Skip to main content
As seen in

By Invitation Only

The AI
Founder
Accelerator

Build secure, powerful software with AI
for yourself, your team, your clients, or the world…

Then, if you want to scale up, turn it into
a profitable business you’re proud to own.

Tech experience not required.

Portrait of Matt C.

“They quoted me around $60,000… [then I built it myself] over the course of a couple solid weeks… [and] even to this day I haven’t written any code.”

Matt C.
Portrait of Jeanelle O.

“I was quoted like $25,000 to create the app that I am creating now… I am building something that is not janky — something I can be proud of.”

Jeanelle O.
Portrait of Jimmy A.

“[In] less than six months… I’ve already built five applications… all of them could be monetized and scaled… [and] I never went through any software development classes.”

Jimmy A.

Starting small (and staying intentionally small) is okay too –
if all this does is help you ship one product or app
that real users happily pay for
without hiring a coder
it pays for itself.
Either way…

the secret sauce is here for you:

The AI-CTO Method™

Use it to go from a software idea (or no idea) to a real business
– without a technical cofounder, a dev team,
or the quiet fear that your stuff
is built on a house of cards.

Enrollment closes in

Enrollment closes Friday, September 18 at 11:59pm Pacific.

Invite & Summary

Hey 👋,

Rob here again – glad you’re here ☺️.

As one of the IWAI readers that expressed interest in The AI Founder Accelerator, I’ve prepped everything below you’ll need to join.

Should you decide to reserve your spot, you’ll get immediate access to our private membership area and the first half of the program, which is complete and ready for you.

The rest is delivered in our weekly live sessions.

Naturally, everything will be recorded and so if you’ve got timezone concerns, rest assured, you won’t be left behind. This gives you a real advantage: at the end of live training, we usually have a Q&A segment, which our students have found helpful for instant implementation.

It doesn’t replace a Fast Pass, but it is a nice place to ask a quick question or two so you can hit the ground running.

As for the nuts and bolts of what we’ll be doing together?

Buckle up, because now I get to share stuff with you that’s changed my life 😎.

-Rob

Rob’s signature

Backstory: How we got here…

It started with a $2,475 invoice.
Over a few years, I invoiced $1.9M.
My client? Sold his company for ‘many multiples’ of that.

A few years back, a client of mine (Dave) paid me $400K a year.

Not because I wrote code for him (though my team did plenty of that). He paid me because I was the CTO in the room – the person who knew which technical decisions would cost him money six months from now, which architecture choices would scale, and which ones would become invisible debt that would slowly eat his business alive.

Beyond saving money, I also innovated software that multiplied the valuation of his company before he sold it. So, while our professional relationship started with a $2,475 invoice, it turned into $1.9M invoiced over several years. As for his company? He exited for “many multiples” of that.

Bald man with glasses and light stubble looking at the camera indoors.

“We spent over a million dollars over the years with Rob and his team… we grew faster… earned back many multiples – four or five at a minimum… [developed] proprietary software that added a significant premium to our acquisition price, [and] ended up having a successful exit”

-Dave Waring, Former CEO of FitSmallBusiness.com

That said, the money isn’t the point – Dave, like many non-technical founders I’ve worked with for years, knew that yes, you could pay for a ‘coder’, but the true value was having the judgment behind the code.

Knowing what to build, when to ship, what to fix now vs. later, and when to say “stop – this isn’t ready.”

I’m telling you this because something quiet is happening right now. Regular people are building with AI. Not drone swarms. Not surveillance systems. Not military intelligence platforms.

They’re building tools that help small businesses and regular people. Apps that solve problems their communities actually have. Software that makes someone’s workday easier, or their family’s life a little less chaotic.

And when we asked 149 folks in our IWAI community what they actually needed to go from a software idea (or no idea) to a real business, the answers were deeply clarifying.

The AI Founder Accelerator is what we built in response.

As for “build a business you’re proud to own”? That’s a values statement that lets the right kind of person know they’re in the right place.

Before I walk you through how we’ll get there together, it’s just as important for you to know what stands in the way of even the most well-intentioned (and capable) founders.

Building software ≠ building a software business.

AI didn’t change the finish line,
but it’s changed the starting line
(& your entire founder’s journey).

I can describe an idea to Claude Code or Codex and watch usable software take shape in an afternoon. Things that used to take my team weeks – prototypes, tools, entire features – happen in hours now. “Vibe coding,” as folks on the Internet call it.

Fun times.

But building software and building a business around software are two very different things.

Yes, AI solved the access problem. Anyone can write code now. What nobody solved is the judgment problem as you go from idea to scalable product (and business) – like I did for Dave over 7 years.

As someone with 20+ years of experience building software that’s powered 100,000+ websites (with the number of active users being much higher than that), I would say yes, you can use AI to build high-quality software and a real business, even if you’re coming from a non-technical background.

With that in mind, I’ll be honest with you – it will be a journey and you are a founder – and on your founder’s journey, there are 5 common points of failure through what we at IWAI are calling The AI Coder’s Canyon.

The Problem Has A Name…

A black-and-white infographic depicting five numbered canyon steps with icons above each: a person, code brackets, a question mark, a dollar sign, and a blocked symbol.

The AI Coder’s Canyon

Almost everyone building with AI right now is somewhere inside it and the deeper you go, is the more treacherous things can get – especially if you take a wrong turn and need to double-back.

Now, at first glance, it can look like there’s 4 mountains to climb, but altogether, there are really 5 major steps:

  1. Your Idea
  2. Your Code
  3. Your Quality
  4. Your Money
  5. Your Energy

I’ll walk you through each of them (and the problems along the way) but the real story isn’t in any single mountain or step you take. The real story is in the journey itself (more on this in a bit).

Your Starting Line
(& The Hidden Idea Gap)

Before you climb a single mountain on your founder’s journey, you need an idea. More specifically, an idea that’s (1) valuable to (2) enough of the right people.

Here, you can fall into 1 of 3 camps:

⛲

“No idea” (underconfidence) – You’re creatively blocked because you’re underestimating the value of your own expertise and experience – and its fit to an audience you’re uniquely qualified to help.

Could be imposter syndrome, or maybe you just don’t have an effective process to get through it. The end result? You’re stuck at the start of the journey and there’s a proverbial fork in the road – you could go in any direction but your “internal GPS” is uncalibrated, so you’re unable to confidently map the next steps.

And so, even if you wanted to leave the campground…you’re unsure about which way to go.

⛲

“I have the right idea” (overconfidence) – Here, you have an “idea gap” – no evidence (or not enough evidence) to validate your assumptions about some or all of your idea.

In this situation, it doesn’t become clear until you’re on a future mountain – except it’s the wrong mountain. You’ve built the wrong thing, for the wrong person, with the wrong business model, and spent a ton of energy you can’t get back. That said, at this stage, you’re off to a dashing start (because you’re unaware of what’s in store for you)

⛲

“I have a valid idea” (data-validated confidence) – In this situation, you’ve validated your assumptions with data, rationale, and more – which reduces your risk of failure at every single step that follows. In this camp, you don’t move as fast as the “overconfident camp” but you’re not stuck in camp “no idea” either. You’re paced and prepared with what you’ll need for the longer journey ahead.

