you how to do it.
- We get coding.
- We get engineering.
- We get content + marketing.
- We get business models.
- We get raising capital.
- We get your frustrations ... because we’ve been there.
In a crowded (and highly opinionated) tech world where everyone is telling you to ‘do this’ and ‘do that,’ our team of trusted advisors—AKA your instructors—is your secret weapon.
That’s why we’re giving you permission to TRY, FAIL, and LEARN in our virtual (and 
kitty-free) sandbox.
WON'T YOU JOIN US?
You could say we know EXACTLY how to:
- make your product awesome
- improve founder and team communications
- connect with key influencers and collaborators
- track key metrics that are paramount in any business
- build a talented team from scratch
- monetize, monetize, MONETIZE!
- generate enough revenue to pay the bills
That’s why we’ve lined up instructors like ...
Rikita Puri
An accidental entrepreneur who founded Storyhackers, a company that helps businesses create impactful and inspiring content programs. When she’s not writing about data, Ritika is the speaker curator for The Lean Startup Conference, expert liaison at Clarity.fm and advisor to Sortly.
Danny Setiwan
15+ years of experience in product design that ranges from hands-on roles to putting in place and optimizing a UX practice. Danny has worked with established brands such as The Economist and Yahoo! as well as startups like GeoCV and Contently.
Joe Diliberto
Joe has 30+ years of experience helping Fortune 100 and start-up companies (through sales training and coaching) become more effective at getting in front of enough new prospects, differentiate their products or services, increase ongoing revenue streams from existing clients, know how to identify and quantify pain points that matter, and close more leads!
And we’ll also introduce you to guest speakers like:
Tanya Soman
Venture Parter at 500 Startups
Tanya is responsible for recruiting companies for the accelerator and advising them during the batch.
Alex Iskold
Managing Director at Techstars in NYC
Alex is a serial tech entrepreneur with multiple successful exits and is currently an investor in NYC.
Steli Efti
CEO at Close.io
He’s a Y Combinator alumni, an advisor to several startups and entrepreneurs and the author of “The Ultimate Startup Guide To Outbound Sales.”
... and more!
DON’T ‘GROW IT’ ALONE. MO’ MENTORS = LESS PROBLEMS
70% of mentored businesses survive more than five years, double the rate for non-mentored small businesses.
Here’s a play by play of the course
The course commences Monday, October 10, 2016:
Mon & Tues
12pm - 1pm PST
CLASSES
Wed
12pm - 1pm PST
GUEST SPEAKERS
Thu
12 - 1:30pm PST
LAB SESSION-
Close Week 1WEEK 1
Vision & Funding
Who you’ll learn from:
Poornima Vijayashanker
Lead Instructor
-
Close Week 2WEEK 2
Customer Re-Discovery
Who you’ll learn from:
Ritika Puri
Instructor
-
Close Week 3WEEK 3
Metrics
Who you’ll learn from:
Poornima Vijayashanker
Lead Instructor
-
Close Week 4WEEK 4
The Product
Who you’ll learn from:
Danny Setiwan
Instructor
-
Close Week 5WEEK 5
Sales
Who you’ll learn from:
Joe Diliberto
Instructor
-
Close Week 6WEEK 6
Marketing Channels, Pricing & Biz Models
Who you’ll learn from:
Poornima Vijayashanker
Lead Instructor
-
Close Week 7WEEK 7
Messaging
Who you’ll learn from:
Ritika Puri
Instructor
-
Close Week 8WEEK 8
Campaigns
Who you’ll learn from:
Poornima Vijayashanker
Lead Instructor
Ritika Puri
Instructor
Femgineer’s Grow-It-Like-Gangbusters, No-Hassle 60-Day Money Back Guarantee
... because we believe you can:
Grow your user base and monetize it
Build a profitable business model
Turn your product into something your users love
IF YOU COMMIT YOUR TIME, ENERGY, AND ATTENTION TO THIS COURSE.
That’s why GROW IT comes with a 100% money-back guarantee.
We’re committed to helping people build products, grow companies, and get sh*t done.
"After witnessing hundreds of entrepreneurs give up too early or chase shiny objects in the wrong direction, I identified a step-by-step process that is guaranteed to help you outsmart those uncertainties, distractions, and challenges.
I couldn’t be more proud to see our alumni go on to launch paid products, raise capital from angel investors, run successful crowdfunding campaigns, and get accepted into accelerators."
