Solo Founder Startup School
Syllabus

Eight units, one job each

Each unit covers one job a co-founder team used to share, and ends with something you keep: a map, a specification, a checklist, a plan.

Lesson 1. Can one person run this companyFree
Learning goals
List the jobs a founding team used to split; decide for each whether you do it, an agent does it, you buy it in, or it waits.
Expected outcomes
A completed Job Map and a first view of which gaps the later units must close.

Open Lesson 1

Unit 2. Delegating to agents
Learning goals
Explain what an agent is, how it uses tools and plans; name the tasks agents handle well and where they fail.
Expected outcomes
A ranked list of tasks to delegate now, later or never, with a reason for each.
Unit 3. Specifying the work
Learning goals
Write a task an agent can carry out: goal, inputs, limits, permissions, what done looks like.
Expected outcomes
One tested task specification and a revised version after the trial run.
Unit 4. Checking the output
Learning goals
Set up the checks a co-founder would have made: source verification, a second reviewer (human or separate agent), logs.
Expected outcomes
A working checklist with a named reviewer for each recurring output.
Unit 5. Customers and selling
Learning goals
Run customer-discovery interviews, fill a business model canvas and a lean canvas, set a first price, pitch in two minutes.
Expected outcomes
Both canvases with assumptions marked confirmed or not, a first price and a two-minute pitch.
Unit 6. Money
Learning goals
Estimate start-up costs, choose cash or accrual records, keep receipts and books, register for tax, pay yourself.
Expected outcomes
A twelve-month money sheet, a record-keeping routine and the tax registrations your business needs.
Unit 7. Setting up the company
Learning goals
Compare sole trader, partnership, limited company and corporation on liability and paperwork; know when investors need an entity.
Expected outcomes
A chosen structure with the reasons, the filings it brings, and the questions to take to a lawyer or accountant.
Unit 8. Data protection and AI rules
Learning goals
Apply GDPR basics as a small firm; meet the EU AI Act literacy duty for yourself and anyone acting for you; recognise the main security risks of LLM apps.
Expected outcomes
A completed compliance checklist, a record of your own AI literacy training, and the security risks that apply to your tools.

Coverage. Units 6 to 8 draw on UK, EU and US sources. More countries will follow in later editions.

Next edition. A unit on accountability and judgment, covering what never to delegate and who answers when an agent acts in your name, is in preparation.

Enrol, 30 USDTry Lesson 1 first