ECOSYSTEM BUILDERS: YOUR COMMUNITY CAN BEGIN LAUNCHING NEW TECH STARTUPS IN JUST 3 MONTHS. NO INVESTORS REQUIRED.
LIKE THESE EARLY-STAGE STARTUPS THAT USED VERTICAL TO DELIVER THEIR TECHNOLOGY AND GO TO MARKET.
OneGreek
BEFORE: NO TECHNOLOGY. ALMOST NO FUNDING. AND THEIR ONLY ENGINEER JUST QUIT.
AFTER: A new Mobile APP + 330k users. a SUCCESSFUL exit 1 year later.
AND IT TOOK JUST $8k and 3 months to LAUNCH.
An invitation-only social network for fraternities and sororities that launched in 2015, OneGreek grew from 150 to 330,000 users in just nine months, making it the fastest-growing social network ever built, after Instagram.
We helped them build their technology stack for just $8000, and the company went from bootstrapped startup to acquisition in under 18 months.
OneGreek was acquired by GroupThreads in September 2016.
Audivity
BEFORE: A YOUNG non -tEchnical FOUNDER LAUNCHING A NEW VENTURE.
AFTER: AN SF-BASED STARTUP. A NEW WAY OF CREATING PODCASTS. AND A successful exit.
ALL BUILT USING VERTICAL FROM DAY 1.
In 2018, the Audivity team formed with a mission to build a completely new type of SaaS technology: start with any kind of written web content and then transform it into podcasts and high-quality narratives in as little as two hours.
To do that, they needed to deliver new tech platforms that included automated scripting, voice-overs, editing, publishing, and analytics so creators and publishers could get higher engagement and revenue from their existing content.
We helped Audivity with the foundation for building this new multi-platform technology, and 18 months later, they had a successful exit.
WELGO
BEFORE: A VISION FOR A NEW TYPE OF HOSPITALITY STARTUP.
AFTER: $0 to $1.5M in ARR in just 18 months. OVER 60 PROPERTIES WORLDWIDE.
AND ALL LAUNCHED ON EXISTING SAAS TEchNOLOGY for almost no cost.
A new hospitality-based venture with properties in the US and the Middle East, Welgo specializes in Airbnb arbitrage at scale— renting low and Airbnb’ing high. So no need to purchase properties to turn them into investments with high returns.
We helped take them from $0 to $500K in ARR in their first five months, starting with the business concept, leveraging existing tech platforms to scale quickly, and requiring less than $10k to launch.
LOOK
BEFoRE: FRESH COLLEGE GRADS. No TECH OR STARTUP EXPERIENCE.
AFTER: A NEW SV STARTUP LAUNCHED. WITH HARDWARE. FIRMWARE. SOFTWARE.
ALL MAPPED OUT in JUST 3 MONTHS. AND BOOTSTRApPED To launch.
Go For Vertical was introduced to the Look team as they were coming straight out of college at UArizona, where they had already laid out the business plan for their unique platform for social virtual reality, but like many startups, still had the challenge of delivering their technology.
We trained and guided their young lead engineer to use Vertical and successfully laid out the architecture not just for their mobile app but for the hardware for their new VR recording device, the firmware running on it, the datastore for the VR recordings, and the backend for their new platform, or five unique tech platforms altogether.
The Look soon afterwards relocated to Silicon Valley, and their platform was launched successfully in 2016.
Clearly
BEFORE: FOUR skin experts with no tech experience.
AFTER: A new TABLET-BASED APP. AND A NEW WAY TO ENGAGE THEIR PATIENTS.
All resulting in increased sales and conversion.
Clearly is the brainchild of three local skin docs and their practice manager, who all knew there had to be a better way of engaging their patients and helping then get even better skin.
So a new tablet-based app was born that did exactly that. Combining a simple online quiz with some AI-like analysis, the Clearly platform became another channel to help dermatology practices like theirs scale and grow their business.
And we showed them how to the get there.
DISHLIST
BEFORE: A NON-TECHNICAL FOUNDER WITH LOCAL DOMAIN EXPERTISE.
AFTER: A NEW prototype WITH a 43% user conversion rate.