Poornima Vijayashanker
At any time during the course, if you decide ‘GROW IT’ has not helped you take your product to the next level, grow your community, and build a sustainable business model, just email help@femgineer.com and we’ll give you a complete refund.
If you’re not 100% satisfied with this
course, we don’t want your money.
APPLY TO JOIN THE 8-WEEK INTERACTIVE GROW IT COURSE BY:
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2016
PAY MONTHLY
3 payments of:
$600
PAY UPFRONT
Single payment of:
$1,500
(save $300)Acceptance into the GROW IT course is application based, because we only work with founders who are coachable, committed, and invested in sustainable growth.
PAYMENT IS DUE UPON ACCEPTANCE INTO THE COURSE.
The course commences Monday, October 10, 2016:
Mon & Tues
12pm - 1pm PST
CLASSES
Wed
12pm - 1pm PST
GUEST SPEAKERS
Thu
12 - 1:30pm PST
LAB SESSION
Poornima was an amazing advisor to my startup GlamST. She taught my co-founder and how do inside sales effectively, which led to us closing major beauty brands, resulting in six figure contracts.
Agustina Sartori
Co-Founder & CEO, GlamST
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the format for ‘Grow It’?
* the most popular FAQPeople constantly ask us, Is the course recorded? Is it live? Will I have access to instructors? All great questions.
Let’s cover the basics: this course was designed specifically to maximize your hands-on learning and exposure to experienced instructors who have been in your shoes and successfully turned their product into a legit profitable business.
Here’s what you’ll get:
DAILY ACCESS TO INSTRUCTORS — via the Slack channel. Your questions won’t get lost in a 1,000 person forum. We actually respond within a timely manner in our 30+ person group. The course is a live course. As in, NOT evergreen.
LIFETIME ACCESS TO EVERY CLASS RECORDING — so if you miss a call, you won’t actually miss a thing. Because we get it. Your schedule is cray-cray.
LIVE LAB CALLS — we provide guidance, solutions, and advice based on your unique situation, in a group format. You’ll learn from both your vetted peers and your instructors
1:1 OFFICE HOURS — Yeah, that means you get private 1:1 time with Poornima to focus on your product and business. You’ll be amazed by what we can cover in 30 minutes together.
How is GROW IT better than a book or online course, like Udemy?
Books and evergreen courses are great, IF you want to consume content at your leisure. Without actually taking action, tracking your metrics, and hitting your goals. We offer individualized attention that you couldn’t possibly find in a book or evergreen product.
You’ll receive personalized feedback from our experienced instructors in a small classroom setting, and you’ll even get a buddy to hold you accountable. You’ll learn from the feedback the instructors give not only to you but to the other students as well.
We have a lab, and we request that you complete assignments, to ensure you’re making progress along the way. And we’re in the tech space, so unlike many other options, our methods are zeroed in on your industry.
Will you provide intros to investors? Please, please!
While we do have a strong network of investors, we NEVER guarantee introductions. IF you are at the right stage in your business, we may be open to making an introduction.
We’ll take it case-by-case. In other words, DON’T JOIN ‘GROW IT’ SOLELY FOR AN INTRODUCTION. You’ll be severely disappointed.
What happens after the course?
Here’s what you can expect after the course wraps:
ONGOING SUPPORT — We’ll stay connected beyond the 8-week course period. Continue to ask questions and connect with your fellow students and your Lead Lab Instructor, Poornima, in the Slack channel. We’ll also add you to our alumni Facebook group so you can collaborate with past and future students.
LIFETIME ACCESS TO CONTENT — Take the course over and over again. Share with your co-founders and team members. Or rewatch sessions at your leisure.
3-MONTH CHECK-IN — We’ll jump on a call to find out what you’re working on, where you’re stuck, and how we can help. Once you’re in, you’re in. No product left behind.
Can my team join ‘Grow It’ ?
Bring ‘em! We allow up to 3 co-founders/teammates to participate in the course with you. That means your team will have access to all of the weekly calls, the homework, the instructors, the 1:1 office hours, and more.
Why should I trust Femgineer?
We founded Femgineer because we wanted to empower forward-thinking techies of all backgrounds, and teach them how to build products and companies. Since 2007 we've taught hundreds of engineers, designers, marketers, product managers, and founders around the world. Helping them to bring their ideas to life, and go on to build mission-drive companies they are proud of.
