Go from raw idea to funded company
Founder's Blueprint is the step-by-step playbook for first-time entrepreneurs — covering entity selection, company registration, cap tables, and funding strategy so you build your startup on a foundation that holds up when investors, partners, and lawyers show up.
"Structure isn't bureaucracy — it's the first strategic decision you make as a founder, and I'm here to make sure you get it right."— Katissa Lupoe
What you'll learn
What you'll be able to do
- Choose the right business entity (LLC, S-Corp, C-Corp, sole proprietorship) for your specific goals and risk tolerance
- Register your company correctly at the state and federal level, including EIN, bylaws, and operating agreements
- Understand cap tables, equity splits, and how ownership decisions made at founding affect future fundraising
- Build a fundable financial foundation: bank accounts, bookkeeping structure, and investor-ready records from day one
- Craft a compelling pitch and funding strategy — from bootstrapping and friends-and-family rounds to angel investors and seed-stage VCs
- Navigate term sheets, SAFEs, and convertible notes so you can close your first funding round with confidence
How it works
A school that adapts to you
This isn't a set of static videos. Every lesson is generated live and tuned to where you actually are.
We learn your level
A quick placement check tailors your starting point so you're never bored or lost.
Lessons adapt as you go
Each lesson is written for your pace and your goal, adjusting as your skills grow.
Your AI coach keeps you moving
Checkpoints, feedback, and gentle nudges turn progress into a real result.
The curriculum
What's inside your school
6 modules · 20 lessons
From Idea to Entity: Choosing Your Business Structure
Before a single document is filed, founders must understand why structure matters and how the wrong default choice can cost them equity, tax efficiency, and investor eligibility later. This module builds the strategic foundation for every decision that follows, walking entrepreneurs through every major entity type with real trade-offs — not just definitions.
- 1.1The Founder's Mindset: Why Structure Isn't Bureaucracy — It's StrategyIncluded
- 1.2Sole Proprietorships and Partnerships: The Default TrapsIncluded
- 1.3LLCs vs. S-Corps vs. C-Corps: The Decision That Defines Your StartupIncluded
- 1.4The Delaware C-Corp Playbook: Why Startups Choose It and When You Should TooIncluded
Making It Real: Registering Your Company the Right Way
Entity choice means nothing until it's properly executed. This module walks founders through the complete registration process — state filings, federal tax IDs, foundational legal documents, and the critically underestimated area of IP and founder agreements. A gap here can invalidate equity, expose personal liability, or create legal disputes years later.
- 2.1Filing Your Entity: State Registration, Registered Agents, and Operating DocumentsIncluded
- 2.2EINs, Bylaws, and Operating Agreements: The Documents That Actually Run Your CompanyIncluded
- 2.3Protecting Your Idea: IP Assignment, NDAs, and Founder AgreementsIncluded
Ownership by Design: Cap Tables, Equity, and Co-Founder Decisions
The decisions founders make about ownership in the first 90 days will shape every fundraising conversation, hiring negotiation, and exit calculation for the life of the company. This module teaches founders to think about equity as a dynamic, strategic resource — not a static percentage — and to make the hard co-founder conversations before they become company-ending disputes.
- 3.1Cap Tables 101: What They Are, Why They Matter, and How to Build YoursIncluded
- 3.2Equity Splits and Vesting: Having the Hard Conversations EarlyIncluded
- 3.3Option Pools, Advisors, and Early Hires: Equity You'll Give Away Before You RaiseIncluded
The Financial Foundation: Banking, Bookkeeping, and Investor-Ready Records
Investors don't just fund ideas — they fund organized, credible operations. This module ensures founders build financial infrastructure that supports growth, survives due diligence, and communicates competence from the first meeting. Covers banking setup, bookkeeping systems, and the specific financial outputs investors expect to see before writing a check.
- 4.1Business Banking and Financial Separation: The Non-NegotiablesIncluded
- 4.2Bookkeeping Basics for Founders: Building a System That ScalesIncluded
- 4.3Investor-Ready Financials: Projections, Metrics, and Due Diligence PrepIncluded
Funding Strategy: From Bootstrapping to Your First Investor Check
Fundraising is not a single event — it's a ladder of increasingly sophisticated capital sources, each with different expectations, timelines, and trade-offs. This module teaches founders to think strategically about which capital source is right for their stage, how to find and approach investors credibly, and how to build and deliver a pitch that moves investors to action.