Mountain 1: Development
(& The Trap of Vibe Coding)

Now, the adventure truly begins – you start building with AI and watch your idea take shape in minutes. Feels amazing… until 1 of 2 things happen:

🥳 “It works!” (surface confidence) – The AI tools are fast. You’ve got something that’s starting to look like a product. But speed of creation has outpaced the speed of understanding. You don’t know what the AI actually built, how it’s structured, or where the invisible cracks are.

⚠️ “It broke… and I don’t know why” (compounding debt) – The same speed and accessibility that got you going is what gets you stuck halfway through. You fix one thing, another breaks. The agents keep iterating – fixing some things but breaking others. All while technical debt (the invisible future cost of fixing it) keeps rising. With AI-generated code, that risk multiplies because the speed of creation can mask flaws that’ll come to bite you later.

That said, the path that gets you through this mountain sounds more like this:

🎓 “It works – and I know why” (structured build) – Here, you’re building with judgment. You understand the architecture, you’ve addressed security from day one, and what you ship in month two is something you can still maintain in month six. This is the difference between vibe coding and building with a CTO’s eye.

If you’re able to do that, then in many ways, half the battle of the next mountain is already won.

Mountain 2: Quality
(& The Risk of Exposure)

At this point, you’re undeniably on this journey and have got stuff to show for it. A working prototype. Solid. And that’s when two winds hit you. Not all at once. But back-to-back:

💨 Wind 1: “The risk of being seen” (technical risk) – Real engineers find your code, expose vulnerabilities, and dismiss it publicly. Your product technically works, but it’s held together with duct tape and good intentions. One security audit away from embarrassment – or worse, a data breach.

💨 Wind 2: “The risk of not being seen” (marketing risk) – You launch and… crickets. The prototype is solid enough, but nobody knows it exists and without (paying) users, well, you don’t have venture-backed capital to build a giant userbase before a public IPO or whatever, so this thing has got to pay for itself. Not immediately, but sooner rather than later and that surely doesn’t happen if you can’t even get 10 people to pay for it…you need a way to communicate the value of what you do to the right people and that’s a whole other skill set altogether.

These problems can blow you off the mountain from different directions. Categorically speaking, they’re both exposure problems. One’s about being judged. The other’s about being invisible. But if either trips you up enough, then that’s an accident you might not recover from.

The metaphorical solution? “Be seen – and respected” – Here, your code is production-quality. Engineers would look at it and nod. Your security is buttoned up. And you’ve got a repeatable way to get your product in front of the right people.
Figure that out and then product quality doesn’t compete with marketing visibility – they create compounding results together.

Once you’ve gone from prototype to product with a reliable way to attract paying users, congratulations adventurer – you’ve unlocked new power of traction! And it is all so necessary for what comes next.

Mountain 3: Business
(The AI Founder’s Ceiling Begins…)

Real product. Real users. Some are even power users and they give invaluable feedback that guide new feature development. Folks aren’t just paying too. They’re staying – you’ve got solid retention.

There’s no denying you’re a founder now. You’re doing it all…and that’s just the thing. You’re not quite CEO. You’re more like Doer-in-Chief, which is where another big problem starts to emerge: one that we call the AI Founder’s Ceiling.

The ceiling isn’t made of code – it’s made of you. Every decision, every support request, every sales conversation runs through you. And, there’s only so much that one person can do, and from the outside, it shows up in one of two ways:

📊 “I have users, but no model” (capability gap) – You’re getting traction, but there’s no system underneath it. Revenue feels random. You don’t know your acquisition cost, your churn rate, or whether the business can sustain itself without you constantly pushing. You’re learning fast but there’s always another ‘unknown unknown’ when it comes to making a business work.

📈 “I’m growing, but I’m the bottleneck” (capacity gap) – You’re effective at being a solo founder – you actually wear many hats well. Capability isn’t your problem, but capacity is. The Doer-in-Chief only has so much ‘doing’ to go around.

Both of these situations have been true for founders even before the age of AI, but now, with AI, you already know it’s not a magical solution to any of this either. And yet, there’s got to be a way to leverage it, if only you could figure it out. Nonetheless, you venture on…

Mountain 4: Energy
(The AI Founder’s Ceiling Hardens…)

Through rain, sleet, and snow, you’ve made it to the 4th mountain. You have a working business model. Not perfect, but profitable. And yet, the thing that once put a sparkle in your eye is now consuming the very freedom you hoped it’d create.

In some ways, these high-quality problems to have, but that doesn’t make the inner conflict any less real:
“I’m running on fumes” (burnout) – Your #1 problem is no longer code or paying users. It’s runway. Not financial runway, but running out of human runway. You’re wearing every hat, answering every fire, and the passion that started this is getting buried under operational weight.

“I can’t stop” (golden handcuffs) – The business is working, but only because you’re inside it every hour of every day. And the irony? On paper, you built a company, but in practice it feels more like a job. A well-paying job…and now you’ve got a golden handcuffs problem on your hands. Stopping feels impossible.

Intellectually, you know ‘systems’ are the way out. Maybe AI-driven, AI-augmented, AI-something…but the details aren’t clear and the cost of poor implementation is expensive. Financially. Energetically. Emotionally. Physically. Relationally.

If you don’t fix this, heck, you’ll even struggle to sell the business because no one wants to buy problems you couldn’t fix. As Einstein said, it’s impossible to solve our problems with the level of thinking that created them.

If you truly want a workable way out, you’ll need a different level of thinking, doing, and being…

Your Founder’s Journey Through ‘AI Coder’s Canyon’ is Real…

Five steps.
Four mountains.
And a ceiling that gets harder the further you go – especially if you’re building alone. There are a multitude of problems that can live on even just a single mountain. And, as it is on any journey, the most dangerous problems are the ones you never see coming.

Infographic titled The AI Coder’s Canyon illustrating five numbered stages along a canyon path with icons above each step.

Skip your idea validation and you build the wrong thing.
Ship without production-quality code and engineers will eat you alive.
Get users without systems and you’ll burn out running a business that runs on you.

Even if you master ‘vibe coding’ – there’s just so much more to figure out about code, about customers, about making it work with the reality of your day-to-day life…and that’s especially hard without the one thing that could make a difference at every step of the way:

CTO-level judgment.

That’s what I did for Dave for seven years.

And now, we’ve found a way for you to have it too.

(spoiler alert: it’s waaaaaaaaaay more accessible than $400K/year and doesn’t require giving up ownership of your product or company!)

The AI
Founder
Accelerator

Powered by the
AI-CTO Method™

The AI Founder Accelerator is our 6-month program for non-technical founders to build high-quality software with AI – and turn it into a real business (they’re proud of).

The AI-CTO Method™ is the system inside. 3 stages. 9 core steps. 1 growth plan.

Here’s how it all works – starting with where you’ll touchdown.

The Goal: Where we’re going…

Here’s what we’re building toward:

Build high-quality software with AI
and grow a business you’re proud to own.

