About Dozens School
Dozens School is a startup school for Western North Carolina. The habits that make early companies work, like talking to customers, launching before you're ready and measuring one thing every week, are the same whether you're writing software or bottling hot sauce. They're easier to keep with a deadline every week and someone reading your progress.
How it works
- A weekly update
- Every Sunday, 5 to 15 minutes: last week's goals, your numbers, who you talked to, what's in your way and next week's goals. Your streak grows with every week you post, and Dozens School staff read updates and reply.
- A curriculum
- A short path through the best free lectures, essays and guides on starting a company, each with a summary and one thing to do that week. It narrows to your stage. Each track has its own lessons: tech, consumer packaged goods (CPG), manufacturing and services.
- Help nearby
- Local resources, upcoming events around WNC, and a directory of the companies in the program.
Where the material comes from
Our curriculum links to free lectures, essays and guides published by Y Combinator, Paul Graham, First Round and other sources, including North Carolina organizations and WNC founders' own interviews, alongside a short summary and one action we write ourselves for each lesson. We don't host, modify, or redistribute anyone else's videos: videos play in YouTube's own player, and each lesson links to the original. None of those publishers have reviewed or endorsed this program.
Why a studio runs this
Dozens School is run by Dozens, a startup studio. We run it because we want to meet the best early founders in the region, and because the weekly habit it builds is the one that matters most. Taking part creates no obligation to us: no equity, no right of first refusal, no pitch. Your weekly updates are private to your company's founders and Dozens School staff.
Independence
Dozens School is an independent program of Dozens, a startup studio based in Asheville, NC. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Y Combinator. "Startup school" is used descriptively to mean a school for people starting companies.