- 5.1The Funding Ladder: Bootstrapping, Revenue, Friends and Family, and GrantsIncluded
- 5.2Angel Investors and Pre-Seed Rounds: How to Find, Approach, and Win Your First CheckIncluded
- 5.3The Pitch Deck: Telling a Story That Makes Investors Lean InIncluded
- 5.4Seed-Stage VCs and Accelerators: Scaling Up Your FundraiseIncluded
Closing the Round: SAFEs, Convertible Notes, Term Sheets, and the Finish Line
The final mile of fundraising is where deals are made or lost. This module demystifies the legal instruments used in early-stage fundraising, teaches founders to read and negotiate term sheets without getting buried in jargon, and walks through the operational and legal process of actually closing a round — from signed docs to money in the account.
- 6.1SAFEs and Convertible Notes: The Pre-Priced Round ToolkitIncluded
- 6.2Term Sheets: Reading, Negotiating, and Not Getting BurnedIncluded
- 6.3Closing the Round: Due Diligence, Legal Process, and Wire DayIncluded
Who it's for
Is this you?
First-time founders
You have a real idea and real momentum — now you need to build the legal and financial foundation without making the classic early mistakes.
Side-hustle entrepreneurs
You're ready to turn your freelance work or side project into a legitimate business entity with the right structure from the start.
Co-founding teams
You need to have the hard equity and vesting conversations early — before a handshake deal becomes a partnership dispute.
Aspiring startup founders
You're planning to raise venture capital and need to understand cap tables, SAFEs, and term sheets before you're sitting across from an investor.
Career changers going independent
You're leaving a stable job to bet on yourself and need to get the legal, financial, and structural basics right before you launch.
Early-stage bootstrappers
You're funding yourself for now but want investor-ready records and a fundable structure in place before you need outside capital.
Questions
Frequently asked
Your teacher
A note from your teacher
Katissa Lupoe
If you're reading this, you probably have an idea — maybe a sharp one — and you're trying to figure out what to actually do with it. Not the vision-board version. The real version: What structure do I form? Where do I file? How do I split equity with my co-founder without blowing up the partnership in year two? How do I find investors, and what do I say when I'm sitting in front of one?
I know exactly where you are, because those questions have no obvious answers the first time you face them. The legal and financial infrastructure of a startup is one of those things that looks straightforward until you're in it — and then it's a fog of acronyms, conflicting advice, and decisions that feel permanent. Most founders either freeze, wing it, or spend thousands on lawyers to undo choices they made in the first ninety days.
Founder's Blueprint was built to give you the roadmap I wish had existed — direct, in plain language, and sequenced in the order you'll actually need it. Not a law school lecture. Not a finance textbook. A sharp, practical walkthrough of every foundational decision a startup founder has to make: which entity to choose and why, how to register it correctly, how to structure ownership so it holds up under investor scrutiny, how to build financials that are actually useful, and how to raise your first round without getting burned on the term sheet.
Every module in this school exists because founders get it wrong. The equity split that felt fair on a napkin. The LLC that made seed funding complicated. The pitch deck that told a story investors didn't believe. The SAFE they signed without understanding the valuation cap. These aren't abstract risks — they're the predictable landmines on the path from idea to funded company, and they're all avoidable with the right knowledge at the right time.
Here's what I want you to take away: structure isn't bureaucracy. It's strategy. The decisions you make in the first few weeks of your startup — entity type, equity design, financial setup — shape every conversation you'll have with investors, co-founders, and partners for years. Getting them right isn't just about compliance. It's about building something that's investable, scalable, and actually yours.
If you're ready to stop guessing and start building on solid ground, this is the place. Let's get your company set up the right way — from day one.
— Katissa Lupoe
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- 6 modules, 20 lessons
- AI-adaptive lessons tuned to your level
- Quizzes & checkpoints to lock in progress
- Your own AI learning coach
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