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ISSUE 24 · AUSTIN, TX Applications open for the Spring Cohort

A 12-week apprenticeship in the first-capital decisions no one prepared you for.

Cohort is not a course. It is a small, mentor-led room for founders about to raise, spend, or protect their first business dollars — built by operators who wired $140M+ in seed capital and then wrote down exactly what they wish they had known.

Apply to Cohort See the 12-week curriculum

1,840 lifetime members · 12 weeks, live · No paid promotion, ever

A small mentor workshop in a sunlit Austin studio, four early-stage founders taking notes.
Spring '24 Cohort, week 7 — the Raise roundtable. Photo by Mara Quintanilla.
THE CURRICULUM · 12 WEEKS

Three opinionated chapters. One deliberate order.

Every founder in Cohort walks through the same three modules, in the same sequence. Raise first, because most first-time founders raise too early or too cheaply. Spend second, because capital without a burn plan is a countdown. Protect last, because the contracts you sign in month three follow you through the exit.

  1. Chapter 01

    Raise — the honest first fundraise

    Weeks 1–4. Build the deck that survives a partner meeting, model the round you actually deserve, and learn to read a term sheet without a lawyer in the room.

    • Weekly deliverable: a one-page raise memo reviewed live by Marcus Velez.
    • Weekly deliverable: a term-sheet teardown drawn from a real Fund I deck.
    • Weekly deliverable: a target-investor list mapped to your stage and sector.

    You walk away able to: run a priced round from first intro to wire transfer without an accelerator's rolodex.

  2. Chapter 02

    Spend — the first 18 months of burn

    Weeks 5–8. Hire the second employee, set the salary that doesn't break the round, and decide which expenses are signals and which are vanity. We use the FFC Index as our baseline for what founders like you actually spend.

    • Weekly deliverable: a 12-month burn plan benchmarked against the FFC Index 2024.
    • Weekly deliverable: a hiring matrix for your first five roles, with comp ranges.
    • Weekly deliverable: a vendor stack that costs under 4% of monthly burn.

    You walk away able to: defend every line of your burn to a lead investor in under four minutes.

  3. Chapter 03

    Protect — the contracts that follow you

    Weeks 9–12. Founder vesting, IP assignment, 83(b) elections, SAFE conversions, and the cofounder conversation most teams postpone until it is too late. Plain-English framing, then the actual documents.

    • Weekly deliverable: a 83(b) checklist filed before day 30.
    • Weekly deliverable: a founder agreement red-pen reviewed in session.
    • Weekly deliverable: a SAFE-to-equity conversion walkthrough.

    You walk away able to: read your own cap table without flinching, and protect the equity you just diluted.

The first 18 months of a founder's financial life are messy in ways no one warns you about. The pitch deck is the easy part. It is the round size, the first hire's offer letter, the vendor you sign on month four, and the cofounder conversation you keep postponing — those quietly decide whether the company survives its second year.

Cohort exists because most accelerators charge $25,000 to teach this material, and most of them teach it badly. We wrote the alternative. It is opinionated, mentor-led, and built for the founder who has already decided that the next twelve weeks are the most important twelve weeks of the company's life.

Cohort is for you if you are within 90 days of raising your first institutional round, making your first paid hire, or signing your first SAFE. Cohort is not for you if you are still validating the idea, or if you have already raised a Series A — the framing is calibrated for first-time capital, not for operating in it.

BY THE NUMBERS · AS OF Q1 2025

What the program actually looks like, in figures you can verify.

These are the numbers on record at FreshmanFund Media, LLC. They describe the program and its members. They are not promises about your outcome.

1,840 Lifetime Cohort members since the program opened.
$74M In pre-seed and seed capital raised by Cohort graduates since January 2024, across the alumni network.
87% Close rate among Cohort participants who used the First-Fund Framework on a documented raise attempt.
12 Weeks of live, mentor-led sessions — one chapter per month, three deliverables per week.

The 87% close rate reflects participants who completed the Raise module and ran a documented raise attempt using the First-Fund Framework across the alumni network — it is not a guarantee of outcome, and we will say so plainly to anyone who asks.

FROM THE ROOM

Three graduates, three decisions the program changed.

“We had a $1.2M soft circle from a tier-2 fund and were about to take it. Week three of the Raise chapter, Marcus walked us through what the SAFE conversion would look like at our next round. We waited six more weeks, took the $750K we actually needed, and kept the cap table clean.”

Portrait of Imani Okafor. Imani Okafor Founder, Relay Health · Cohort 7 · Y Combinator W24 alumni network

“I was about to hire a Head of Sales at $180K base plus commission. The Spend chapter's hiring matrix made me realize I was paying Series A comp for a Series Seed role. I rewrote the offer at $135K with a higher variable, and we still closed the candidate.”

Portrait of Daniel Reisman. Daniel Reisman Founder, Northwind Logistics · Cohort 11 · 500 Global Batch 19 alumni network

“My cofounder and I had been avoiding the vesting conversation for five months. The Protect chapter forced it into week one. We restructured to a four-year vest with a one-year cliff, and the company is healthier for it.”

Portrait of Sofía Mendoza. Sofía Mendoza Co-founder, Cobalt Studio · Cohort 9 · Techstars '23 alumni network
BEFORE YOU APPLY

The honest questions a vetting applicant asks.

How much time does Cohort actually take each week?

Plan on six to eight hours per week. There is one live 90-minute session every Tuesday, plus the three weekly deliverables — each of which takes roughly 90 minutes if you are working at a normal founder pace. There is no recorded lecture to fall behind on. If you miss a week, you miss it; we do not run make-ups.

What does the 87% close rate actually mean?

It means 87% of Cohort participants who completed the Raise module and then ran a documented raise attempt using the First-Fund Framework — within the alumni network and across the program's history — closed at least one check. It is not a prediction about your round, it is not licensed financial advice, and FreshmanFund does not make investor introductions. You bring the company, the framework, and the work; the close rate reflects the latter two.

Who is Cohort not for?

Cohort is not for founders who are still validating the idea — we assume you have customers and a working product. It is not for founders who have already raised a priced Series A; the framing is calibrated for first-time institutional capital, not for operating in a venture-backed company. It is not for anyone looking for a credential; you will not get a certificate, a badge, or an investor intro. You will get a tighter raise, a saner burn plan, and cleaner founder paperwork.

What happens after the twelve weeks end?

You keep the First-Fund Framework, the alumni Slack, and access to the monthly office hours that Marcus and Priya run for graduates. There is no upsell to a "mastermind" tier. Cohort graduates also get a lifetime rate on any future FreshmanFund program we open, and they show up in the alumni network that Y Combinator, Techstars, and 500 Global founders tap when they want a peer read on a raise.

Ready to spend twelve weeks on the decisions that decide the company?

Spring Cohort opens with 48 seats. Applications close when the seats do. We read every submission personally and reply within seven business days.

Apply to Cohort

Or write to [email protected] and we will send the application by return email.