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The 20 Hour CEO: Scale as an AI-First CEO

4.8 (28)

·

3 Weeks

·

Cohort-based Course

I Built a $200M Company with AI 'Employees' Before AI Was Cool. Here's the framework that made it possible.

Techstars
Forbes
POLITICO
Inc.com
Y Combinator

Course overview

Build an AI-First Business Machine That Scales Without You

Your job as CEO isn't to be the best employee in your company. It's to build the machine that runs without you.


But here's what most CEOs get wrong: they think scaling means hiring more people. The smartest CEOs in 2025 are building AI-first companies that generate more revenue with fewer humans.


I should know - I've done it three times.


At Joany, my health insurance startup, we had 26 employees. But 5 of them weren't human - they were AI agents handling invoice reconciliation, collections, state filing, and customer service. The result? 96% profit margins while our competitors struggled with 20-30% margins and bloated teams.


Today, building an AI-first business is 10x easier. What took me custom engineering teams to build can now be deployed over a weekend.


But here's the foundational problem most CEOs miss:


If you can't delegate to humans effectively, you'll never leverage AI. The same mindset blocks that keep you trapped doing $25/hour work will sabotage every AI agent you try to deploy.


This isn't about adding AI to your existing chaos. It's about rebuilding your operating system from the ground up.


In this intensive, you'll learn:


- Why you can't scale (with humans OR AI) until you fix your delegation foundation


- The exact system I use to run multiple 8-figure businesses working ~20 hours/week


- How to design AI-first workflows that multiply your capacity without multiplying your management overhead


The opportunity window is closing fast. AI-first companies are pulling ahead. Join them before it's too late.

Who is this course for

01

You're a CEO or founder who wants to run and grow your business with less effort.

02

You execute like a beast, but know that to scale your business, you need to learn to scale yourself.

03

You want to run your business, but lately it feels like it's running you.

Master the AI-First CEO frameworks to scale yourself and your business

Deploy Your AI Workforce (Starting with an Executive AI Assistant)

Learn how to work with AI agents and human assistants to create exponential leverage. Master the art of AI-first delegation that multiplies your capacity without multiplying your management overhead.

Build systems that run your business without you

Develop frameworks to automate workflows before you hire for them. Design AI-first processes that scale from startup to $200M+ without breaking.

Reclaim 20+ hours per week (while growing faster)

Use proven delegation and AI automation frameworks to eliminate yourself from 80% of daily operations. Protect your mental capacity for the strategic work only you can do.

Ruthlessly Focus On The 10% That Matters (While AI Handles the 90%)

Identify the highest-leverage CEO activities and design systems for everything else. Build the predictable, scalable machine that grows without you.

Make faster, higher-quality decisions

Deploy the CEO Decision Architecture that removes emotional burden and analysis paralysis. Make confident decisions with incomplete information while your systems handle the execution.

What’s included

Christine Carrillo

Live sessions

Learn directly from Christine Carrillo in a real-time, interactive format.

Lifetime access

Go back to course content and recordings whenever you need to.

Community of peers

Stay accountable and share insights with like-minded professionals.

Certificate of completion

Share your new skills with your employer or on LinkedIn.

Maven Guarantee

This course is backed by the Maven Guarantee. Students are eligible for a full refund up until the halfway point of the course.

Course syllabus

6 live sessions • 29 lessons • 10 projects

Week 1

Jul 10—Jul 13

    The AI-First CEO Mindset Shift

    • Jul

      11

      The 20 Hour CEO Session 1 with Christine Carrillo

      Fri 7/115:00 PM—7:00 PM (UTC)
    6 more items

Week 2

Jul 14—Jul 20

    AI-First Delegation Mastery

    • Jul

      14

      The 20 Hour CEO Session 2 with Christine Carrillo

      Mon 7/145:00 PM—7:00 PM (UTC)
    8 more items

    Create Systems That Run Your Business For You

    • Jul

      15

      The 20 Hour CEO Session 3 with Christine Carrillo

      Tue 7/155:00 PM—7:00 PM (UTC)
    7 more items

    Build a Business Machine: Workflow Automation, AI and AI Agents

    • Jul

      18

      The 20 Hour CEO Session 4 with Christine Carrillo

      Fri 7/185:00 PM—7:00 PM (UTC)
    5 more items

Week 3

Jul 21—Jul 24

    Ruthlessly Focus On The 10% That Matters (While AI Handles the 90%)

    • Jul

      21

      The 20 Hour CEO Session 5 with Christine Carrillo

      Mon 7/215:00 PM—7:00 PM (UTC)

    • Jul

      22

      Optional: AMA with Christine Carrillo

      Tue 7/225:00 PM—6:00 PM (UTC)
    2 more items

Bonus

    Bonus: AI-First CEO Toolkit with all the templates and systems

    11 items

4.8 (28 ratings)

What students are saying

⚠️ This Intensive Isn't For Everyone You should NOT take this course if:

  • ❌ You don't currently run a business generating at least $500K in annual revenue

    (this isn't theory - you need real operations to transform)

  • ❌ You want to stay hands-on forever vs building systems


  • ❌ You're looking for passive income "hacks" or shortcuts

  • ❌ You believe AI will replace all human creativity


  • ❌ You prefer hiring people over building systems

  • ❌ You think "good enough" processes are fine

  • ❌ You don't want to challenge your current methods

  • ❌ You need constant hand-holding to implement

  • This course demands you think like an AI-first CEO, not a traditional manager.


