# Gorilla MBA: the 12-week field guide

Founding cohort pilot, September 2026. Adapt the proposed commitments, budgets, and experiments to your group's circumstances.

## The proposition

Run a 12-week, part-time pilot in which friends learn business by selling, delivering, managing money, building relationships, and reviewing evidence together. Finish with two documented market experiments and a decision about whether to operate one business for another quarter.

The program develops practical business skills and a deliberately cultivated network. It does not confer a degree or reproduce the recruiting access, credential, or alumni network of a university MBA.

Suggested assumptions: 3–5 members, approximately six hours per person in ordinary weeks, and two pre-booked launch weekends. Utah community examples reflect the mention of iHub and Silicon Slopes. All budgets and targets below are proposals for the group to adjust, not forecasts.

## Outcomes and commitments

By the end of the pilot, every member should have:

- Conducted at least 10 customer interviews and personally made at least 10 explicit sales asks. These can overlap when appropriate, but discovery conversations should begin with understanding the customer.
- Helped launch and evaluate two offers, including fulfilling any orders taken.
- Built and explained a basic profit-and-loss statement, cash forecast, and unit-economics model.
- Led a working session, practiced negotiation, and handed off a documented process.
- Developed at least three professional relationships involving a second substantive interaction, with an effort to help each person.
- Written a personal case study explaining a decision, evidence, outcome, and what they would change.

Group targets: two launch experiments; three outside operator reviews, ideally in weeks 4, 8, and 12; three community events; and one final demonstration and review. A paid customer is a commercial goal, not a prerequisite for learning credit. A well-supported decision to stop is a valid outcome.

## Operating rhythm

Ordinary week, per person:

| Activity | Time | Purpose |
|---|---:|---|
| Selected reading or lesson | 45 minutes | Learn the week's concept |
| Group working meeting | 75 minutes | Review evidence and make decisions |
| Customer and venture work | 3 hours | Interview, sell, build, deliver, measure |
| Relationships and follow-up | 45 minutes | Help people and deepen connections |
| Update and commitment | 15 minutes | Keep the accountability record current |

Total: six hours. On event weeks, count the event inside the work/networking allocation and reduce other assignments. Launch weeks require about 10–12 hours per person total; the sprint replaces ordinary build work. Recording/editing is optional and must fit within these allocations.

Weekly 75-minute meeting:

1. 10 minutes: review prior commitments and scoreboard.
2. 15 minutes: one member teaches the week's concept using a real example.
3. 25 minutes: examine customer evidence, numbers, and a live business decision.
4. 15 minutes: role-play, critique an artifact, or solve the current bottleneck.
5. 10 minutes: each person commits to one deliverable, one deadline, and one proof of completion.

Rotate facilitator, evidence reviewer, and relationship host. Every member must take customer-facing turns. With three members, use a shared accountability triad; with four or more, pairs can rotate every four weeks.

If someone misses a commitment, discuss the cause and reduce or reschedule scope explicitly. Two consecutive misses trigger a capacity conversation. Reliability should be visible without turning the group into a punishment system.

## Curriculum

Use a maximum of 45 minutes of assigned material each week. The resources below are libraries for selected lessons, not simultaneous requirements to finish full courses.