ALL DONE FOR $1400. AND IN JUST ONE MONTH.
The new app concept? Tinder for food. Swipe right if you like a dish and want to try it, and swipe left if you don’t. Add in some amazing dishes from local restaurants and thousands of foodies who love to eat out, and you have the beginning of a new app.
The Dishlist prototype was developed in a few weeks for $1400, and it quickly became a clear success: 245 users signed up to try it, and 43% converted by swiping and liking at least 15 dishes, plus provide their contact information to get future releases.
Melior USA
BEFORE: AN URGENT NEED FOR PPE IN RESPONSE TO THE coVID-19 CRISIS.
AFTER: A NEW SUPPLY CHAIN AND A B2C platform to deliver it.
ALL LAUNCHED AT NO COST. IN JUST TWO MONTHS.
Protect Everyone. That’s the motto of Melior USA, a new social impact venture that Go For Vertical launched in May of 2020 in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
When it became clear that there would not be enough PPE like N95 masks for frontline healthcare workers here, we began working on a plan to bring KN95 masks made overseas to the US to help alleviate the shortage.
So we launched Melior USA, creating a new front end for a supply chain that delivered more than 1M masks to front-line medical workers in the first months of the pandemic.
IF YOUr FOUNDERS ARE STRUGGLING to get THEIR startupS off the grounD…
They can’t secure funding to build their technology.
They can’t find a technical co-founder.
They’ve hired an expensive agency, and they still haven’t gotten over the finish line.
They’ve blown through tons of cash and haven’t even launched yet.
you’re in the right place.
They can launch their startups in just three months using a hyper-lean approach to building technology.
The challenge is that most founders won’t know how to do this since delivering tech traditionally depends on raising substantial funding and then hiring expensive engineers.
We are the only accelerator program that solves this problem for early-stage startups and non-technical founders.
BEHIND GO FOR VERTICAL. HERE’S OUR STORY.
CEO & FOUNDER Edward Cruz
Before moving back to Tucson, AZ, where I grew up, I already had a long and successful career in the tech industry, 15 years in San Francisco, from 1990 to 2005, and then ten more in Austin, from 2005 to 2015.
So you might be asking, what tech guy in his right mind moves from SF to Austin to Tucson? Believe me, I was asking the same thing…
But some choices explain themselves after the fact. Because in 2015, something remarkable happened in my hometown: a successful tech startup launched, and I had helped.
It all started when I was introduced to the young founders of OneGreek, Sam Garst and Gavin Glatting, two fraternity brothers and graduates of the University of Arizona, who had the vision to create a new app targeting the Greek college market.
They were the first startup to use Vertical and launched for just $8k and in three months, then went on to attract over 330,000 users in 9 months, and to have a successful exit in less than one year.
That’s when I knew I was on to something special here. Since then I’ve helped dozens of startups in Tucson and nationwide do the same, with some equally remarkable results.
Now we’re bringing what we do to an even larger audience with the new, online version of our Vertical technology accelerator.
Along the way, we’ve taken a lot of inspiration from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and his book Zero to One. Here’s what he wrote in the preface:
“Vertical progress means doing new things — going from 0 to 1. Vertical progress is hard to imagine because it requires something nobody else has done.”
It’s the same thing I did when I helped these iconic America and international brands create new complex technologies. Now, I do it for new startups, ecosystems, and even more enterprise organization.
This is THEY THEY CAN DO IT
SKIP THE INVESTORS.
(tHaT’S A real STARTUP SUPERPOWER.)
THE Old Way: CHASE AFTER FUNDING
It’s the great conundrum of launching a startup: they need funding to build their technology and launch their venture, but they need their product and traction to attract investors… This is where almost all founders get stuck, trying (and failing) to line up funding.
OLD RESULTS
It’s almost impossible for early-stage founders to find funding. Even if their idea is great, it doesn’t mean that someone will open up their checkbook for them.
NEW WAY: SKIP FUNDING ALTOGETHER
Startups can develop technology and go to market with no investors. Using a hyper-lean approach, early-stage founders, even non-technical ones, can deliver their technology in three months without seeking external funding.
