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 2026 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.
That was 10 years ago before AI was cool.
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.
What you’ll learn
Master the AI-First CEO frameworks to scale yourself and your business
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.
Develop frameworks to automate workflows before you hire for them.
Design AI-first processes that scale from startup to $200M+ without breaking.
Use the exact systems I use to run multiple 8-figure businesses working ~ 20 hours a week
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.
Identify the highest-leverage CEO activities and design systems for everything else.
Build the predictable, scalable machine that grows without you.
Deploy the CEO Decision Architecture that removes emotional burden and analysis paralysis.
Make confident decisions with incomplete information while your systems handle the execution.
Identify what needs humans, automation, AI or Agents
Build AI agents and swarms to run functions for your business
Use the exact AI-first systems I use in my businesses: sales machine, content machine, recruiting machine, communication machine and more
Who this course is for
You're a CEO or founder who wants to run and grow your business with less effort.
You execute like a beast, but know that to scale your business, you need to learn to scale yourself.
You want to run your business, but lately it feels like it's running you.
What's included
Live sessions
Learn directly from Christine Carrillo in a real-time, interactive format.
Unlimited access to future cohorts
We have a high % of alumni who return to continue scaling themselves as their business changes. As part of The 20 Hour CEO community, you are welcome back to all future cohorts at no additional cost.
Lifetime access to all recordings & materials
Revisit the materials and lectures anytime. Recordings and slides are made available to all students.
Access to Christine's Coaching Bot
You'll get access to a private bot to access 24/7. The Christine Coaching Bot has been trained on everything Christine has ever taught in cohorts, keynotes, MBA workshops, as well as every playbook, system and framework she's used across all seven businesses.
Private community of CEOs & founders
You'll gain access to a private community of CEOs and founders that you can lean on for questions, staying accountable, and support beyond the cohort.
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.
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!
Schedule
Live sessions
2-9 hrs / week
Projects
3-6 hrs / week
Async content
1-3 hrs / week
Testimonials
- 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
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
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
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
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
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
Co-Founder & CEO at Avenir
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
Frequently asked questions
$4,000
USD
2 cohorts