Announcing Frugal Founder Academy

Several years ago, I gave a talk at SXSW called “How to Start an Internet Company for $99.” It was well received, and I received emails about it for years. “Someday,” I thought, “I will update this and expand it into a course.” But I never got around to it. 

When COVID hit and I saw the unemployment numbers rocket up, my passion for this was recharged. I feel that the way forward for the economy during this upheaval is entrepreneurship. Free enterprise is the engine that made and makes this nation, and change always creates opportunity. So I decided to create a course for people seeking to start their own thing but perhaps not knowing where to begin. This led me to create “Frugal Founder 101 Masterclass: How to Start a Business for as little as $101.”

The course is about five hours long. I had to record it in my home office which was a challenge! I supplemented it with interviews from people I know who actually started companies that were successful. These entrepreneurs include John Mackey (Whole Foods), Bob Metcalfe (3Com), Brett Hurt (BazaarVoice and others), Sara Sutton (FlexJobs), and more.  

When I finished it, I realized that while the course is a great first step, most entrepreneurs need ongoing help and community for support. So, I decided to start something called the Frugal Founder Academy, a subscription-based community that includes the course along with access to Q&A webinars, topic-based forums, additional interviews, resources and other things. 

Since the Academy exists to help people trying to start something on a limited budget, I decided to price it at just $10 a month. I also decided to offer subscribers seven days free in case they are really on a tight budget and can’t afford $10. This way, they can watch the course and cancel before their card is ever charged. 

That brings me to this post: I need help spreading the word about Frugal Founder Academy. Jump starting the communities and forums can be a challenge without some amount of scale, so I’m trying to build that scale quickly. Any help is appreciated, especially in the form of tweeting and liking and such. 

Check out Frugal Founder Academy at https://FrugalFounder.Academy

You can see a promo for the Academy’s masterclass here. 

Thank you for your help.

Byron