NEW RESULTS
Hyper-lean startups can develop prototypes of their technology for around $2500 and full versions of it for less than $10k, a fraction of what it would cost otherwise.
WHAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE
Finding your Northstar. And then going for it. The truth is that there are a very limited range of outcomes with a startup and technology that will be successful for their users. We’ll teach them how to figure that out and then follow the most efficient path to get there.
Avoiding wasteful iterations. 95% of startups are going to go with some form of agile. And that’s fine if you’re well-funded and have the luxury to iterate indefinitely and figure things out. Otherwise, this is an approach that will fail most early-stage startups. Getting it right the first time is a far better way to go here — and how they will be able to deliver their technology as efficiently as possible.
Putting the right people in charge of their technology. (This means them.) This is one of the most critical pieces of the puzzle. They are the founder of their startup, and they need to take ownership of the product they are going to build and deliver to their audience, and not depend on costly engineers or designers.
QUESTION AND ANSWERS
How do you keep startup costs so low? The short answer is by being hyper-efficient. But the real answer is right there above: find your Northstar and head directly for it. Don’t iterate trying to figure things out. And don’t depend on expensive “experts” to deliver technology — they can do it themselves.
What’s your track record with this approach? None of our startups have required funding to develop their technology and go to market. And, in our first three traditional cohorts of 20+ startups, we’ve had two exits.
2. DELIVER their FIRST REAl TECH.
(AND IN JUST three MONTHS.)
Old Way: BUILD AN MVP
This is standard operating procedure for most startups: building a Minimum Viable Product as a first release. Sounds like a good plan, right? They’ll usually decide what needs to be in it by committee. Hopefully, they’ll get it right because…
OLD RESULTS
They’ll still spend a 100k minimum to do it. Only then to discover if they’ve built the right thing or not. The answer is usually, unfortunately, not. Which leads to costly overruns and the need to go back and try again (and again).
NEW WAY: VALIDATE their RAT
Riskiest Assumption Tests (or RATs) are a whole new approach to product development and technology releases. Instead of focusing on everything their audience might need, they can narrow it down to the one thing they genuinely care about.
NEW RESULTS
RATs provide all sorts of efficiencies over traditional MVPs. Not only do they take just a fraction of the cost, but they can be delivered in rapid sprints, which means more and better early validation of their startup concept.
WHAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE
Deep discovery. Most startups build, validate, and then iterate to get things right. Our simple premise of validate first, then build works much better. Why? Because most startups spend hundreds of thousands of dollars so that they can validate. This is an incredibly wasteful, costly, and unnecessary approach. We’ll teach them how to avoid it altogether by doing deep discovery first, finding the Northstar for their technology and product, and then aiming precisely for that.
Modeling their technology. This is another part of our secret sauce. We’ll teach them how to craft clear, concise, and complete blueprints and roadmaps for their technology and build strategic prototypes from them.
How to find (and work) with the right engineering team. It’s hard to find good help, even with the plethora of available development services and agencies. We’ll show them how to find the good ones.
QUESTION AND ANSWERS
They are non-technical. Can they really do this? Don’t they need a technical co-founder? No, they won’t need anyone technical on their team with our approach. Instead, we’ll teach them how to master developing technology themselves and working with the technical and design resources they need to deliver it.
Do they provide the engineers? We are not an agency or development firm, so no — but we will help them find good resources for them to work with.
3. GET their FIRST SALES.
(THAT’s THE REAL DEAL HERE.)
Old Way: DO CUSTOMer INTERVIEWS
Sales are probably the last thing on most founders' minds, but the reality is that sales are what makes the business world go round, and they are going to have to achieve sales if they are going to have a viable startup, not just a concept that sounds great.
OLD RESULTS
Having abstract conversations about a product or service they plan to offer someday will not get them anywhere with their audience—so good luck with that.
NEW WAY: SELL A REAL PRODUCT
Imagine going onto a sales call or into a sales meeting with an actual product that they can show, tell, and share with their audience. And it’s something beautifully crafted with great design and user experience. That will put them light years ahead of other startups.
