Founders Forge

How do creations come into the world — art, businesses, movements...? They start as an idea, a seed in the mind and soul of a person. It incubates, it waits to be born. And then in action and movement, it comes into the world. The action requires risk, it requires sacrifice. And then it grows. What if we thought of the founder, the creator, as the parent of the creation? What if we looked at the journey to scale as following the same patterns as a child growing? What if our startup incubators, accelerators, venture builders, and investors looked at the startup journey through this lens — the founder as parent?

How would this framing change how we approach founder support? When we look at founding and scaling a business, we often look at it from the point of view of the creation rather than the creator — the idea, the project, the business. The pitch decks designed to show how the idea moves from a spark, to validation, to scaling, to break-even, to profit, to exit.

Why don't we look at it more critically from the point of view of the human, the creator, the founder? Well, humans are messy. We come with gifts, with potential — but also with flaws and challenges. Some days we wake up and just can't move, paralyzed with anxiety; other days we flow and perform. We bring our fears, our blind spots, our resistance — all of our humanness.

I am a father, and when my children were born, they got me — exactly as I was, with all my flaws, and all my gifts. And in raising them, I had to work on myself, hit challenges and adapt, be honest about my shortcomings, embrace the ups and the downs. And I had a community around me, other humans to support, to guide, and to stay with.

When I worked in venture investing, stewarding the capital of investors, I often had to remove founders, replacing them with "capable" and "proven" operators. This never felt ok to me — it was a reflection of a failure on many levels: to vet, to support, and to recognize the deep connection between the founder and their creation. The Founders Forge is designed to do this work better, to put the human at the center — as valuable as the idea or the business.

You could call what we do a twist on a venture builder — a people builder. Start with the human, walk with the human. One way to look at it is a "pre-accelerator," working with founders while the idea still lives inside them — and then alongside them as they bring the creation to life, as they raise their child.

The Forge is where that work happens — in person and online, a community and a program for founders and creators. We strengthen the people behind the businesses through teaching, retreats, coaching, and shared connection, all of it focused on personal development and the real, messy human challenges of building.

Ideas come easy; starting them is hard. Have you ever been at a gathering where the conversation turns to the great business ideas in the room? Everyone has one, and they're exciting to talk about. You meet the same group months later and nobody has started — but everyone has a few new ideas. Why don't we start? Why do we stay stuck? What do we actually need?

The Forge is built to resource founders to begin — and to walk with them, as a community, through the whole creation journey.

We care about cultivating the kind of leadership that builds well. Strong founders make strong businesses. The success of anything is bound up in the people behind it, and no one matters more than the founder. That journey is often lonely, with pressure coming from every side. The Forge exists so that no one has to walk it alone.

Two Tracks

The Forge runs in two tracks:

Before the Launch — for those carrying a dream to build something, feeling stuck on how to begin. Maybe you have started something and failed, but are ready to dust yourself off and try again.
Already Building — for founders already in motion, who want to grow as leaders alongside others. All founders have doubts and often struggle if they have what it takes but yet carry this alone and silently - what would my partners, investors, employees, and even family think if they knew my inner world?

The Program

Cohort sizes: 10 founders
Who it's for: founders and creators — whether you've yet to begin or are already building
Structure: 10 weekly sessions — five weeks, a break, then five weeks
Each session: 2 hours
Retreat: a 5-day in-person retreat
After the program: an ongoing community with monthly gatherings, events, and access to future trainings and retreats — plus four monthly follow-up sessions

Inside a Session

Shares from the week before — 15 min
Teaching — 30 min
Exercise — 30 min
Break — 10 min
Small group discussion — 15 min
Small group shares with facilitator feedback — 30 min
An assignment to carry into the week

Curriculum

Introduction to TenTogether and the program — an overview of the journey ahead
Source Principles — Who leads what? Where do ideas come from?
Storytelling — Business as story, using the Hero and Heroine's Journey
Connection — The ability to see the other. The magic that emerges through human connection
Authenticity — Aligning action with inner conviction. The power of honest self-awareness
Power — Developing into leaders who can stand. Finding voice and holding boundaries
Money — The archetypes of dealing with money. Business models that reflect values
Creation — How innovation really happens. Birthing and growing what you have sourced
Intuition — Tapping into deep wisdom. Trusting what you know but can't prove
Building a high-impact company culture — If your organization has people, it has a culture. How to craft and steward a culture that reflects your values

Cohort dates are announced per intake. To apply or learn more, contact us.