Strategy:
Intentionally use AI to go from a software idea (or no idea) to a real business – without a technical cofounder, a dev team, or the quiet fear that your stuff is built on a house of cards.
Outcome:
Build a business you’re proud to own. One that serves you, your family, and the people you want to help – not one that owns your life.
Success Metric:
Your north star metric is # of paying users over time. First 1, then 10, then 100, then however much it takes to hit your “enough number”.
Advantage 1:
The AI-CTO method™ – takes you through 3 stages of startup growth. It breaks down into 9 core steps (and, it’s also got a “step 0” for folks to find their best idea). Everything you need to prototype, grow, and scale without venture-backed funding.
Advantage 2:
Build with CTO judgment from day one – so the hours you invest create compounding value, not compounding debt.
Advantage 3:
You retain 100% ownership of everything – IP, company, software. Unlike some Accelerator or Incubator programs, we don’t ask for an equity stake in anything. Just become wildly successful so we can brag about you.
Time Commitment:
This is a 6-month cohort, with a clear plan, live support, and a group of peers. Expect to put in 3-5 hours a week, however, if you like to move faster, you can put in as much time as you’d like.

DESIGNED FOR: Non-technical folks, vibe coders, and yes, even pro coders – all without venture-backed funding.

CHOOSE YOUR STARTING POINT:

“I don’t have an idea”

“I started building my thing”

“I already have paying users”

This IS for you if:

  • You want to build real software – not just a demo that looks good in a screenshot
  • You’re willing to invest 3-5 hours per week consistently for 6 months
  • You care about building something you’d be proud to put your name on
  • You want CTO-level judgment, not just another AI tutorial
  • You’re okay with a program that evolves in real time, based on what’s working for members

This is NOT for you if:

  • You’re looking for a passive “done-for-you” solution – this requires your active participation
  • You want to vibe-code a quick app and flip it for cash
  • You’re not willing to do the foundational work (validation, architecture) before building
  • Investing in this would put you in genuine financial stress – we’d rather you wait

If that sounds all fair and good, then let’s cover how we’ll get there together.

The Plan: What you’ll build…

Inside the AI Founder Accelerator, you’ll work through the AI-CTO Method™.

Think of the AI-CTO Method™ as your flight plan on your founder’s journey through the AI Coder’s Canyon.

While everyone else walks, we’ve designed this for you to fly up all mountains, with each stage taking you higher up every mountain (dev, quality, business, energy) in a way that’s safe, scalable, paced to work with you, not against you.

3 Stages. 10 Steps. 1 AI-CTO Method™.

At a high level, it looks like this:

1. CRAFT – Prototype with AI

Validate your idea, build from real demand, and develop the judgment to know what’s worth pursuing. Then build – not with vibe coding patterns that create invisible debt, but with a structured approach so what you ship in month two is something you can still maintain in month six. You’ll also get paying users, that way, you won’t just know that folks are willing to pay for your stuff, you’ll also get usage data, which, at this point, is invaluable.

2. TEST – Growth & Security

Ship production-quality code that engineers would respect – and build a repeatable way to get paying users. By the end of this, you’ve got scalable product security, a reliable user acquisition system, and a product growth roadmap for you to continue innovating your core product to attract more of your best paying users (while keeping existing ones happy – read: high retention and longer customer lifetime value).

3. OWN – Systems That Scale

Turn your product into a business with real revenue, real systems, and a life you actually want. Move from “operator” to “owner” with systems that don’t depend on you doing everything. At this point, exiting (i.e. selling your business) becomes an option, though, it’s definitely not required. That’s the focus of this step. It starts with shipping product like a seasoned CTO, and moves you towards self-funding growth and self-managing company systems.

That’s the big picture – and if you zoom in on the steps within the stages above, it looks more like this:

CRAFT

Prototype with AI

STEP 0

The Idea Engine

A system for AI Founders to find, refine, & select ideas that power flight

Outcome

Have no idea?
Not a problem.

Here, you’ll run idea generation as a structured, quantifiable process – instead of hoping for a lightning bolt of inspiration.

You’ll mine your career and life for expertise areas where people already trust you, then map those to specific audiences and problems that AI has newly made solvable. You’ll score every idea on our SHIP framework so your first pick is backed by real reasoning – not a generic “100 AI business ideas” listicle

Milestones

  • Expertise inventory complete – done before you touch AI, so the ideas are yours.
  • At least 3 ideas generated and scored on the SHIP framework (Size × Helpfulness × Inspiration × Pace).
  • Idea Statement written for your top pick: “My software will help [audience] [solve problem] so they can [meaningful metric] in [timeframe].”
  • A one-page fictional press release announcing your 1,000th paying user – written before you build anything.

Tools

  • Idea Generation Workbook (Google Sheet) – five tabs that take you from expertise inventory → audiences → SHIP scoring → Idea Statement
  • Step-by-Step Narrative Guide – a companion doc that walks the workbook cell by cell using a complete worked example
  • SHIP Framework Brainstorming Assistant – a custom GPT trained on the framework, the workbook, and the places students get stuck. It runs the Dinner Story Test with you, flags “everyone” audiences and vague metrics, and tells you when an idea scores too low to build.
  • “Digging Deeper” lesson – how to unlock the ideas hiding in a résumé-fragment skill, with the Three Traps (big-company skills, “my hobbies aren’t expert-level,” broad consumer ideas)

STEP 1

Prototype with AI

Build Without an Engineer

Outcome

Now, the journey truly begins – here, you’ll learn the core skills to go beyond the fundamentals of vibe-coding where you “ask AI for code.”

You’ll choose your tech framework (WordPress or React – a mobile track is coming later in the program), set up your dev environment, and build a working proof of concept – structured and maintainable.

Think of it like learning Japanese: AI handles the syntax, but you need to understand what to say and when to say it.

And you’ll watch it done for real: Rob builds a full internal SaaS app on WordPress in a single day – work he estimates at three to six months, and $40,000–$120,000, before AI.

Milestones

  • Tech track chosen (WordPress or React) and local dev environment running.
  • Comfortable with the prompt → build → commit rhythm in Claude Code or OpenAI Codex.
  • Working proof of concept built: home page + at least one core function, backed by a real database.
  • Prototype deployed to a live URL with an auto-deploy pipeline – every commit goes live.

Tools

  • Two MIT-licensed starter kits, built by our team specifically for AIFO students and available nowhere else – one for WordPress, one for React/Next.js – each with an AGENTS.md file that turns your AI coding partner “from a junior developer into a well-trained mid-level one” (security conventions, naming standards, a renaming procedure, and code recipes baked in)
  • The Speedrun Guide – an 11-chapter written primer (how the web works → frontend → backend → hosting → tooling → databases → responsive → security → accessibility → SDLC → economics), each chapter ending with the exact instructions to give your AI coding partner
  • Version Control with GitHub Desktop – a complete beginner’s guide to create, clone, commit, and roll back with no command line
  • Inside the Build – the full build diary (with every real prompt) from Rob building a production SaaS app on WordPress in a single day
  • 14-Day Prototype Sprint prompt – paste it into any LLM and it produces your scoped prototype, hero screen, day-by-day plan, and cut list (Moonlighter and Full-Timer versions)
  • Two deployment Student Resource Guides (PDF) – WordPress plugin → GitHub Actions → Kinsta, and React → Vercel + Neon + Stripe, both on free tiers

STEP 2

Profit with Power Users

Enroll your first power users & put profit first

Outcome

“Launch a landing page and hope” is not effective.