NEW RESULTS
Having a real product makes what they are doing real and not just an idea or concept. This gets them in the door and in the game with their customers.
WHAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE
Building on their successful product. Once they’ve built the first version of their technology and validated that it genuinely delivers value to their audience, their sales job just got a lot easier. They’ll have stories to tell, successful use cases, and a factual basis for showing why their customers should buy their product or service.
Getting early adopters on board. Sure there may be a massive market for their technology, but they won’t be able to reach it if they can’t get their first users and customers on board.
Having those sales conversations. It takes a combination of both listening and speaking to turn a lead into a closed deal.
Asking for their business. When the time is right, ask them to pay and become paying customers.
QUESTION AND ANSWERS
They’ve never sold anything. Is that OK? The truth is that they have to start somewhere, and this is precisely where we want to get them going, with a great product to share with their audience. They’ll start with conversations and take it from there.
Do you provide the salespeople? No, we don’t have a dedicated sales team to help their startup with sales — but we will help them learn the fundamentals and how to begin ramping up their sales process and sales team.
4. DISCOVER their FIRST MARKETING CHANNEL.
(FOR SCALE AND GROWTH. THEY’LL NEED THAT TOO.)
Old Way: SPEND A FORTUNE ON ADS
After paying for costly engineers, this is where many startups continue blowing through cash: trying to attract an audience through paid inbound marketing on social media. It’s as much art as science, and they will go through numerous iterations on this.
OLD RESULTS
They’ll spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars per week trying to figure out how to reach their audience. And even if they find them, chances are it won’t have good unit economics, or in other words, will cost too much.
NEW WAY: DISCOVER THEIR REAL REACH
If a startup is going to succeed, it’s going to need to know how to reach its audience at scale and with good unit economics — in other words, in a way that is financially self-sustaining. So it’s about much more than just each sale: it’s about being able to repeat and grow their business.
NEW RESULTS
Building on our success with product and sales, they can hone in on the language, messaging, branding, and channels that will get them on the right track to find out where their audience is, and how to convert them.
WHAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE
Messaging. We can’t underscore enough the value of messaging their audience, with everything from having a beautiful brand, simple, compelling messages that matter to them, and the social proof that they can help them.
Finding the right channel. Their audience is out there. We’ll help them figure out where and how they can reach them at scale.
Building a simple pipeline. You’ve probably heard of landing pages, but not like ours. We’ll have a strategic ask to help early adopters come on board and help launch their sales.
QUESTION AND ANSWERS
They’ve never done marketing? It’s totally fine — we’ll give them the resources they need to get started and get traction.
Do you provide direct marketing support? In our teaching a man how to fish approach, we’ll train and help them learn.
5. LAUNCH their STARTUPs.
(AND THEN DECIDE WHAT COMES NEXT.)
Old Way: Try to find pmf
This is where almost all startups continue to fail even after they’ve launched: struggling to find product-market fit and having a never-ending battle to raise funds, build technology, and connect with their audience.
OLD RESULTS
They’ll spend $100k minimum on building their product, only to struggle to find product-market fit. Plus they’ll have a never-ending battle to raise funds so they can re-launch their technology after they fail to go to market.
NEW WAY: BUILD ON their SUCCESS
If they’ve built their first product, closed their first sales, and discovered their first channel for scale and growth, they’ve just proven their startup concept is real. And that provides them with some amazing possibilities.
NEW RESULTS
Demonstrate what they’ve achieved to angel investors and VCs to get funding. Or apply to top-tier, highly competitive accelerators, and have a real shot at getting in. The sky’s the limit.
WHAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE
Developing technology. Even if they are non-technical or a first-time founder, they can do this, and without investors.
Selling their actual product. Just having something real (and valuable) to sell to their audience puts them light years ahead of other startups.
Discovering channels to reach their audience. This is critical to growing and scaling their business. We’ll show them how.
QUESTION AND ANSWERS
This seems like a lot. Can they learn it all in your program? Our program is very fast paced but also focuses on efficiency, to the point of being hyper-efficient. If they are willing and able to learn and work, we’ll show them how.
What’s your track record with this approach? In four traditional cohorts, we’ve helped over forty startups, and had two successful exits (so far). Check out our case studies to see what we mean.
