
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:

Tuesday, August 18, 2026
Tuesday, August 18, 2026
Founders are often their own bottleneck. Looping thoughts, relational friction, and lack of clarity drain energy and capital — often without you realizing it.
In this 90-minute workshop, you'll quantify what your stalls are actually costing you, see what's really blocking you, and build a plan to move past it.
Key Takeaways:
Who Should Attend:
About Ryan Glassmoyer:
Ryan Glassmoyer is the founder of SPACE, a coaching methodology that turns founder stress into usable data. She fills the gaps that technical and commercialization training leave, working from the premise that founder capacity determines company trajectory. As a certified somatic leadership development practitioner (trained at the Strozzi Institute for Somatics) and with additional training in neuroscience for business and conflict mediation, Ryan helps founders understand their nervous system's response to new and uncertain experiences — building faster clarity and response time, and equipping them to make the small, quick shifts that deepen their most critical relationships.

Thursday, August 20, 2026
Thursday, August 20, 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.

Wednesday, August 26, 2026
Wednesday, August 26, 2026
Does your pitch grab investor’s attention and keep them engaged? When you pitch investors, you need to be clear, concise and compelling. In this hands-on pitch clinic, we cut through the noise and focus on what investors actually care about.
Led by an experienced investor and pitch trainer, you will learn to distill your message and craft a pitch story that resonates with the right investors.
What you will gain:
> Speak "Investor Language": What specifically do investors want?
> Time-saving Tools: Frameworks to create a sharp, memorable pitch that gets attention.
> Avoid Pitfalls: No more "Powerpoint Poisoning" and other mistakes that kill interest.
Whether you are just starting your deck or refining your story for upcoming meetings, this clinic will help you save time and elevate your pitching skills. Come ready to work, refine your message, and build a pitch that keeps investors engaged.
Dana is an angel investor, pitch trainer and creator of the Pitch 4 Impact Framework. As a professional presentation skills trainer, she understands how to help founders communicate with impact, clarity and authenticity. Dana is an active member of E8 Angels, an innovative cleantech angel investing group. The Pitch4Impact program was created from two perspectives, as an investor and as a trainer of presentation skills. Dana emphasizes how to make the most of your own natural style to be memorable and authentic.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-sather-robinson/

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.