Implement a product-service hybrid model where your first 10 customers are treated like clients – manual outreach, custom setup, a $1,000–$5,000 setup fee plus $100+/month after. Ten clients, not a thousand customers.

This gives you real cash flow early, invaluable product feedback from day one, and a path that doesn’t require you to burn money on ads (the ad-first trap) or chase funding (the investor trap). You’ll also settle the question most SaaS advice skips: who pays for the AI – you, baked into the price, or the customer with their own key.

Milestones

  • Hybrid pricing defined: $1,000–$5,000 setup fee + $100+/month tiers + scope boundaries.
  • 1-Page Pitch written – by you, not by ChatGPT.
  • Booking link live and a demo (or 3-minute recorded walkthrough) ready to share.
  • 50-name list built; first 10 warm emails sent; daily 15-minute outreach habit running.

Tools

  • The 1-Page Pitch template + a fully written example (built from the wedding-photographer idea in Step 0)
  • The Hybrid Pricing Worksheet – value basis, setup fee, monthly tiers, AI billing model (bake-it-in vs. bring-your-own-key), scope boundaries, cost floor – with two worked examples
  • Outreach Checklist & Templates – four copy-and-paste email templates (warm, intro request, cold-with-demo, follow-up), qualification criteria, and booking-link setup
  • How to Create a Demo for Your Builds (PDF guide) – six free/cheap ways to share a live demo, and how to cap API spend before you do

STEP 3

$10K MRR Playbook

The AI-CTO way to grow without VC money

Outcome

Now that you’ve got a working prototype you’re being paid to deliver and improve, next you’ll “speedrun” the process of thinking like a product & business-focused CTO to engineer lean repeatable growth without VC funding.

You’ll learn lean startup concepts, how to define a tighter niche, what not to worry about yet until you hit $10K MRR (monthly recurring revenue), and the debugging philosophy that keeps you from burning hours going down rabbit holes that aren’t meaningful yet. The rule is simple: if you’re not making progress in 15–30 minutes, stop and post in Slack.

Milestones

  • 5 sales to your first clients at the hybrid product-service level.
  • Prototype live on a public domain.
  • Distraction audit complete and “I will not… until…” rules written.
  • Bug log started, every open issue tiered P0–P3.
  • Monthly “five little bets” review in place (niche, price, feature set, what broke, where time went).

Tools

  • The “What NOT To Do Until $10K MRR” list – refactoring, CI/CD, mobile apps, free trials, dark mode, trademarks, dashboards… and why each one can wait
  • Distraction Audit Worksheet – tag every hour as revenue, delivery, premature, vanity, or avoidance; identify your procrastination persona (the Refactorer, the Researcher, the Redesigner, the Tooler, the Feature Ferret); write your “I will not ___ until ___” rules
  • The CTO Mindset Bug Triage Card – P0 through P3, who found it, and the “your users see 10% of what you see” rule
  • The AI Bug Report Template – how to hand a bug to a coding agent (good vs. bad report, side by side) and what to collect from customers
  • The Bug Log – your backlog sheet
  • The Lean CTO Field Guide – 9 rules for the bootstrapped founder (Half, not half-assed · Hero screen first · Fix time, flex scope · Two metrics only · Triage before you debug · Eliminate before you optimize or delegate…)

“I was quoted $25,000 to create the app that I am creating now… [and] it’s been three months, and I have a web app.”

I feel so much better, so much more confident, [that] the product that I’m building is not going to be a janky weekend [project]… I’ve learned through this process that I love building. I love product… I’ve upskilled, I’ve learned something, and so to me, that’s super valuable.

Jeanelle O. UX content designer · Orlando, FL

TEST

Growth & Security

STEP 4

Scalable Product Security

AI-First product security, future-proofing, & pro-level stuff to keep things from breaking at scale

Outcome

Your prototype has traction and cash flow. Now we make it respectably robust in the eyes of a software engineer. You’ll learn advanced coding concepts, do a full security audit, and set up production-grade deployments – focusing on the exact security and reliability considerations you need at this stage, not wasting time on things that aren’t relevant yet. The balance between “clean code” and “going down a rabbit hole” is everything here.

You’ll watch an unrehearsed security audit run live on Rob’s real production app – 12 minutes, every finding tiered, every judgment call explained. A 20-year developer on the call: “I could not have done as good a job in a week as Claude Opus just did in twelve minutes.”

The first Step 4 sessions are live now; the remaining sessions (deployment planning, UX & design audit) are delivered live and added to your library.

Milestones

  • Full security audit completed on your codebase, and every finding fixed – one commit at a time.
  • First AI feature shipped inside your product – with model-swapping and per-user cost caps.
  • Light UX/design revision and a stable deployment cycle in place (from the live sessions).

Tools

  • Security Audit Prompts – three copy-paste prompts (React/Next.js, WordPress, generic) and a fix prompt that addresses only listed findings, one commit at a time. Run weekly; about an hour per pass.
  • Three AI-Feature Build Prompts – add AI to your product at three levels: a well-structured LLM call, an API wrapped in an MCP server, or a full in-app agent – with model-swapping and per-user cost caps built in
  • Additional Step 4 sessions (Deployment Planning, UX & Design Audit) – delivered live and added to the library

STEP 5

Power User Acquisition

Go from 10 to 100 paying users with systems instead of stress

Outcome

Growing from 10 to 100 paying users is a completely different game than your first 10.

You’ll create a Power User Profile, then build at least two distinct acquisition funnels – not haphazard ads on one platform, but a real system with landing pages, nurture sequences, and conversion tracking.

We focus on newer, less-crowded channels (newsletter ads, webinars, events) alongside traditional ones, and we’re scientific about tracking ROI and also attracting humans we enjoy helping.

Milestones

  • At least two funnels live with distinct traffic sources (e.g., newsletter ads + webinar funnel).
  • Landing page and nurture sequence converting – at least one “cold” customer signed without direct outreach.
  • Churn worksheet active with real data being tracked.
  • Funnel performance and ROI tracked systematically.

Tools

  • Lead Sourcing Worksheet (evaluate channels by cost, effort, volume, and power user fit)
  • Funnel Design Worksheet (traffic → squeeze page → nurture sequence → conversion point)
  • Landing Page Template (headline, pain point, solution, social proof, CTA)
  • Nurture Sequence Templates (email frameworks for warming cold leads toward demo or trial)

PART 6

Product Growth Roadmap

Multiply service capacity, paying users, & customer lifetime value with strategic product roadmapping

Outcome

Here, your CTO strategy gets more sophisticated – shifting toward delegation, planning, and optimization.

You’ll create a clear product roadmap using Scrum Lite principles, document your sales and support processes as SOPs (so future hires can follow them), and learn how to vet and hire your first team members – sales and support before coders. Lean, bespoke teams with AI-first thinking outperform big, cheap-by-the-hour alternatives.

