Cofounder Academy / Launch Beaufort

Welcome to Launch Beaufort, a 9-week pre-accelerator program designed to take both existing and aspiring entrepreneurs from raw idea to investor-ready startup. Whether you’re building a small business, a scalable tech venture, or exploring your first entrepreneurial project, this course equips you with the mindset, tools, and frameworks to succeed.

This first module lays the foundation for everything you’ll do over the next nine weeks. Think of it as the “operating system” of entrepreneurship: the mindset you bring to challenges, and the systems you use to stay organized.

This week, you’ll learn practical methods to brainstorm ideas, filter them through problem-solving criteria, and design simple discovery tools like online surveys to gather real feedback. We’ll introduce digital platforms such as Google Forms, Typeform, and SurveyMonkey, which make it easy to reach potential customers and collect insights.

By now, you’ve explored the entrepreneurial mindset and practiced validating customer problems. This week, we shift toward shaping solutions into a business model that works.

This week, we’ll shift from ideas and marketing into the legal foundation every entrepreneur needs. While the creative side of building a business is exciting, overlooking legal steps can cause serious setbacks later — from tax penalties to losing ownership of your own idea.

This week, we turned from “idea and model” to customer acquisition. Having a great business concept and value proposition means little unless you can attract, nurture, and convert customers. That’s where sales funnels and social media tools come in.

Raising capital is one of the most exciting — and intimidating — steps for entrepreneurs. Whether you’re launching a local café or building a tech startup, understanding funding options and preparing a strong pitch are essential. This week, we’ll demystify the fundraising process by exploring the different types of capital available (from bootstrapping and small business loans to angel investment and venture capital).