| Week | Learning focus | Fieldwork and practice | Required evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Founder goals, opportunity cost, team expectations | Inventory skills, constraints, accessible customer groups, and problems seen firsthand. Each member conducts two exploratory conversations. | Cohort charter; skills baseline; list of 10 problems with named customer types |
| 2 | Customer discovery, substitutes, demand, segmentation | Each member conducts three more interviews about recent behavior, spending, and workarounds. Compare three candidate problems. | Interview notes; competitor/substitute map; one selected offer and test hypothesis |
| 3 | Sales, minimum viable offers, AI-assisted execution | Launch weekend 1: sell a narrowly scoped service or manually delivered outcome to reachable customers. Each member makes sales asks. | Offer; outreach log; payment or rejection evidence; delivery plan; sprint retrospective |
| 4 | Accounting, contribution margin, cash flow | Record transactions, distinguish cash collected from earned revenue, model delivery costs and founder time. Ask an operator or finance mentor to critique the model. | Simple P&L; cash forecast; break-even model; continue/change/stop decision |
| 5 | Positioning, pricing, marketing, basic experimentation | Test one meaningful change in message, price, or channel. Record the denominator as well as conversions; explain what a small sample cannot establish. | Positioning statement; channel comparison; pricing rationale; evidence-backed next test |
| 6 | Sales process, objections, ethical persuasion | Role-play a discovery call; conduct real sales conversations; follow up on old leads; examine why people declined. Prepare the second launch. | Pipeline; objection log; revised script; second experiment brief |
| 7 | Product design, distribution, AI quality control | Launch weekend 2: sell a distinct offer, delivery model, or segment based on previous learning. It can be a substantial variation within the same business. | Working offer; usability/delivery feedback; sales results; comparison with experiment 1 |
| 8 | Operations, customer experience, repeat business | Choose the stronger experiment. Fulfill work, identify a bottleneck, document a repeatable process, and ask an outside operator for feedback. | Process checklist; time/cost baseline; repeat-order or retention plan; selection memo |
| 9 | Negotiation, leadership, delegation, conflict | Run a buyer/seller role-play with different constraints. Hand a real task to another member using a written brief and acceptance criteria. | Negotiation preparation; handoff results; peer feedback and revised responsibilities |
| 10 | Strategy, managerial economics, competitive advantage | Analyze switching costs, substitutes, differentiation, and channel dependence. Compare your project with an established business. Choose what to stop doing. | One-page strategy; competitor response scenario; list of activities to discontinue |
| 11 | Capital allocation, business finance, portfolio design | Compare reinvesting, maintaining, or closing the project. Learn time value of money and simple payback; stress-test demand, costs, and owner hours. Discuss when external capital would help or hurt. | Base/downside scenarios; allocation memo; ongoing workload and support obligations |
| 12 | Communication, synthesis, judgment | Present to two or three invited operators. Every member explains part of the economics and evidence. Decide whether to continue for another quarter. | Demo; financial snapshot; individual case studies; 90-day operating or closure plan |

Evidence can be modest: a short memo, a spreadsheet, anonymized customer notes, or an observed demonstration. Course completion certificates are optional.

For every fourth-week review, ask each member to explain a core concept without AI, then use AI or spreadsheets to check the application. This tests whether the group can independently make the decisions the tools support.

## Two launch weekends

Default to one group experiment at a time. Rotate ownership of sales, delivery, and finance, while requiring everyone to speak with customers. Existing individual ventures can supply case material, but the cohort should choose one main learning project for its shared work.

Select ideas using five questions: Can we reach buyers now? Is the problem concrete? Do people already spend time or money on it? Can we deliver something useful this weekend? Can we test it within our spending and time limits?

Suggested first experiments:

- A fixed-scope spreadsheet or reporting cleanup for a customer type someone already knows.
- A content-repurposing service for a narrow profession, using customer-approved materials.
- A small paid workshop teaching a skill one of you can already demonstrate.
- A niche template or calculator, initially supported by manual onboarding.

These are hypotheses to test, not claims of established demand. A service is a useful first experiment because you can learn from selling and fulfilling before building software.

Weekend sequence:

- Before Friday: book customer conversations and identify reachable prospects. Do not rely on cold weekend outreach to business buyers being answered immediately.
- Friday, about two hours: select the customer, promised outcome, price, delivery scope, budget, and pass/fail criteria. Assign roles.
- Saturday, about five hours: hold conversations, make explicit offers, build only what delivery needs, and fulfill an initial order if possible.
- Sunday, about three hours: continue follow-up and delivery, review money and time, and decide what to do next. Debrief within the sprint allocation.