Milestones

  • Clear product roadmap created following Scrum Lite – next 3 features scoped with realistic timelines and budgets.
  • Sales SOP documented (lead qualification, demo flow, objection handling, closing steps).
  • Support SOP documented (triage, common fixes, escalation triggers, communication standards).
  • Both SOPs are AI-first ready – designed so future hires with strong soft skills are augmented by AI tools.

Tools

  • Product Roadmap Worksheet (prioritize features by user demand, revenue impact, effort, and strategic alignment)
  • Scrum Lite Guide (sprint planning, async standups, retrospectives – without the corporate overhead)
  • Sales SOP Template (lead qualification → demo → objection handling → close)
  • Support SOP Template (triage → common fixes → escalation → communication standards)

“I’m not a coder by nature… [This is] taking someone that doesn’t know anything about software and getting them to launch a product.”

What we built is a platform for [private soccer coaches] to run their business and have their clients easily reach out to them and have all their tools in one spot… The structure that this class gives you, like the security… The guardrails around data classification… it’s there for you. You don’t have to go and try to figure that out on your own… You can do it at your own pace.

Craig E. Customer success & sales, tech industry · El Paso, TX

OWN

Systems That Scale

PART 7

Ship Like a Seasoned CTO

Install Production Pipeline-to-Quality Assurance Systems (used by professional engineers)

Outcome

You’ve scaled to 100+ users and are likely hiring contractors or employees. Time to introduce the systems that real engineering teams use – but lean.

You’ll set up git branching so multiple developers can work simultaneously without breaking things, create a full local → staging → production pipeline, and build a quality assurance system combining automated testing with human review.

Follow our templates and guides; you don’t need decades of coding experience.

Milestones

  • Git branching strategy implemented – can create feature branches, merge, and resolve conflicts confidently.
  • Staging and production environments set up with a documented deployment process.
  • At least 5 unit tests covering critical functions (auth, payments, core features), running automatically before deployment.
  • Human QA checklist created and used for at least one real deployment, catching at least one issue before production.

Tools

  • Git Branching Cheat Sheet (visual guide: naming conventions, merge protocols, conflict resolution for non-engineers)
  • Environment Pipeline Map (one-page diagram: local → staging → production, who can deploy, what approvals needed)
  • Unit Testing Starter Template (pre-written test scaffolding for auth, payments, API calls – customize for your app)
  • Pre-Deployment QA Checklist (functionality, mobile responsiveness, payment testing, email triggers, error handling)

PART 8

Self-Funding Growth Engine

Go From 100 to 1,000+ Paying Users

Outcome

Time to scale beyond 100 customers – deliberately, using your Stripe data and MRR reports as a strategic compass, not a vanity metric.

You’ll learn enterprise and custom pricing that increases your margins (instead of sabotaging them), and most importantly, you’ll build a self-funding lead system where customer acquisition costs are covered by your cash flow cycle.

Growth should feel sustainable, not stressful. No investor panic required.

Milestones

  • MRR dashboard built with real Stripe data – can articulate current MRR, churn rate, expansion revenue, and revenue per user.
  • Enterprise pricing tier created with clear justification (feature matrix, SLA terms, support commitments) and tested with at least 2 customers or prospects.
  • Lead system ROI audit complete – true customer acquisition cost known, primary funnel either profitable or on a clear 60-day plan to profitability.
  • 90-day cash flow projection built, with a clear understanding of whether scaling is self-fundable or requires outside capital.

Tools

  • MRR Strategic Dashboard Template (monthly tracking, customer tier breakdown, churn log with reason codes, net revenue retention formula)
  • Enterprise Pricing Builder (feature comparison matrix, value justification calculator, SLA commitment checklist)
  • Lead-to-Revenue Calculator (ad spend by channel, cost per lead, conversion rates, LTV, CAC payback period)
  • 90-Day Cash Flow Projection Sheet (weekly cash flow tracking, running balance alerts, scenario toggles for stress-testing growth)

PART 9

Self-Managing Company

Scalable Team, Lifestyle, & Income You Can Enjoy Forever

Outcome

You’re scaling toward 1,000+ users. Now you build a small, AI-augmented dev team that punches above its weight.

You’ll learn to hire for collaboration (not just skill), set humane deadlines, and create systems that prevent burnout – for your team and yourself. The endgame: your product scales and your life improves. Acquisition is optional because you’ve built something worth keeping.

And, more importantly, you have a business you’re proud to own, instead of it owning you.

Milestones

  • Developer job description created – clearly defines the role, required skills, and how AI tools fit the workflow.
  • Onboarding document built – a new hire can set up their environment and ship a small ticket within their first week.
  • At least one two-week sprint run with realistic scope, daily check-ins (sync or async), and a completed retrospective.
  • Lifestyle design worksheet complete – can articulate how your day-to-day life improves (not just stays manageable) as your product scales.

Tools

  • Developer Hiring Scorecard (technical skills, communication, collaboration, AI-tool proficiency, culture fit)
  • Onboarding Checklist (week-one: accounts, repos, docs, people to meet, first ticket to ship)
  • Sprint Planning Template (two-week sprints: goal setting, ticket prioritization, capacity planning, retrospective prompts)
  • Lifestyle Design Worksheet (ideal week vs. current reality – work hours, family time, health, hobbies – top 3 gaps to close)

The specifics above are subject to change, in response to feedback from our members, and the needs we identify.

That’s the plan.
Now, let’s talk support:

Training, Tools, Coaching, CTO Advisory, Community & More

The Support: 7 Layers

A founder’s journey can be hard and lonely – but it doesn’t have to be. Inside The AI Founder Accelerator, you’re never left alone with a prototype and a prayer. You have humans, structure, and peers helping you actually build.

Depending on the level of support you choose, you’ll have access to some or all of the following throughout the 6-month program:

Training

What it is

Live, instructor-led sessions that walk you through each Stage and Part in the AI-CTO Method™, plus on-demand replays.

How it helps you

Shows you how to do the work step-by-step, so you’re not guessing how to turn ideas into working prototypes, paying users, and growth systems.

Format & cadence*

Live training (Wednesdays at 1:00 PM Eastern, about 90 minutes) with 10–15 minutes of Q&A. Recordings posted within 24 hours and added to your private training library – lifetime access.

Tools

What it is

Toolkits: templates, prompts, guides, checklists, and worksheets for each Part of the AI-CTO Method™.

How it helps you

Shortens the distance between “I get it” and “it’s done.” You don’t start from random to-dos, instead you work from templates built for AI Founders like you.

Format & cadence*

Downloadable templates and playbooks inside the member area. Updated over the cohort as we see what works best for AI Founders in the room.

Coaching

What it is

Direct 1:1 coaching from our team. It opens with a 30-minute kickoff session to map your build plan against the AI-CTO Method™, then continues as Coaching Fast Passes — 30-minute, bookable sessions dedicated to your exact build — plus a private channel for questions in between.