See what CEOs are saying

        Fantastic course. In a short amount of time, Christine not only coached through mindset shifts and behavior changes required, but also provided very practical tools to help get you there. I found the combination of "why", "what", and "how" in such a compact package to be very, very helpful. Going through the training in an interactive format where
Tim Harms

Tim Harms

CEO at Enliven
        I've been around the block a few times, so this isn't coming from a newb with shiny object syndrome. ;) I wish I'd had this course 10 years ago. I would have a much more successful company with much less stress. Christine just tells it like it is. I think I've been training with people that are more hype than practical advice for too many years.
Becky DeGrossa

Becky DeGrossa

CEO at CounselingWise
        The 20 Hour CEO was an amazing experience. It armed me with the insights, tools and resources I needed to make a great hire as it relates to an EA. But more than anything.. It gave me the ability to create a system that allowed my EA to thrive. I had read all the books, all the blog posts and listened to all the podcasts but it was The 20 Hour CEO
Ross Simmonds

Ross Simmonds

CEO at Foundation
        As a British guy, I'm not one for strong emotions and flowery words. But this course has undoubtedly been the most useful course I've ever been on.  Christine helps with a really practical mind shift that has helped me free up time for the important stuff. It's changed how I see work. Best of all - my team love that I'm out of their way.
Greg Sanderson

Greg Sanderson

Co-Founder & CEO at Smart School Councils
        Time is the most valuable resource we have. This course will help you figure out where you want to invest it and how to get as much leverage as possible from those investments. I thought I was pretty efficient & effective, but this course has helped take it to the next level.
Sean Ammirati

Sean Ammirati

Venture Capitalist, Carnegie Mellon Professor and Author
        Christine has the keys to running your business with less effort! She breaks it down so simply. Her frameworks were (and still!) so critical in operating my early-stage start up. Sign up, I wouldn’t think twice!
Paulin Byusa

Paulin Byusa

Co-Founder & CEO at Avenir
        One of the secrets about startups is that when they fail, it's almost always because the founder ran out of energy. It's hard to change the world and nearly impossible if you're running on steam. I can't imagine a better course or a better teacher to help entrepreneurs cultivate, protect, and magnify their energy and vision.
Stew Fortier

Stew Fortier

Cofounder at Foster
        I am a 2x founder and I wouldn’t even be thinking about doing it a 3rd time if it weren’t for Christine. With her guidance, I have transformed how I use my time and how I view myself.
Cheryl Kellond

Cheryl Kellond

EIR at Techstars, CEO at Apostrophe

Live Zoom Comments & Reactions from CEOs & Founders

Live Zoom Comments & Reactions from CEOs & Founders

How the CEO of a fast-growing $150M business leveraged The 20 Hour CEO course

Guillaume Moubeche, CEO @ lemlist.com

Learn From Someone Who's Actually Done It

Christine Carrillo

Christine Carrillo

Entrepreneur, CEO Coach

In the last decade, I built three businesses to over $200M in revenue. I've experienced everything from bootstrapping a business to $25M to building a hyper-growth VC backed company to $28M ARR in under two years.


But here's the thing… I run 3 businesses while working ~20 hours a week using AI-first systems.


Before AI was trendy, I was already building with bot "employees." At Joany, my health insurance startup, 5 of our 26 team members weren't human - they were AI agents handling core operations. The result? 96% profit margins while competitors struggled with bloated teams.


Most entrepreneurs take on more because they can, but I learned that true scale requires building the machine, not being the machine.


Today's AI tools make this 10x easier than when I started.


In this course, I'm sharing my decade of building AI-first companies - the successes, failures, and exact systems that let you scale without burning out.


I'm a Techstars NYC Founder and mentor for both Techstars and Cedar Sinai accelerators. My work has been featured in Forbes, Politico, CBS and NBC. I've been a featured speaker at conferences and business schools, with my favorite being Carnegie Mellon University's MBA program.