Example test: “By the following Friday, offer a $150 fixed-scope reporting cleanup to 15 relevant prospects, complete at least five substantive conversations, and seek two paid pilots.” All figures are illustrative. A seven-day sales window is more credible for many B2B offers than treating Sunday as a universal deadline.

Define the decision beforehand. If the group cannot reach the planned audience, the demand test is inconclusive; change access or channel. If relevant buyers reject the offer after substantive conversations, examine urgency, trust, scope, and price. Positive comments and free signups are weaker evidence than completed purchases and useful delivery.

Do not launch a third offer merely to avoid operating the second. Weeks 8–12 intentionally teach follow-through. If both experiments fail, use that period to test a narrowly revised hypothesis and document why the earlier ones failed.

## Money and shared ownership

Illustrative budget for three members over 12 weeks:

| Item | Group cap |
|---|---:|
| Books and shared tools | $100 |
| Two experiments at up to $150 each | $300 |
| Local events and hosting | $150 |
| Reserve | $50 |
| Total | $600, or $200 per person |

Use library/free resources and existing equipment where practical. Travel and major conferences require their own decision. This budget excludes compensation for member time and is a cap on authorized spending, not a requirement to spend it.

Before collecting money together, agree in writing on who owns each project, who pays expenses, how receipts and proceeds are tracked, who serves customers, and what happens if someone leaves. Membership in the learning cohort should not silently imply equal ownership of every member's venture.

Track separately: cash collected, earned revenue, refunds, delivery costs, overhead, and member hours. Cash recovery and sustainable profitability are different milestones. In your management analysis, show results before and after assigning a value to owner time; do not report that imputed labor figure as an actual cash expense.

## Networking as a practice

Aim to become useful recurring participants in a few communities. Start with one local founder community and one group tied to your customers' industry.

- iHub Utah currently describes a Provo incubator with mentors, events, and a staged founder program. Explore its events and fit before assuming incubator participation. [iHub](https://ihubutah.org/)
- Silicon Slopes has regional and professional-interest chapters, including founder, sales, and finance communities. Pick one nearby chapter and one relevant to a skill or industry. [Chapter overview](https://www.siliconslopes.com/c/posts/introducing-silicon-slopes-chapters-where-utah-s-tech-community-comes-together)
- Treat All-In or another major summit as an optional later investment. Set objectives, a total travel budget, and prospective meetings before buying tickets. Check the organizer for current dates and access. [All-In events](https://allin.com/events)

Monthly group rhythm: attend one event, host or arrange one small operator conversation, and make useful introductions or contributions. The operator review can also be the hosted conversation so these are not separate obligations.

Before an event, choose a question you are trying to answer and people whose experience is relevant. During it, learn about their work and offer useful help. Within 48 hours, send a specific follow-up. Within a month, aim for a second substantive exchange.

Measure conversations that continue, help given, and people who will candidly review your work. Keep personal contact notes private and share them within the group only as appropriate.

## AI throughout the curriculum

Use AI for interview-guide drafts, source-backed research, analysis of de-identified notes, landing-page prototypes, spreadsheet formulas, sales role-play, procedure drafts, and editing recordings.

For each experiment, document one AI workflow: the task, inputs, output, human checks, time spent, and errors discovered. Compare time saved with review and correction costs.

Synthetic customer responses are practice material, never customer evidence. Verify factual claims, calculations, and deliverables before relying on them. Keep confidential customer material out of shared tools unless you have appropriate permission. Each member should be able to explain the reasoning behind the final business decision.

## Optional content experiment

Proposed audience: working adults trying to build small businesses alongside existing commitments.

Proposed promise: “We run small business experiments and show the work, the numbers, and what we got wrong.”

Start with a 15–20 minute recorded retrospective every two weeks, using part of the regular review allocation. Try four episodes before expanding production. Cap additional group production effort at one hour per episode and count it within venture time.

Repeatable episode structure: hypothesis, actions, customer response, money and hours, surprise, next decision. Use AI to produce a draft summary and candidate clips; review them before publication. Make one useful written case study the core output, with clips optional.