How it helps you

Screenshare, and work through the specific thing you’re stuck on. The auth flow that won’t authorize. The deploy that fails with an error you can’t read. The AI-generated migration you’re afraid to run. The Stripe webhook that never fires. Whatever it is — bring it to a Fast Pass and we’ll work through it in your actual codebase until it’s working. A 30-minute session with a coach is almost always faster than another hour of fighting it alone.

Format & cadence*

Bookable directly from the course platform. Included with the Coaching tier (4 passes) and CTO Advisory (10 passes), available from day one and good for a full year from your start date. The kickoff session is usually booked within about two weeks, depending on your availability.

CTO Advisory

What it is

Direct access to Rob and the IWAI engineering team for architecture decisions, code reviews, and technical guidance tailored to your build. Think “board of advisors” plus a bit of fractional CTO.

How it helps you

You’re not guessing on high-stakes technical decisions or waiting weeks to get unstuck. You get the same caliber of guidance that our paying clients receive – applied to your product, your market, and your build.

Format & cadence*

10 Coaching Fast Passes, plus priority async access for architecture questions, reviews, and feedback. Shareable across a team of up to 5 – everyone gets their own account, and Fast Passes are pooled.

Done-With-You Implementation

What it is

Hands-on build support on select pieces of your product – within clearly defined guardrails. You still own the product and your business; we help you get critical pieces right the first time.

How it helps you

Shortens your path from prototype to production-grade product. Instead of spending weeks stuck on a technical decision, you work through it with someone who’s shipped this before.

Format & cadence*

Scoped to specific implementation milestones. Guardrails defined upfront so expectations are clear on both sides.

Emergency Support

What it is

If you already have paying users and something critical in your software breaks, one of Rob’s senior developers will dive in to help you fix it.

How it helps you

You get the same guaranteed response time and level of support that our clients receive. You’re not Googling Stack Overflow at 2am while your users can’t log in.

Format & cadence*

Available for production-critical issues. Response time and support level matches what we provide to our paying clients.

Community

What it is

A private community space for AI founders in this cohort.

How it helps you

You’re surrounded by peers who are also building real products, not arguing about which AI tool is best. This is where you find collaborators, accountability, and long-term relationships.

Format & cadence*

Private online space with channels for wins, build logs, product questions, and co-working. Optional pop-up events or peer circles during the cohort.

Exact cadence and access vary by tier. All tiers include Training, Tools, and Community. Access to Coaching starts at the Coaching tier. CTO Advisory, Done-With-You Implementation, and Emergency Support are exclusive to the CTO Advisory tier.

Whatever level you choose, the core experience is the same: you bring your real product and your real ambition. We bring the method, the tools, and the support to help you fly across the canyon.

Meet your coaches

Learn from people on a mission to make AI work for everyone

Plus — an ever-growing cast of IWAI teammates and guest instructors.

Portrait of Rob Howard, Founder of Innovating with AI
Rob Howard
LinkedIn ↗

Rob is a 20-year tech-industry veteran, software developer, and entrepreneur who started coding at age 12. He founded a million-user cloud-storage startup (acquired in 2009) and is CEO of HDC, a development firm whose software has powered more than 100,000 websites — including work for Harvard, MIT, The World Bank, Marriott, Intel, Facebook, and The Oscars. His work has appeared in Wired, Forbes, Fortune, and TechCrunch.

Rob Howard with his familyBut Rob’s real mission is teaching. After a successful tech career, he found that helping tens of thousands of people gain comfort and confidence with technology was even more fulfilling than the work that came before it. He built Innovating with AI on a simple belief: that everyone — not just engineers and executives — deserves to thrive as AI reshapes work and life.

Portrait of Nyasha Green, Technical Curriculum Developer at Innovating with AI
Nyasha Green
LinkedIn ↗

Nyasha is an educator and software developer on a mission to make AI and technology accessible for everyone — no gatekeeping, no jargon, no overwhelm. As a LinkedIn Learning instructor, she has created multiple courses and taught more than 50,000 students, and she shares practical, jargon-free guidance through her YouTube channel and “The Hopeful Workspace” podcast. Her creativity and insights have been featured in Time Magazine and The Guardian.

Nyasha Green with her familyNyasha believes tech education shouldn’t be reserved for computer-science graduates or gatekeepers — every person should have the tools to understand and use technology for their own goals. That mission is the very heart of what we do at IWAI.

“If you do have the coaching level, you’re gonna get so much more… your questions are answered and you’re not guessing.”

[Before,] I would get something working and it really didn’t look too pretty, but it worked, and then it would stop working… [Now, it] is not about breaking through the walls. It’s about never having them pop up… In every instance, those problems, I had a solution. I left that coaching session with a solution that would work.

Scott L. AI consultant · Atlanta, GA · Coaching tier
Placeholder product shot: the program on a desktop monitor, laptop, tablet and phone

Join The AI Founder Accelerator

3 Options for AI Founders…

I’ve priced this with the following intentions in mind:

  • Make it a small fraction of the value of the time, energy, and opportunities we’re helping you unlock.
  • Make it accessible for the AI Founders joining our program.
  • Limit the number of accepted applicants so everyone gets the attention they need to be successful.

Training

Limit: 100 Spots

Includes…

  • The first half of the program, recorded and ready – instant access the day you join
  • Live trainings for the second half – every session recorded and added to your private library (lifetime access)
  • Module toolkits & templates (prompts, checklists, frameworks, examples)
  • Private cohort channel inside the 2,000+ member IWAI Slack community

Investment:

12 payments of $297

That’s only $9.76 a day

Reserve Your Spot

(or Pay in Full – Save $567)

Recommendation:

  • You’re already good at keeping yourself accountable
  • You prefer to digest material quietly, test it in your own environment, then come back with sharper questions
  • You want the full system and asset library at the most accessible investment – knowing you can upgrade later if you want more direct support (subject to availability)

(*If cash flow is too limited to invest at this level, then I strongly recommend not investing in this program. Stay on our interest list to potentially join when you’re in a stable place that allows for making effective decisions without financial duress.)

Coaching

Limit: 50 Spots

Includes everything in Training, plus…

  • Your personalized build plan — a 30-minute kickoff session mapping where your product sits in the AI-CTO Method™ and what to build first. You start with a plan instead of a list.
  • 4 Coaching Fast Passes — 30-minute bookable 1:1 sessions with our coaching team, dedicated to your exact build. Valid for one year.
  • Priority feedback in the coaching-tier-exclusive community channel — for the decisions and blockers between passes.

Investment:

12 payments of $497

That’s only $16.43 a day

Reserve Your Spot

(or Pay in Full – Save $967)

Recommendation:

  • You want direct 1:1 access to our team when you hit a snag – not just a recording to rewatch
  • You want to move faster with fewer false starts and dead ends
  • You know you’ll have nuanced questions (market positioning, software architecture decisions, pricing strategy) and want expert eyes on them
  • You’ll still do the building yourself – you just want a plan to start from and a coach to call when you’re stuck

CTO Advisory

Limit: 20 Spots

Includes everything in Training and Coaching, plus 6 months of…

  • Fractional CTO level advisory – direct access to Rob and the IWAI engineering team for architecture decisions, code reviews, and technical guidance tailored to your build
  • Done-with-you implementation support on select pieces of your build – within clearly defined guardrails
  • Post-build emergency support – if you already have paying users and something critical in your software breaks, one of my senior developers will dive in to help you fix it (you get the same guaranteed response time and level of support that our clients receive)
  • Priority access for reviews, feedback, and architecture questions so you’re not waiting weeks to get unstuck on key decisions
  • 10 Coaching Fast Passes – six more than Coaching, for the moments a message in the channel isn’t enough. Valid for one year.
  • Bring your team – up to 5 people, each with their own account. Fast Passes and every benefit are shared across the group.

