Frequently asked questions

What is the Fast Venture method?

Short answer: A structured roadmap to building revenue-generating companies.

Long answer: A method is a sequence of steps that produce an expected outcome every time — it has a logical flow and a way to forecast success and failure of next steps at any time.

To succeed, you must have a framework to validate that every step in sequence works, because the next step depends on it. For example, making tea is a method. You have to fill the kettle first. If it’s empty, no point taking the next step. Then you need to boil water. If water isn’t boiling, no point taking the next step, and so on. You know precisely when the tea is ready.

Inexperienced entrepreneurs tend to jump to step 10 before making sure steps 1-9 work, taking huge risks and wasting much time. Fast Venture method provides a structured roadmap from idea to revenue-generating business, with a framework of checks and balances to know if it makes sense to take the next step.

The method covers the following stages: Finding the right idea, validating customer-problem fit, building early adopter audience, funding business growth with pre-sale campaigns, launch, market fit, and scale.

It’s based on my personal experience designing, building, scaling, managing, and running technology companies for two decades both in startup and enterprise environments.

Who is it for?

Short answer: Professionals who decided to start their own business

Long answer: I created Fast Venture specifically for first-time entrepreneurs — people who have decided that they want to have their own business and are looking for knowledge and support on the journey.

Anyone with an idea and a desire to build a business will benefit from becoming a Fast Venture member. From my experience, professionals who have made careers and now want to branch out on their own have a better chance simply because they’ve been around long enough to learn from all the bumps and bruises of a corporate career. If you are a young person without real-world business experience, expect a steeper learning curve.

What skills are required?

Short answer: Being an expert in your field is a requirement. Experience with technology, design, and marketing are essential — you must have a well-rounded technological competency.

Long answer: The entire philosophy of the Fast Venture method is based on the concept that it is much easier to reach commercial success in the field that you know well. Foundation course is mainly an exercise in self-reflection to help new entrepreneurs zero-in on what they want to do. Validation course is a hands-on framework that will require your domain expertise to define your customer-problem fit better. You must be an expert in your field to create a business.

We live in the digital economy, so at the minimum, your company will need social media pages and a website. You will run ads, so you must know foundations of copywriting and feel comfortable with Facebook ad manager and Google Adwords. You will build lead acquisition funnels, so you must know how to make websites (custom or using a platform like Wordpress, Wix, Squarespace, etc.) and edit graphics to customize the appearance of your ads and website. You will be sending out emails to your audience, so knowing how to use email services like MailChimp, Sendgrid, or Mailgun are necessary. Finally, you will build a pre-sale funnel to fund your growth, so knowing how to integrate payment processing using Stripe securely is a requirement. At this moment, I only teach Stripe integration. In my opinion, alternatives have a lousy end user experience.

Image editing skills (e.g., Photoshop), UI design and prototyping tools (Sketch, Framer, Invision, etc.), and coding (HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, etc.) are essential — if you don’t have most of the skills, you need to look for co-founders or partner up with professionals.

It’s a handful, but if it were easy, everyone would do it.

What if I don’t have required skills?

Short answer: Learn it, find co-founders, or hire someone. There are no shortcuts.

Long answer: Just like it would be challenging to run a ship if you don’t know how to sail, navigate, and lead, it will be tough to build a business in a digital economy without technology competencies. You have three options: learn it yourself (takes years), find co-founders, or approach a third party for partnership. If you believe you have a winning idea, contact me, and I will see how we can make it happen.

I don’t have money, will you take equity?

Short answer: Yes, but only if your existing company makes over $100K in ARR.

Long answer: Oh, I get this one a lot. I don’t take equity in pre-revenue companies. If you have an existing startup that already makes $100K+ in ARR, you can apply for the market fit accelerator. Otherwise, the method is intended to teach you how to get to $100,000 in annual recurring revenue all by yourself. We can talk then.

Are you an investor?

No.

Can you help me launch my idea?

Short answer: Yes, I can help you design, build, launch, and scale. Message me.

Long answer: Yes. There are two options. Option A: join the UX Accelerator membership program and learn from other entrepreneurs and me, but you have to do all the work yourself (e.g., building funnels, write ads, etc.) While I provide my support and feedback to all members, I wanted to make it accessible to everyone, so the low monthly membership fee doesn’t cover professional services.

Which brings me to option B. I can help you design, build, and launch as a strategic partner for a fee or share of revenue. Contact me to get a quote.

How long does it take?

Short answer: On average, it takes 2-3 weeks to complete Foundation course and 1-3 months to complete Validation depending on how much time you dedicate to your startup idea.

Long answer: There are two timelines. First is how fast you can read and absorb knowledge, and seconds is how long it will take you to internalize, process, and implement it in your life.

You can complete the Foundation course in a day — there are just over twenty lessons, and most of them take 5-15 minutes to read. However, I recommend doing no more than 2-3 lessons per week to let the information sink in. Each lesson has an activity that requires you to reflect, analyze, and apply lesson content, which may take a day or two if you want to reflect and think deep. At this rate, you will complete Foundation in a few weeks.

UX Accelerator is a hands-on, live training that will require you to do customer development, build surveys, develop funnels, write, design, run, and analyze ad campaigns. There are about twenty lessons that can be completed in a day or two, but the actual field work may take you a month or two to complete depending on how much time you dedicate to your startup idea every day.

Please remember that there is a chance your initial idea will not find traction, which will mean a restart/pivot, so individual timelines from idea to revenue vary drastically.