DEVELOP CUTTING-EDGE TECH. ATTRACT USERS AND CUSTOMERS. UNLOCK CHANNELS FOR ACCELERATED GROWTH. ALL IN THE VERTICAL ACCELERATOR PROGRAM.
This is how WE 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: you need funding to build your technology and launch your venture, but you need your 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 your idea is great, it doesn’t mean that someone will just open up their checkbook for you.
NEW WAY: SKIP FUNDING ALTOGETHER
It’s possible for startups to 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 just 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 is a very limited range of outcomes with your startup and technology that will be successful for your users. We’ll teach you 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 you will be able to deliver your technology as efficiently as possible.
Putting the right people in charge of your technology. (This means you.) This is one of the most critical pieces of the puzzle. You are the founder of your startup, and you need to take ownership of the product you are going to build and deliver to your 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 your technology — you can do it yourself.
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 YOUR FIRST REAl TECH.
(AND IN RECORD TIME.)
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? You’ll decide, usually by committee, what needs to be in it. Hopefully, you’ll get it right, because…
OLD RESULTS
You’ll still spend a 100k minimum to do it. Only then to discover if you’ve built the right thing or not. The answer is usually, unfortunately, not. Which leads to cost overruns and the need to go back and try again (and again).
NEW WAY: VALIDATE YOUR RAT
Riskiest Assumption Tests (or RATs) are a whole new way of approaching product development and technology releases. Instead of focusing on everything that your audience needs, you can narrow it down to the one single thing that they truly 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 your startup concept.
WHAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE
Deep discovery. Most startups build, validate, and then iterate to get things right. Our simple premise of validating first, then building, works much better. Why? Because most startups spend hundreds of thousands of dollars just so they can validate. This is an incredibly wasteful, costly, and unnecessary approach. We’ll teach you how to avoid it altogether by doing deep discovery first, finding the Northstar for your technology and product, and then aiming exactly for that.
Modeling your technology. This is another part of our secret sauce. We’ll teach you how to craft clear, concise, and complete blueprints and roadmaps for your 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 development services and agencies that are out there. We’ll show you how to find the good ones.
QUESTION AND ANSWERS
I’m non-technical. Can I really do this? Don’t I need a technical co-founder? No. With our approach, you won’t need anyone technical on your team. Instead, we’ll teach you how to master developing technology yourself and working with the technical and design resources you need to deliver it.
Do you provide the engineers? We are not an agency or development firm, so no — but we will help you find good resources for you to work with.
3. CONNECT WITH YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE.
(FOR SCALE AND GROWTH. YOU’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 chances are you will go through numerous iterations on this.
OLD RESULTS
You’ll spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars per week trying to figure out how to reach your audience. And even if you find them, chances are it won’t have good unit economics, or in other words, will cost too much.
NEW WAY: DISCOVER YOUR 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 its about much more than just each sale: it’s about being able to repeat and grow your business.
NEW RESULTS
Building on our success with product and sales, you can hone in on the language, messaging, branding, and channels that will get you on the exact right track to find out where your audience is, and how to convert them.
WHAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE
Messaging. We can’t underscore enough the value of messaging your audience, with everything from having a beautiful brand, simple, compelling messages that matter to them, and the social proof that you can help them.
Finding the right channel. Your audience is out there. We’ll help you figure out where and how you 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 that will help early adopters come on board and help launch your sales.
QUESTION AND ANSWERS
I’ve never done marketing? It’s totally fine — we’ll give you the resources you 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 you.
4. DRIVE CUSTOMER ACQUISITION.
(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 make the business world go round, and you will have to achieve sales if you are going to have a viable startup and not just a concept that sounds great.
OLD RESULTS
Having abstract conversations about a product or service you plan to offer someday will not get you anywhere with your audience—so good luck with that.
NEW WAY: SELL A REAL PRODUCT
Imagine going onto a sales call or into a sales meeting with a natural product that you can show, tell, and share with your audience. And it’s something beautifully crafted with great design and user experience. That will put you light years ahead of other startups.
NEW RESULTS
Having a real product makes what you are doing real and not just an idea or concept. This gets you in the door and in the game with your customers.
WHAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE
Building on your successful product. Now that you’ve built the first version of your technology and validated that it genuinely delivers value to your audience, your job making sales just got a lot easier. You’ll have stories to tell, successful use cases, and a factual basis for showing why your customers should buy your product or service.
Getting early adopters on board. Sure there may be a massive market for your technology, but you won’t be able to reach it if you can’t get your 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
I’ve never sold anything. Is that OK? The truth is that you have to start somewhere, and this is precisely where we want to get you going, with a great product to share with your audience. You’ll start with conversations and take it from there.
Do you provide the sales people? No, we don’t have a dedicated sales team to help your startup with sales — but we will help you learn the fundamentals so that you will learn how to begin ramping up your sales process, and sales team.
5. GROW AND SCALE YOUR VENTURE.
(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
You’ll spend $100k minimum on building your product, only to struggle to find product-market fit. Plus you’ll have a never-ending battle to raise funds so you can re-launch your technology after you fail to go to market.
