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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Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Your LinkedIn profile is one of the highest-leverage assets you're probably underinvesting in. At the earliest stages of a startup, your personal brand isn't separate from your company's brand -- it is your company's brand. Before you have a marketing department, a PR agency, or a recognizable logo, people are deciding whether to trust your startup based on whether they trust you.
That attention has real economic value. LinkedIn advertising typically costs $30-$50+ per thousand impressions (CPM). Reaching one million people with paid ads can easily cost $50,000-$100,000 if you're targeting executives or investors. Founders who consistently produce thoughtful content can generate that same level of reach organically while simultaneously building credibility that advertising simply can't buy. Paid impressions disappear when the budget runs out. Your reputation compounds.
This workshop is a hands-on session for founders who want to turn LinkedIn into a genuine distribution channel for customers, investors, future employees, strategic partners, and the media. You'll learn how to develop a point of view that reflects your founder-market fit, build a content system you can sustain without sacrificing your weekends, and use AI to transform ideas into polished posts that still sound unmistakably like you.
You'll leave with a working system rather than a notebook full of ideas: a content strategy built around your company's strengths, AI workflows that dramatically reduce the time required to create high-quality posts, and a practical plan for attracting the specific audience that matters to your business.
What we'll cover:
--> Why founder brand and startup brand are the same asset at the early stage, and how to build both with one system
--> Defining your content pillars: the 3-4 themes that make you the obvious voice in your category
--> Using AI tools to draft, refine, and personalize posts fast, without sounding generic or robotic
--> Growing the right audience, not just a big one: targeting the investors, customers, and partners who actually move your business forward
--> A repeatable weekly system so this becomes a habit, not a one-time push
--> Live workshopping: bring a draft post and leave with a sharper one
Who should attend:
Early-stage founders, startup executives, and small teams who want LinkedIn to generate real business results—whether that's customers, capital, recruiting, partnerships, or industry visibility—and who are willing to invest a small amount of consistent effort each week to build an audience that becomes a long-term competitive advantage.
For those curious about how LinkedIn can be used to help find investors please read the Field Manual for Raising Funding in Public before the workshop date.
Tuesday, October 20, 2026
Tuesday, October 20, 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, November 10, 2026
Tuesday, November 10, 2026
Tired of IP feeling like a four-letter word? Worried your ideas will get swiped before you launch? Then buckle up! In 40 brisk minutes we'll demystify patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets with a focus on pitfalls, measures that don’t cost much, and current events.
About the host: Jonathan Olson has advised numerous IP clients and written hundreds of patents, including some for Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Satya Nadella. He has created potent IP in cryptographic security, machine learning, computer vision, drone and robotics applications, recommendation and curation systems, medical devices, and Web3/blockchain applications. His clients have used his patents to win licensing revenue, drive off competitors' investors, and navigate successful exits for more than 20 years.
In this talk he'll share how startups can leverage practical, early-stage IP strategies for maximum impact.