THEY JUST FOLLOW THESE STEPS:
GO HYPER-LEAN AND DEVELOP NEW TECHNOLOGY. GET their FIRST CUSTOMERS. DISCOVER CHANNELS FOR SCALE AND GROWTH.
THAT’s how THEY CAN LAUNCH their STARTUPs IN JUST 3 MONTHS.
NO INVESTORS REQUIRED.
SO Here are their optionS
TRY TO GET FUNDING. BUT IT’S NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR EARLY-STAGE STARTUPS AND FIRST-TIME FOUNDERS.
To get funded, they'll need to spend months or years building and iterating to create a solution that might appeal to investors, which can cost 100s of thousands of dollars.
APPLY TO “PREMIER” ACCELERATOR PROGRAMS. BUT THEY’RE even HARDER TO GET To GET INTO THAN THE IVY LEAGUE.
To get into an accelerator, they’ll need to spend weeks working on each application, only to face the reality that many of them have just a less than one percent admission rate.
OR GO HYPER-LEAN AND DELIVER their TECH. GET their FIRST SALES. AND DISCOVER their FIRST CHANNEL FOR SCALE AND GROWTH.
ALL WITH NO INVESTORS, here in the vertical technology accelerator.
EARLY-STAGE STARTUPS AND NON-TECHNICAL FOUNDERS:
THIS IS FOR YOU.
vertical CASE STUDIES: THE EXITS
One Greek. $8K AND 3 MONTHS TO LAUNCH. 330K USERS AND AN EXIT In ONE YEAR.
The OneGreek Cinderella story started in May 2015, when founders Sam Garst and Gavin Glatting, two fraternity brothers and graduates of the University of Arizona, decided to double down on their vision to create a new app targeting the Greek college market.
With limited bootstrap funding and a need to use their resources wisely, they engaged Go For Vertical to help them create their technology.
Three months and $8000 later, they had built and launched the first private social network for the fraternity and sorority system in the US.
These driven founders then scaled the platform to over 300k users in 9 months, joined the Capital Factory accelerator in Austin, TX, and were acquired just three months later, precisely the type of amazing outcome that every startup aims for.
While we can’t take credit beyond training these first-time founders in Vertical, their use of its strategic product development and unique ability to deliver technology releases with hyper-efficient resource utilization was the catalyst that launched their run to the top.
Here’s what happens when YOUR MEMBERS work with us.
They can forget about needing technical co-founders or early-stage investors.
They will learn how to deliver their technology and go to market in just three months.
They will be able to validate their startup business concept with a real product, their first sales, and their first marketing channel.
They will avoid costly missteps like hiring expensive engineers first and then figuring out how to launch.
They will be able to get rid of their high-rate, bill-by-the-hour digital agency.
They will get sh*t (stuff) done.
They will feel empowered, confident, and motivated.
HERE’s what your FOUNDERS get when they join the vertical technology accelerator.
three ONLINE PROGRAMS
For new to experienced founders, our three core programs get them there.
We know that there is no one-size-fits-all program for all startups, so we’ve created three programs to meet founders where they are and get them where they need to go next: BASECAMP, CLIMB, and SUMMIT.
BASECAMP
Vertical starts with them at the very beginning, in our first program.
It’s where they’ll get the 30,000-foot view of our process, all while learning the foundational building blocks of Vertical, like systems thinking, functional features, and mind mapping.
CLIMB
Next, they learn how to deliver technology quickly and launch their new venture.
We’ll show them how to build new, strategic tech, get them to their first sales (or users), and discover their first marketing channel for scale and growth, all without technical co-founders or investors.
SUMMIT
Now their technology and the business case are proven and ready to go.
We’ll show them how to build their full technology stack release-by-release, all incredibly efficiently. So whether they get funded or not, they’ll still be able to deliver the technology they need to scale and grow.
LIVE WORK SESSIONS
We provide direct access to the answers they need.
We have three weekly Zoom work sessions hosted by G4V CEO and Founder Edward Cruz. It’s where they can join their fellow accelerator members, ask questions and get answers in a supportive group setting.