Agree on recording and publication preferences first. Record candid peer conversations only with agreement; share customer identities or stories only with permission. Keep public case studies separate from the private accountability record.

Measure qualified replies, returning audience members, useful introductions, and customer inquiries alongside production hours. Treat sponsorship or influencer income as a separate unproven business hypothesis. After four episodes, decide whether the content is serving the cohort's goals enough to continue.

## Small learning library

| Resource | Use in this program |
|---|---|
| [The Mom Test, Rob Fitzpatrick](https://www.momtestbook.com/) | Weeks 1–2: discuss how to learn from actual behavior rather than compliments. Borrow or buy; do not require a paid purchase. |
| [YC Startup School](https://www.startupschool.org/) | Weeks 2, 3, and 7: selected customer, MVP, and launch lessons. Free; adapt its startup framing to your cash-flow goals. |
| [MIT OpenCourseWare: Financial and Managerial Accounting](https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/15-501-introduction-to-financial-and-managerial-accounting-spring-2004/) | Weeks 4 and 11: selected reporting concepts and exercises. Free, older course materials; use for fundamentals. |
| [HubSpot Academy: Inbound Sales](https://academy.hubspot.com/courses/inbound-sales) | Weeks 5–6: selected buyer-context, outreach, and sales-presentation lessons. Free account-based course. |
| [MIT OpenCourseWare: Negotiation and Conflict Management](https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/15-667-negotiation-and-conflict-management-spring-2001/) | Week 9: selected preparation and conflict concepts, followed by your own role-play. Free, older course materials. |
| [SBA: Plan your business](https://www.sba.gov/counseling/plan-your-business/) | Weeks 2 and 10: market, competitive, and business-planning reference. |

For operations and strategy weeks, use your actual project as the case and supplement it with an outside operator's critique. Do not add a new reading requirement when the fieldwork already exposes the needed lesson.

## First meeting: 90 minutes

| Minutes | Discussion | Decision or output |
|---|---|---|
| 0–15 | Why each person wants this; what success looks like; available hours | Personal goals and capacity |
| 15–30 | Review the pilot structure and curriculum | Adopt or adjust a 12-week pilot |
| 30–45 | Meeting cadence, experiment dates, spending caps, responsibilities | Calendar and charter |
| 45–65 | List accessible customers and firsthand problems | Three candidate problems and interview owners |
| 65–75 | Community access and people to learn from | First event shortlist and operator invitation owner |
| 75–85 | Recording, confidentiality, and shared-project expectations | Private/public boundaries and ownership discussion owner |
| 85–90 | Read commitments aloud | Each member: two customer conversations before the next meeting |

The next meeting and the first customer conversations matter more than perfecting a brand.

## Reusable records for a future website

The curriculum should work immediately in shared documents. A later website can organize the same records without changing the learning process.

- Module: week, learning objective, selected resource, assignment, completion criteria.
- Commitment: member, deliverable, due date, evidence link, completion status, reflection.
- Experiment: owner, customer, hypothesis, offer, time/money cap, success criteria, actual results, decision.
- Venture: current offer, financial snapshot, owner hours, customer obligations, next review date.
- Relationship/event: private notes, help offered, follow-up owner, next action.
- Case study: context, evidence, lesson, media, explicit publication status.

Suggested member home page: this week's module, next meeting, current commitments, and active experiment. Public pages can show approved case studies. Keep contact records, raw customer material, and peer feedback private by default.

## After the pilot

At week 12, assess both business results and whether the learning group is worth its time. Continue only with renewed member commitments.

An optional second 12-week term can deepen the subjects the pilot only introduces: financial modeling and working capital; experimental design and analytics; acquisition economics and valuation; hiring and management; partnerships and negotiation; and a six-week growth or operations project. Choose the emphasis based on observed skill gaps and the business you actually have.

Avoid accumulating several businesses before understanding the ongoing work each requires. A portfolio becomes attractive when at least one offer has repeatable acquisition, delivery, and economics, and the group can compare its returns with the next opportunity.