The Curriculum.
Over the course of 12 weeks, our inaugural FounderU by Clearco Cohort learned from trailblazing D2C founders and experts to discover ways to fuel growth for their business. Catch up on what you missed below!
Catch Up on What You Missed.
Week 1
March 4
Acronym Theory.
In this class, we'll cover the art of understanding your business - from identifying your value prop to exploring your strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. You’ll use Clearco’s in-depth benchmarking and insights tool to analyze your business's performance across 20+ key metrics to set powerful goals and find your edge among the competition.
Featured Speakers
Brendan Brazier, Co Founder, Vega
Michele Romanow, Co-Founder & President, Clearco
Chris Pinkerton, Global Director of Channel Partnerships, Clearco
Week 2
March 11
Customer Chemistry.
This class is all about how to build strong long-lasting relationships with your customers. You'll define your customer's journey to learn how to create a top-notch customer experience from awareness, purchase, and post-sale support.
Featured Speakers
Rohan Kapoor, Strategic Partner Manager, Platform & PE/VC, Gorgias
Kara Goldin, Founder, Hint
Week 3
March 18
Becoming a Class Act — The Power of Storytelling.
Class three dives into the importance of brand identity and narratives. You’ll learn how to uniquely convey your business’s purpose and value to connect with your audience in a meaningful way that fuels acquisition, conversions, and retention.
Featured Speakers
Sydney Braithwaite, Senior Strategic Partner Manager, Technology Klaviyo
Danny Taing, Founder & CEO , Bokksu
Week 4
March 25
Get F***ed (Funded).
Let's get funded. Cash flow is essential to every business, whether you're just starting out or expanding to new markets. In this class, you'll master the ins and outs of external financing and how to find and secure the right funding option for your unique business needs.
Featured Speakers
Greer Tessler, Co-Founder, Angel Investor, Simple Food Ventures
Sumeet Shah, Venture Partnerships, NYC, Clearco
Mili Trapara, Senior Portfolio Lead, Clearco
Week 5
April 1
Shipping and Logistics.
There’s no denying that we are facing a major global supply chain crisis. In class five, you'll learn how to navigate this disruption and master your order fulfillment, all while providing a fast reliable, predictable, and affordable delivery experience for your buyers.
Featured Speakers
Michael Krakaris, Co-Founder, Deliverr
Guy Ironi, CEO, Nutrifresh
Week 6
April 8
SMS Marketing 101.
In this class, you'll learn what permission-based marketing is and how to use it to provide relevant content to your audience. You'll discover best practices for email and SMS from the experts so you can generate new leads and build stronger consumer relationships like never before.
Featured Speakers
Eric Feurstein, Director of Alliances , Attentive
Geoffrey Miles, Vice President Marketing, Bev Wines
Week 7
April 15
How to own your owned media
Get ready to become a social media guru. In class six, you’ll master how to boost your presence on social without paid promotion - from targeting, profile optimization, engagement, and user experience to content creation, and more.
Featured Speakers
Sarah McDonald, Chief Brand Officer, Byte
Danny Destanik, Social Media Manager , #PAID
Week 8
April 22
The Science of Performance Marketing Pt. 1
This class will cover the fundamentals of performance marketing on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more. We'll dive into best practices and help you navigate the ever-changing algorithms and updates so you have the knowledge to do performance marketing right.
Featured Speakers
Taylor Holiday, CEO, Common Thread Collective
Andrew Silberstein - Founder & CEO - SolaWave
Week 9
April 29
The Science of Performance Marketing pt. 2
Now that you have the social performance marketing basics under your belt, it’s time to talk all things Google/TikTok. In class eight, you’ll learn how to effectively reach millions of targeted consumers around the globe and what you need to do to win them over.
Featured Speakers
Arjun Shukla, CEO & Co-Founder, Megaphone Marketing, USA
Elise Orthwein, CEO & Co-Founder, Cheeky Bonsai
Week 10
May 6
Score Big with Buy Now Pay Later.
The Buy Now, Pay Later movement is taking over and we’re here to help you jump on board. In this class, you’ll discover the benefits of BNPL for both your customers and your business.
Featured Speakers
Kristy McCown, Head of Partnerships, North America, Klarna
Morgan Spindler, Digital Marketing Manager, Terez
Week 11
May 13
Building an A+ team.
Finding and nurturing the right team is mission-critical to your business. This class will explore the importance of hiring a strong team and how to do it right so you can elevate your business to new heights.
Featured Speakers
Amanda Baldwin, CEO, Supergoop!
Josh Wand, Founder & Motivator in Chief, ForceBrands
Week 12
May 20
Community & Connection - Build Brand Loyalty & Keep It.
In this class, you'll uncover the complete guide to driving an authentic and loyal community around your brand. You'll learn how to create, track, nurture, and increase your customer lifetime value through a variety of hot tips and tricks, including influencer marketing, ambassador programs, and more!
Featured Speakers
Shazi Visram, Founder & CEO, Happy Family Brands
Michelle Cordiero, Grant, Lively
Los Silva, Power House Brands
Week 13
May 27
🎉 Graduation: Pitch Competition.
It's graduation time! We will celebrate the first graduating class of FounderU by honoring your accomplishments and learnings, followed by a data-driven pitch competition featuring the top three students in our class. These students will have a chance to pitch their business live to an esteemed panel of judges for the opportunity to receive a robust prize package.
Meet The Speakers.
Program Partners.