A pattern of wavy dots

Join an upcoming cohort

The 20 Hour CEO: Scale as an AI-First CEO

Cohort 15: July 2025

$4,000

Dates

July 10—24, 2025

Payment Deadline

July 9, 2025

Cohort 16: October 2025

$4,000

Dates

Oct 3—17, 2025

Payment Deadline

Oct 2, 2025
Get reimbursed

What alumni are calling a "game changer"

        Wow. This course transformed the way I think of what it looks like to be working on a business instead of in it. Christine provides the specific tools, examples, and frameworks that you need to break free from the overwhelming number of decisions and work you really shouldn't be doing in the first place. Don't waste years of your valuable time tryi
Sean Ewen

Sean Ewen

Founder & CEO at Allied Medical, Wooden Hill Brewery & Commercial Real Estate Holding Company
        It was really a game-changer having practical examples from a real expert in building a company from the ground up and having the wisdom! I can't believe how much my thinking has been upgraded in such a short space of time!
Gabi Immelman

Gabi Immelman

Founder at MindJoy
        This course was a game changing experience for me as a leader. Not only does Christine teach you the mindset shifts of being an effective and efficient leader, but also the tools and systems you need to actually operationalize focusing on what matters. I can’t stop raving about these lessons and Christine’s wisdom!
Heran Getachew

Heran Getachew

CEO at Wholly
        Christine is a rockstar. She provides the critical tools, mindset shifts and systems for CEOs to free up most of their workweek and only work on the stuff that matters! I had many breakthroughs throughout the course.
Ivo Kalburdzhiev

Ivo Kalburdzhiev

Founder & CEO at EndInsomnia
        I got a LOT of value from this course. The course helped me step outside of my comfort zone to really analyze how I run my business. It helped me pinpoint areas where I need to rethink and implement new processes to scale my business. I absolutely believe that this course has helped me to make some significant changes!
Lori Kewalram

Lori Kewalram

CEO, BrightStar Care of Huntington Beach
        Great insights from Christine. More importantly, this is not about complex theories but practical strategies and tactics you can implement today in your business and life.
Thibault Catala

Thibault Catala

COO of Vertell Asset Management | Founder of CatalaConsulting | Hotel Revenue Management
        Huge mindset shift, can't recommend this course enough if you run a company. I've taken it more than once.
Anna Ivey

Anna Ivey

CEO at Inline
        Loved my time with Christine, loved the content. So thought provoking, and changing some beliefs that have been holding me back :)
Jason Martell

Jason Martell

CEO at Inside Out Cleaning Services
        I really enjoyed Christine's course. Her course provided me the time & stimulus to think about how I run my company. With what I learned from Christine and CEOs in the cohort, I'll be able to remove myself from performing tasks within the company - allowing others to take on more. If you are a busy CEO that spends your day firefighting this course
Doug Herbert

Doug Herbert

President at Herbert Construction
        As a first-time female startup founder, I found myself devaluating my strength due to the lack of confidence in my own intuition. Christine provides perspectives with empathy to let me define my business the way that I envision it to be, and not how others want to see it.
Beau Wangtrakuldee

Beau Wangtrakuldee

Founder & CEO at Amor Sui
        As a founder, you are one of your company's biggest assets. Christine can help you level up, avoid burnout, and become laser-focused. She's created brilliant frameworks that have helped her build successful companies and now you have access to them? It's a no brainer.
Sara Bates

Sara Bates

Co-Founder & CEO at MamaMend
A pattern of wavy dots

Join an upcoming cohort

The 20 Hour CEO: Scale as an AI-First CEO

Cohort 15: July 2025

$4,000

Dates

July 10—24, 2025

Payment Deadline

July 9, 2025

Cohort 16: October 2025

$4,000

Dates

Oct 3—17, 2025

Payment Deadline

Oct 2, 2025
Get reimbursed
Free resource

This simple habit helped me grow 3 businesses to $200M in revenue.

Here’s how it works:


Each week I send a team memo outlining exactly what we need to move the company forward, with or without me.


By reading this memo, my team knows:

  • what to work on
  • what's a priority and why
  • how to make decisions without my input


So here's a secret... my team memos take me 15 min to write.


Instead of asking for updates or looking for data, I use a Notion template that writes 75% of the memo for me.


It pulls in the important data automatically.


So I can focus on providing insights on the data.


Hope it's helpful!

Steal My Template at No Cost

A pattern of wavy dots

An intimate cohort equivalent to an executive coach and a CEO mastermind group at a fraction of the cost.

Frequently Asked Questions

Find out more

Learn more about what you'll get in this course and whether it's for you.

A pattern of wavy dots

Join an upcoming cohort

The 20 Hour CEO: Scale as an AI-First CEO

Cohort 15: July 2025

$4,000

Dates

July 10—24, 2025

Payment Deadline

July 9, 2025

Cohort 16: October 2025

$4,000

Dates

Oct 3—17, 2025

Payment Deadline

Oct 2, 2025
Get reimbursed

$4,000

4.8 (28)

·

3 Weeks

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