Startup Engine Program: AI Training, Tools, Templates, Services, Mentorship

Only 20 seats at the early-adopter price. Once they're gone, the price doubles — and Session 1 begins April 30th. Read this whole page before deciding.

✅ Built around AI from day one — the only program in North Florida doing this

✅ 1-on-1 mentorship with founders who have actually built and sold companies

✅ Live pitch competition with free legal, accounting & marketing for top teams

✅ Backed by SCORE North Florida — the same training that's launched thousands of small businesses

✅ Strictly capped at 20 mentor-pairing seats. No exceptions.

🔥 Only 20 paid seats. Once they're gone, the price returns to $1,000.

Dear Future Founder,

If you're reading this, I'm going to guess a few things about you...

You've felt it for a while now. The shift.

You see the headlines. You read the LinkedIn posts. You watch what's happening to entire job categories — copywriters, paralegals, customer service teams, junior analysts, designers — being quietly restructured around AI tools that didn't exist 18 months ago.

And somewhere in the back of your mind, a voice keeps whispering:

You've probably already started experimenting. Maybe you've got a ChatGPT tab open right now. Maybe you've messed around with Claude, Gemini, Midjourney. Maybe you've even toyed with the idea of starting something of your own — a side business, a consulting practice, a product, a service — built on top of all this new leverage.

But here's where most people get stuck:

❌ You don't know which idea is actually worth pursuing.

❌ You don't have a network of founders to bounce ideas off of.

❌ You've never raised money, structured a company, or pitched investors.

❌ Every "AI course" online feels like the same regurgitated YouTube content.

❌ And you definitely don't have $30K lying around for an MBA or a Y Combinator–style accelerator.

So you stay where you are. Watching from the sidelines. Telling yourself you'll start "next quarter."

Meanwhile, the window keeps closing.

The next 24 months are going to separate the people who used AI to build something — from the people who got replaced by people who used AI to build something.

There is no third category.

The people who win this transition won't be the smartest, the most credentialed, or the ones with the biggest savings accounts.

They'll be the ones who — while everyone else was still researching.

That's why we built The Startup Engine.

The Startup Engine is an 8-week, in-person business development program that takes you from "I have an idea" to "I'm pitching investors" — using AI as your unfair advantage at every step.

This is not another online course you'll never finish.

This is not another webinar replay rotting in your inbox.

This is not another "10x your business" guru funnel.

This is 8 Thursdays. 4 hours each. Inside a real room at GTEC — Gainesville's premier tech entrepreneurship hub — with:

🎤 Battle-tested founders sharing the war stories they don't tell on LinkedIn

🎓 SCORE Executive Training Facilitators delivering decades of small-business mentorship

🤝 A 1-on-1 mentor — a real founder who has personally built and exited a company — assigned to your small team for the entire program

🏆 A live, judged pitch competition with real prizes from real local service providers

☕ Weekly Coffee Hours with a founder who has personally raised millions in grant funding

✅ You're a Gainesville-area professional who senses AI is going to reshape your industry — and you'd rather lead the shift than survive it.

✅ You've got a business idea (or three) bouncing around your head and you're tired of it staying just an idea.

✅ You've gotten value from free content but you're ready for real accountability, real mentorship, and a real network of founders.

✅ You can commit to 8 Thursday afternoons and the work in between.

✅ You believe the next 24 months are going to make a small number of people very, very glad they moved early.

❌ You're looking for a passive, watch-on-1.5x course you can stream while folding laundry.

❌ You want a guarantee of overnight income with zero effort.

❌ You're not willing to actually show up in person on Thursdays.

❌ You think AI is just "hype" and you're "waiting for the bubble to pop." (That ship has sailed.)

If you're still with me — keep reading. Here's exactly what you get.

Every Thursday at 3:00 PM @ GTEC, you'll hear from a different operator — not a theorist, not an Instagram guru — someone who has actually built, scaled, and in many cases sold a real company. They'll tell you what worked. What didn't. And what they wish someone had told them at your stage.

Session: 1 - Date: Apr 30 - Topic: Business Basics - Speaker: Adam Grossman

Session: 2 - Date: May 7 - Topic: Ideation & Value Proposition - Speaker: Mitch Glaeser

Session: 3 - Date: May 14 - Topic: Market Research - Speaker: Rebecca Smith

Session: 4 - Date: May 21 - Topic: Finance - Speaker: Jeff Greenspan

Session: 5 - Date: May 28 - Topic: Operations & Culture - Speaker: John Spence

Session: 6 - Date: Jun 4 - Topic: Governance & Structure - Speaker: Dr. Theresa Beachy

Session: 7 - Date: Jun 11 - Topic: Pitch Workshop - Speaker: Andrew Solomon & Thomas Puketza

Session: 8 - Date: Jun 18 - Topic: Pitch Competition 🏆 & BizBash 2026 - Speaker: LIVE — judged competition

Right after each war-story speaker, Angela Pate of SCORE North Florida leads the structured executive training that turns every story into a workable playbook for your business.

This is the same SCORE curriculum that's helped launch and scale thousands of U.S. small businesses since 1964. Comparable foundational programs (like StartupQuest) have historically charged $250 per session.

This is the part that makes everything else worth it.