1-on-1 coaching
Learn even faster with direct training with our team.
Our curriculum gives them everything they need to reach critical milestones and deliver their technology. And they can do it even faster with our direct, 1-on-1 coaching, customized to meet their goals.
PRACTICAL EXERCISES
It’s more than just knowledge: they’ll learn fundamental new skills.
Once they hit a critical mass on the learning side, we want them to put their new knowledge to work by building the Vertical scaffolding for their technology. We provide the tools and step-by-step guidance.
EXPERT FEEDBACK
Our team of Vertical Consultants is here to help them succeed.
As they complete their Vertical tasks, they can submit them to our team for expert review and feedback. We’ll get back to them within 24 hours (and usually the same day), so they can move forward quickly.
ARE YOU READY TO Go FOR VERTICAL?
here’s WHAT what they’ll learN JUST IN THE FIRST WEEK
DEEP DISCOVERY
They’ll learn how to get the same benefit of having a dedicated business analyst on their team, but without the salaried price tag.
Value: $10k
SYSTEMS THINKING
This skill alone will become a major game-changer for how their team brainstorms and utilizes their deep domain expertise.
Value: $10k
MIND MAPPING
They’ll develop the exact blueprints they need to quickly and efficiently deliver high-value technology for their audience.
Value: $25k
OVERALL It’s the equivalent of $25k in funding to launch their startup.
We HAVE SPACE FOR JUST 6 startups in our neXt COHORT.
AND For a Limited Time ONLY, we are offering a $500 discount for FIRST-TIME FOUNDERS.
PLUS there’s a Full money-back-guarantee:
if they complete our process and can’t DELIVER their tech in 90 days, they’ll get a full refund.
THE VERTICAL technology ACCELERATOR. LET’S get them launched.
OUR THREE ACCELERATOR PROGRAMS. ONE-ON-ONE coaching. GROUP WORK SESSIONS. REAL DOCUMENTATION. PRACTICAL TASKS. EXPERT FEEDBACK.
questions and answers.
Can THEY afford this? THEY don’t have any funding yet.
Yes! Our introductory BASECAMP program is entirely free of charge, and our flagship CLIMB program costs just $5000, which is substantially less than other accelerator programs.
And it’s all specifically geared towards bootstrapping their startup to launch. Using Vertical, they can typically get strategic prototypes completed for < $2.5k and full app releases for as little as $10k.
Or they can have a technical co-founder on their team or learn no-code development, and deliver their technology for at no cost. The latter isn’t required — it’s just another way to get their product to market, even with no funding.
How long DOES the vertical accelerator GO?
Our flagship CLIMB program has weekly sessions and goes for three months, with a very accelerated curriculum. Get ready to work hard and have things move fast. And our premier masterclass SUMMIT is a year-long immersive program for funded startups.
they are non-technical founders. Will this work for them?
Absolutely. Our accelerator program has been specifically designed with non-technical founders in mind.
Do I need a team or OTHER co-founders?
Not at all. The program works well with either solo founders, or teams. As a founder, it’s about training them and providing learning around key startup skills. If their team is on board, then likewise, plus it becomes part of the culture of their startup and how it approaches building tech and launching new ventures.
I’m already very busy. How much time WILL I need to dedicate TO THIS?
Our weekly CLIMB cohort sessions last around two hours. They can attend live or if they can’t make it for some reason, watch the recording of the live session afterwards. We recommend they attend in person every time to get the most out of the program. They can also join our weekly group work sessions to help accelerate their experience even further.
What’s Go For Vertical’s track record?
Since launching in 2015, we’ve helped more than two dozen startups in four cohorts, and of those, two have had successful exits (OneGreek and Audivity). That’s in addition to our roster of enterprise and social venture clients.
DOES GO FOR VERTICAL TAKE EQUITY?
In our BASECAMP and CLIMB programs we do not. The whole idea is for them to be able to launch their startup without external funding or investors, or giving up equity in their startup.
THEY’re still interestED in securing funding. Can you help?
Successfully completing our program puts them in a much better position to secure funding. And we’re happy to help them work with investors or other accelerator programs to help them get there.