NEW WAY: BUILD ON YOUR SUCCESS
If you’ve built your first product, closed your first sales, and discovered your first channel for scale and growth, you’ve just proven your startup concept is real. And that provides you with some amazing possibilities.
NEW RESULTS
Demonstrate what you’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 your technology. Even if you are non-technical or a first-time founder, you can do this and without investors.
Selling your product. Having something real (and valuable) to sell to your audience puts you light years ahead of other startups.
Discovering channels to reach your audience. This is critical to growing and scaling your business. We’ll show you how.
QUESTION AND ANSWERS
This seems like a lot. Can I 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 you are willing and able to learn and work, we’ll show you how.
What’s your track record with this approach? In eight cohorts, we’ve helped over forty startups and had two successful exits (so far). Check out our case studies to see what we mean.
SO JUST FOLLOW THESE STEPS:
BE HYPER-LEAN AND DEVELOP NEW TECHNOLOGY. GET YOUR FIRST CUSTOMERS. DISCOVER CHANNELS FOR SCALE AND GROWTH.
THAT’s how YOU CAN LAUNCH a new tech venture IN RECORD TIME.
NO INVESTORS REQUIRED.
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 YOU GET when you join the vertical technology accelerator.
three ONLINE PROGRAMS
For new or experienced founders, our three core programs get you there.
We know that there is no one-size-fits-all for startups, so we’ve launched three new online programs to meet founders where they are and get them where they need to go next: BASECAMP, CLIMB, and SUMMIT.
BASECAMP
Vertical starts with you at the very beginning, in our first program.
It’s where you’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, you learn how to deliver your tech quickly and launch your new venture.
We’ll show you how to build new, strategic tech, get you to your first sales (or users), and discover your first marketing channel for scale and growth, all without technical co-founders or investors.
SUMMIT
Now your technology and the business case are proven and ready to go.
We’ll show you how to build your entire technology stack release-by-release, all with incredible efficiency. So whether you get funded or not, you’ll still be able to deliver the technology you need to scale and grow.
1-on-1 coaching
Learn fast with direct training with our team.
Our curriculum and assignments give you everything you need to reach critical milestones and deliver your technology. And you’ll do it even faster with our direct, 1-on-1 coaching, customized to meet your goals.
LIVE WORK SESSIONS
We provide direct access to the answers you need.
We have twice weekly Zoom work sessions hosted by G4V CEO and Founder Edward Cruz. It’s where you can join your fellow accelerator members, ask questions and get answers in a supportive group setting.
PRACTICAL EXERCISES
It’s more than just knowledge: you’ll learn fundamental new skills.
Once you hit a critical mass on the learning side, we want you to put your new knowledge to work right away by building the Vertical scaffolding for your technology. We provide the tools and step-by-step guidance.
EXPERT FEEDBACK
Our team of Vertical Consultants is here to help you succeed.
As you complete your Vertical tasks, you can submit them to our team for expert review and feedback. We’ll get back to you within 24 hours (and usually the same day), so you can move forward quickly.
THE VERTICAL technology ACCELERATOR. LET’S get you launched.
OUR THREE ACCELERATOR PROGRAMS. ONE-ON-ONE coaching. GROUP WORK SESSIONS. REAL DOCUMENTATION. PRACTICAL TASKS. EXPERT FEEDBACK.
questions and answers.
Can I afford this? I don’t have any funding yet.
Yes! Our program is designed specifically for unfunded startups. Our introductory BASECAMP program is entirely free of charge, and our flagship CLIMB program costs just $500 per month (less than the average used car payment these days). This is substantially less than other accelerator programs that charge 4- and 5-figure fees upfront. Our goal here is to make our program accessible to as many founders as possible.
How long DOES the vertical accelerator GO?
Only as long as you need. And with our AI-driven curriculum, it could be just a matter of weeks or months. So get ready to work hard and have things move fast.
I’m a non-technical founder. Will this work for me?
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 foundational learning and gaining critical startup skills. If your team is on board, then more of the same — it can become part of your startup's culture 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 program is completely self-paced, so you decide how much time you can commit to it. We recommend 10 hours per week for optimal traction, but you can absolutely make progress with as little as five or even fewer. You decide what works best for you.
What’s Go For Vertical’s track record?
Since launching in 2015, we’ve helped more than sixty startups, and of those, two have had successful exits (OneGreek and Audivity). And one of our recent startups has gone global and has $3.5M per year in annual revenue. And none of these startups had VC funding!
DOES GO FOR VERTICAL TAKE EQUITY?
In our BASECAMP and CLIMB programs, we don’t. The whole idea is for you to be able to launch your startup without giving up equity in your startup. In our SUMMIT program for more advanced startups, we have that option, but it depends on each startup. When we do, it’s in line with what other accelerator programs do (in the single digits, typically).
We’re still INTERESTED in securing funding. Can you help?
Yes! Our new SUMMIT Funding program is launching soon to help our SUMMIT graduates raise their first pre-seed round of funding, even in the current difficult funding environment. Even if you don’t join that program, though, completing our other programs puts you in a much better position to secure funding. And we’re happy to help you work with investors or other accelerator programs to help you get there too.