Investment:

$10,000

one-time payment

Reserve Your Spot

(or Pay in 12 Payments of $997)

Recommendation:

  • You want a partner who understands both AI-first product development and the realities of building without a technical cofounder – not just one or the other
  • You have more budget than time, and it’s worth a higher investment to shorten your path to a production-grade product and a real business
  • Your situation has real complexity – whether that’s the market you’re entering, the technology stack, or the stakes involved
  • You’re bringing a team – a department or a small company that needs everyone building with the same judgment, not just the founder

Important: All payment plans have a 12-month commitment. If you anticipate unpredictable finances or don’t feel confident you can complete the payment cycle, I’d advise against joining at this time.

If you’re not sure about joining yet, you can wait until after we complete this 6-month round. At that point, the price may increase, once we’ve built out more case studies and can point to a higher level of certainty around the outcomes this program can produce.

If you have any questions or concerns about the program, please send us a text message or email. We’re happy to help:

Text: +1 (888) 703-4363support@innovatingwithai.com

Our 60-Day Guarantee

More than 2,000 students have already started building successful businesses and expanding their careers with our other IWAI programs. We have similar goals for The AI Founder Accelerator – which is why I’m also making it completely risk-free.

60
Days

Full refund any time in your first 60 days — no conditions, no questions asked.

12
Months

Pause payments anytime for any unexpected medical or financial hardship for yourself, immediate family, or household.

From the moment you enroll, you have 60 days to try the whole program. If at any point in those 60 days you decide it isn’t right for you – for any reason – email us and I’ll refund 100% of your investment.

No hoops, no homework, no questions asked.

Family & Medical Sabbatical Guarantee

So you can always put your loved ones first.

If you choose one of our 12-month payment plans, life’s unexpected challenges won’t stand in your way.

If an immediate family member experiences a major medical or financial problem, you can pause your payments for up to 3 months.

This applies to you, your spouse, children, parents, or anyone who shares your household. The most important thing to me is taking care of your loved ones – and I know that sometimes means diverting attention temporarily from work. Life happens! That’s why all my employees have plenty of paid family and medical leave, and why I extend the same courtesy to my students too.

If you need a break from payments for any reason described above, just email us and we’ll pause your payments for 3 months – and when you return from your sabbatical, my team and I will help you get back on track to accomplish all your goals.

Life happens, and supporting you through it is part of our commitment to your success.

“It certainly leapfrogged me over having to do two or three years of courses in computer science and programming languages.”

Being able to jump from having no programming knowledge… to building full-fledged scalable software applications, that was the reason why I chose the program… It allowed me to build several in only… six months or so… If you’re not a software developer and you want to start building with AI, I think that is the perfect use case.

Jimmy A. Executive, recycling company · Southern California

Answers to your most

Frequently asked questions

No. This is not a coding bootcamp. The AI-CTO Method is about developing CTO judgment – not coding skill. AI does the coding; you develop the judgment to direct it. That said, if you’re already technical, you’ll benefit from the business, strategy, and product architecture layers that most technical founders skip.

Step 0 (The Idea Engine) is designed exactly for this. 42% of the founders in the program didn’t have an idea when they joined. You’ll use the Idea Generation Workbook and the SHIP Framework Brainstorming Assistant (a custom GPT) to generate viable ideas from your professional expertise, then score them on the SHIP framework before you build anything.

Yes – with the right judgment directing it. That’s the gap this program closes. Without CTO judgment, AI builds prototypes. With it, AI can help you build scalable products. The difference between the two is part of what separates a “cool demo” from a real software business.

The AI Consultancy Project (AICP) helps you build an AI consulting business.

The AI Executive System (AIEX) helps you become the AI Executive of your own work and life.

The AI Founder Accelerator (AIFO) helps you build, launch, and scale your own AI-first software product.

Different programs for different goals.

You do not need AICP or AIEX first to join the AI Founder Accelerator.

If you have taken AICP or AIEX, AI Founder Accelerator is where you:

  • Turn your expertise into a software product (not just a service),
  • Build something you own with real customers, revenue, and IP,
  • And decide if you want to run it as a lifestyle business, scale it, or sell it.

Hybrid. Live sessions plus recordings plus an async community. The first half of the program is complete and waiting in your member library from day one; the rest is delivered in our weekly live sessions – then permanently added to the library as we go. Coaching and CTO Advisory tiers also include bookable 1:1 Coaching Fast Passes. All work styles are welcome – weekend warriors, deep work, night owls, early risers.

Yes. Live training runs Wednesdays at 1:00 PM Eastern (about 90 minutes), and recordings are posted within 24 hours. All sessions are recorded, and the community is active across time zones. We’ve had students from around the world in our other programs.

12-month payment plans are available for all tiers. That said, if the monthly payment would put you in chronic financial stress, we recommend waiting for a future cohort. Making good decisions about money is the same judgment we’ll be building inside the program.

Yes, by paying the difference in investment – subject to seat availability. We’re keeping things intentionally small, so certain levels may fill first.

Coaching Fast Passes are 30-minute, bookable 1:1 sessions with our coaching team, dedicated to your exact build.

Screenshare, work through the specific thing you’re stuck on – an auth flow that won’t authorize, a deploy that keeps failing, an AI-generated migration you’re afraid to run – and we’ll work through it together until it’s working in your actual codebase.

Fast Passes are included with the Coaching tier (4 passes, plus a 30-minute kickoff session to map your build plan) and the CTO Advisory tier (10 passes). Book them directly from the course platform. They’re valid for a full year from your enrollment date.

Yes, on the CTO Advisory tier. Bring up to 5 people from your department or company. Everyone gets their own account with the full curriculum and community, and the 10 Fast Passes, priority access, and every other benefit are shared across the group. Training and Coaching tiers are for one person.

You’re covered two ways: a 60-day unconditional money-back guarantee, and – on 12-month payment plans – our Family & Medical Sabbatical that lets you pause payments for up to 3 months.

Expect 3–5 hours consistently. Some weeks more, some less. Those hours replace some of your current spinning – they’re not meant to sit on top of it. The goal is that every hour you put in moves you closer to a working product and a real business.

That’s exactly the pattern the AI Coder’s Canyon describes – and it’s why we built CRAFT as the first stage. Most AI-assisted founders fail not because the tools are bad, but because they’re missing CTO judgment: knowing what to build, how to structure it, and when something isn’t ready. CRAFT is designed to fix the foundation so you don’t repeat the same cycle.

And if you get stuck on your specific build, that’s exactly what Fast Passes are for – included with the Coaching and CTO Advisory tiers.