Every Thursday from 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM, you'll work in a small team alongside a personal mentor — every single one of them an actual founder/operator with real exit experience. They'll review your idea, your market, your numbers, and your pitch. They'll tell you the truth when your friends won't.

Week 8 isn't a graduation ceremony. It's a judged live pitch competition in front of investors, mentors, and local service providers.

Top teams walk away with donated services from Gainesville's best service providers:

⚖️ Free legal review and entity setup

📊 Free accounting and bookkeeping setup

📣 Free marketing & branding consultations

…and more

These are the exact services early-stage founders typically burn $10,000+ on in their first year.

Every Wednesday at 4:00 PM @ Voltaire (May 6 – Jun 17), sit down face-to-face with a founder who has personally raised millions in grant funding. Bring your hardest weekly problem. He'll help you solve it.

These are intimate sessions. Investors and grant-writers charge $300/hour for this kind of access.

Sick kid? Travel? Work conflict? Every session is recorded and emailed to participants so nothing slips through the cracks. Re-watch the speakers and trainings as many times as you want — for the rest of your career.

The 20 founders who go through this cohort with you become your first real network. Past Gainesville founder programs have generated co-founder pairings, first hires, first customers, and first investors. You walk out with 19 new allies — and the speakers, mentors, and SCORE network behind them.

8 War-Story Speaker Sessions = $2,000

8 SCORE Executive Training Sessions = $2,000

16 Hours of 1-on-1 Founder Mentorship = $4,000 (conservative)

Investment-Readiness Pitch Competition + Prizes = $10,000+ (for top teams)

🎁 Weekly Coffee Hours w/ Augi Lye = $1,800

🎁 Full Recording Library = $500

🎁 Lifetime Founder Network = $2,000

The original SCORE-style 8-week program ran $2,000 historically.

For our 2026 AI relaunch, we cut the price in half to $1,000 — because AI now multiplies what one founder can build in 8 weeks.

But to reward the first wave of believers — the 20 people brave enough to say yes first — we slashed it another 50%:

There is no catch. This program is run in partnership with SCORE North Florida and GTEC — a community-driven mission to keep entrepreneurial training accessible in our city. The mentors are donating their time. The speakers are donating their time. The service providers are donating their pitch prizes.

You're not paying a guru. You're paying for the operating cost of running a high-touch, in-person, 8-week program in a real space with real coffee and real materials.

We could charge $5,000 for this. We're not. Because we want this first cohort to be the believers — the ones who'll set the energy for every cohort that follows.

That's why we cap at 20 paid seats at $500. Once those are gone, the next wave pays $1,000 — and they'll still be getting a great deal.

Show up to Session 1 on April 30th. Sit in the room. Hear Adam Grossman speak. Meet your mentor team. Spend the full four hours with us.

If by the end of that first session you don't believe this is the most valuable 4 hours you've spent on your career this year — come tell us in person. We'll work with you to make it right.

You're not gambling $500. You're investing it — and we're putting Session 1 between you and the rest of your money.

1. "I have a full-time job. Can I still do this?" Yes — that's exactly who this is built for. Sessions run 3 PM – 7 PM on Thursdays, and every session is recorded. Many of our mentors started their first companies while still employed full-time.
2. "Do I need a business idea before I start?" No. Session 2 is dedicated entirely to ideation. Plenty of past participants come in with nothing more than a hunch — and walk out with a validated, scoped business.
3. "Do I need to know AI tools already?" No. The program is AI-native by design, meaning we'll teach you to use the AI tools you need as we go. If you can use email, you can keep up.
4. "What if I miss a session?" Every session is recorded and shared via email. That said — the magic is in the room. Try to be there in person whenever you can.
5. "Is this just for tech founders?" Not at all. Past Gainesville cohorts have included consultants, restaurant owners, e-commerce founders, service providers, content creators, and traditional small-business operators. The principles work across every industry.
6. "What happens if my team wins the pitch competition?" You walk out with donated professional services (legal, accounting, marketing, etc.) from Gainesville's top providers — the kind of help that costs early-stage founders $10K+ in their first year.
7. "Can I bring a co-founder or business partner?" Each $500 ticket admits one person. If you have a partner, both of you should grab seats — the small-team mentorship dynamic works best when partners are both in the room.

2153 SE Hawthorne Rd #101, Gainesville, FL 32641

(5 minutes east of Depot Park)

You have two doors in front of you.

Keep reading articles. Keep watching free YouTube videos. Tell yourself you'll start "next quarter." Hope your industry holds steady. Hope the AI shift is "overhyped." Watch from the sidelines while other people in this town build the businesses you wanted to build.

Spend 8 Thursdays — 32 hours total — surrounded by founders, mentors, and a real curriculum. Walk out with a scoped business, a pitch, a network, and the hard-earned confidence that comes from having actually done the work.

Door #1 costs nothing today. It costs everything in two years.

Door #2 costs $500. Today only.

The doors close at 20 paid seats. After that, $1,000.

After Session 1 begins on April 30th, registration closes entirely.

Don't wait until AI forces your hand. Learn to command it — before you need to.

We'll see you at GTEC.

— The Startup Engine Team

Powered by SCORE & GTEC

Cancellation Policy: An event can only be canceled by the venue and/or event organizer. If the venue or event organizer cancels, you will be refunded within 4 business days of the event date.

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