Each quarter, Venture Mechanics offers a rotating series of Founder Workshops on specific topics that every startup team needs to master. These are typically 1.5-3.5 hour evening sessions given by the best of our mentors. While the workshops are intended to be taken sequentially they can be taken asynchronously.
Please note that some courses are in-real-life and others are virtual. IRL courses are generally not hybridized.
Companies in the Venture Mechanics Catapult Accelerator receive unlimited access to these workshops at no additional cost during their term.
The recommended course order is as follows, but is not sacrosanct by any means:
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Tuesday, August 11, 2026
Tuesday, August 11, 2026
Join us for an interactive workshop designed to equip early-stage entrepreneurs with essential skills in customer discovery. Understanding your customers is so crucial for success that Venture Mechanics won't even accept a startup into the incubator unless a substantial amount of customer discovery has already been documented. This workshop will guide you through practical strategies and tools to identify, understand, and validate your target market effectively.
Key Takeaways:
Who Should Attend:
About Angie Parker:
Angie Parker is an experienced leader blending Air Force aviation background with startup operations and venture expertise. As the former Executive Director of the Alliance of Angels she drove strategic growth for the Pacific Northwest's largest angel group, investing $4-6 million annually in early-stage tech, hardware, and life sciences startups. Previously, she handled community, operations, and marketing at Context Ventures and served as Chief of Staff for veteran-founded startups. Her decade-plus in BizOps and brand strategy makes her ideal for guiding founders through customer discovery workshops.
About Catherine Bhattachar:
Catherine Bhattachar is an entrepreneurial operator, marketer, and startup advisor with experience spanning early-stage ventures, high-growth technology companies, and global consumer brands. She recently served as Director of Marketing and Operations at Decathlon, and previously co-founded Tiny Earth Toys, where she helped lead product strategy, operations, and customer growth. Her background also includes strategy consulting at L.E.K., product and business analytics at Wayfair, and operational leadership at Invisible Technologies. A Duke Fuqua MBA alumna, Catherine brings a practical, evidence-driven approach to customer discovery, helping founders uncover genuine customer needs, challenge their assumptions, and turn what they learn into stronger products and go-to-market strategies.
Tuesday, August 18, 2026
Tuesday, August 18, 2026
Founders are often their own bottleneck. Looping thoughts, relational friction, lack of clarity—these drain energy and capital. This 90-minute workshop helps you quantify what your stalls actually cost. Then you'll see what's really blocking you and how to move past it.
Our instructor for this virtual Founders Workshop is Ryan Glassmoyer who recently moved from Santa Fe to France.