Yes. You own 100% of your ideas, systems, assistants, and intellectual property. We’re not here to claim a percentage of your company, future value, or anything. Our job is to be your launchpad and advisory partner, not your landlord. Also, given the nature of our industry, we take data and privacy very seriously. And, even beyond our industry, we believe it’s just the moral & ethical thing to do in a decent society.

In addition to the above, your enrollment is protected by our 60-day guarantee: if at any point in your first 60 days you decide the program isn’t for you, email us and you’ll get a full refund. No conditions.

We guarantee results to everyone who takes the program seriously and puts it into action – because we’re confident that this works when you do.

Realistic Expectations…

Rob Howard, founder of Innovating with AI

The AI Founder Accelerator is designed for you to be successful with an average time investment of about 3–5 hours per week over 6 months.

Some weeks you’ll lean in more, some weeks less – but this isn’t a “press play while you sleep” kind of program.

I can’t guarantee a specific revenue number, user count, or exit. Not only would that be misleading – it also misses the point of what we’re building. The only guaranteed outcome in life is mortality; everything else is probability. There is risk, and there is work.

What I can guarantee is this:

  • I’ll bring the same level of care and rigor I use with clients and the 2,000+ students in our other programs.
  • My team and I will treat this cohort as the foundation for a better future of work. We’ll keep improving the curriculum, tools, and support based on what’s actually working for you and your peers in the room.

On your side, here’s what I ask:

  • You show up for the trainings (live or recorded) and use the tools.
  • Give your product real work to do – not just “play around with prompts” – and be willing to iterate when things are imperfect at first.
  • Use the time and energy you free up on purpose: for deeper work, better products, time with family, or simply being more human with the people around you.

This won’t make you a developer.
It’ll make you a founder who ships…

…the kind of future we’re building

Right now, the biggest AI companies in the world are making choices about what AI will be used for. Those choices are being made by a very small number of people with a very large amount of power.

And something quieter is happening alongside it. Regular people building with AI. Not drone swarms. Not surveillance systems. Tools that help small businesses run better. Software that solves problems their communities actually have.

“Build a business you’re proud to own” isn’t just a tagline. It’s a filter. A statement of what you value. Who you choose to be.

The future of AI should be shaped by people who build things they’re proud of – not just things that are profitable.

Just imagine a future you, 6 months from now, looking back at this moment with a thought bubble above your head…

“At the time, I didn’t know exactly how it would play out. But I didn’t wait for the perfect co-founder. I didn’t need a six-figure dev team. I built the judgment to lead the build myself – and what I shipped is something I’m proud of.”

I selfishly want to brag about you later. I want your story as an AI Founder to be one that inspires other people to build a more generous, human future of work.

No one has to build alone.

If everything on this page makes sense, and you’re ready to start your own founder’s journey (or take it to the next level) – with a method, a community, and a team behind you – then there’s only one thing left to do:

Show the world (and yourself) what you’re truly capable of.

Should the timing be right, then I’ll be looking forward to not just seeing what you create, but helping at every step of the way.

To what you’ll build – and to the people who’ll benefit from it,

— Rob

Rob’s signature

Your Tech Guy at Innovating with AI

Placeholder product shot: the program on a desktop monitor, laptop, tablet and phone

Join The AI Founder Accelerator

3 Options for AI Founders…

Training

Limit: 100 Spots

Includes…

  • The first half of the program, recorded and ready – instant access the day you join
  • Live trainings for the second half – every session recorded and added to your private library (lifetime access)
  • Module toolkits & templates (prompts, checklists, frameworks, examples)
  • Private cohort channel inside the 2,000+ member IWAI Slack community

Investment:

12 payments of $297

That’s only $9.76 a day

Reserve Your Spot

(or Pay in Full – Save $567)

Recommendation:

  • You’re already good at keeping yourself accountable
  • You prefer to digest material quietly, test it in your own environment, then come back with sharper questions
  • You want the full system and asset library at the most accessible investment – knowing you can upgrade later if you want more direct support (subject to availability)

(*If cash flow is too limited to invest at this level, then I strongly recommend not investing in this program. Stay on our interest list to potentially join when you’re in a stable place that allows for making effective decisions without financial duress.)

Coaching

Limit: 50 Spots

Includes everything in Training, plus…

  • Your personalized build plan — a 30-minute kickoff session mapping where your product sits in the AI-CTO Method™ and what to build first. You start with a plan instead of a list.
  • 4 Coaching Fast Passes — 30-minute bookable 1:1 sessions with our coaching team, dedicated to your exact build. Valid for one year.
  • Priority feedback in the coaching-tier-exclusive community channel — for the decisions and blockers between passes.

Investment:

12 payments of $497

That’s only $16.43 a day

Reserve Your Spot

(or Pay in Full – Save $967)

Recommendation:

  • You want direct 1:1 access to our team when you hit a snag – not just a recording to rewatch
  • You want to move faster with fewer false starts and dead ends
  • You know you’ll have nuanced questions (market positioning, software architecture decisions, pricing strategy) and want expert eyes on them
  • You’ll still do the building yourself – you just want a plan to start from and a coach to call when you’re stuck

CTO Advisory

Limit: 20 Spots

Includes everything in Training and Coaching, plus 6 months of…

  • Fractional CTO level advisory – direct access to Rob and the IWAI engineering team for architecture decisions, code reviews, and technical guidance tailored to your build
  • Done-with-you implementation support on select pieces of your build – within clearly defined guardrails
  • Post-build emergency support – if you already have paying users and something critical in your software breaks, one of my senior developers will dive in to help you fix it (you get the same guaranteed response time and level of support that our clients receive)
  • Priority access for reviews, feedback, and architecture questions so you’re not waiting weeks to get unstuck on key decisions
  • 10 Coaching Fast Passes – six more than Coaching, for the moments a message in the channel isn’t enough. Valid for one year.
  • Bring your team – up to 5 people, each with their own account. Fast Passes and every benefit are shared across the group.

Investment:

$10,000

one-time payment

Reserve Your Spot

(or Pay in 12 Payments of $997)

Recommendation:

  • You want a partner who understands both AI-first product development and the realities of building without a technical cofounder – not just one or the other
  • You have more budget than time, and it’s worth a higher investment to shorten your path to a production-grade product and a real business
  • Your situation has real complexity – whether that’s the market you’re entering, the technology stack, or the stakes involved
  • You’re bringing a team – a department or a small company that needs everyone building with the same judgment, not just the founder

If you have any questions or concerns about the program, please send us a text message or email. We’re happy to help:

Text: +1 (888) 703-4363support@innovatingwithai.com

“$75,000 to build it… a quote of around $60,000 to build Version 2… [I rebuilt it] over the course of a couple solid weeks.”

Our customer, which is a community foundation, is currently using the software to inform their grant-making decisions… The starter kits and the scaffolding that are provided in the program are far more robust than I could’ve anticipated… There’s also components in there for security audits… I’ve been able to figure out everything on my own using all the resources that the program has provided, which is a really awesome feeling to have when you’re starting off not being a software developer by training.

Matt C. Founder, Past Roots · Asheville, NC