The Founder Optionality Sprint
Irewole Akande (MBA)
Founder, Former Microsoft PM, AI builder
Turn your technical expertise into an AI-enabled business offer in 4 weeks
You already know how to build. The hard part is knowing what is worth building.
Senior engineers can now use AI to prototype faster than ever. But speed does not solve the founder problem by itself.
You still have to choose a real problem, understand a buyer, shape a solution people can evaluate, and turn your technical expertise into an offer someone might pay for.
That is where most side projects stall. You have the skills. You have the ideas. What you have not been shown is how the business side of building actually works.
In the USL Academy Founder Optionality Sprint, you will move from "I could build something" to a business direction you can actually test. Over 4 weeks, you will validate a problem, define a buyer, shape an AI-enabled solution, build a sellable offer, and leave with a landing page or offer page draft plus a 14-to-30-day execution plan.
This is not passive startup content. It is a live working sprint built for senior engineers, grounded in executor tools, buyer clarity, and live build breakdowns from USL Systems, USL Creative Studio, and Exelita.com.
What you’ll learn
4-week live sprint for senior engineers. Turn your expertise into a validated, sellable AI-enabled offer. Built by a former Microsoft PM.
Map your technical experience into credible markets, problems, and buyer types.
Identify where your background gives you an advantage over generic founders.
Choose one direction to validate during the sprint.
Use our USL Problem Validation Executor to test problem severity and buying signals.
Separate interesting ideas from problems someone may actually pay to solve.
Decide what evidence is strong enough to move forward.
Practice turning conversations into insight instead of product demos.
Learn how to ask questions that reveal pain, urgency, current workarounds, and budget.
Capture buyer language you can use in your offer and page draft.
Translate the validated problem into a solution direction shaped around your expertise.
Define the first useful version before overbuilding features.
Use AI as an execution advantage, not as the center of the business.
Use the USL Business Model and Offer Executor to define the outcome, buyer, scope, and price.
Turn technical value into clear business language.
Build an offer someone can understand, compare, and say yes or no to.
Draft a landing page or offer page that explains the problem, offer, proof, and CTA.
Get final feedback on your offer before testing it in market.
Create a 14-to-30-day plan for buyer outreach and offer testing.
Learn directly from Irewole
Irewole Akande (MBA)
USL founder and former Microsoft PM with AI, software, and hardware experience.
Who this course is for
Senior software engineers at large tech companies who want founder optionality but do not yet have a clear business idea.
Staff and principal engineers who can build AI tools but need help turning expertise into a sellable offer.
Technical operators with side-project ideas who want to validate a buyer problem before overbuilding.
Prerequisites
Professional software engineering experience
You should have built or maintained real systems and understand how technical work creates value.
AI awareness or hands-on experimentation (Claude Code Access)
You do not need to be an AI expert, but you should understand how AI is changing what one builder can do. Access to Claude Code encouraged.
Founder curiosity and weekly execution time
You should be ready to spend 4 to 5 hours per week on live sessions, homework, and buyer-facing work.
What's included
Live sessions
Learn directly from Irewole Akande (MBA) in a real-time, interactive format.
Access to USL Academy content
Get a free USL Academy account and access course content and products.
Three executor products
Map expertise to a real buyer problem and test demand before building. Scope a focused AI-enabled first version without overbuilding. Turn your solution into a buyer-facing offer with outcome, scope, and price.
Buyer conversation sprint
Learn how to talk to potential buyers without pitching too early.
Claude Code-supported homework
Turn weekly work into buyer-facing assets instead of loose notes.
Live USL build breakdowns
Study real decisions behind USL Systems, USL Creative Studio, and Exelita.
Founding cohort access
Work closer to the founder while the system is still personal.
Offer page draft
Leave with a landing page or offer page that makes your idea clear.
Certificate of completion
Share your new skills with your employer or on LinkedIn.
Maven Guarantee
Your purchase is backed by the Maven Guarantee.
Course syllabus
8 live sessions • 5 lessons
Week 1
Week 1: Founder Baseline and Problem Selection
Jul
8
Live Session 1: Choose the Right Problem Space
Jul
10
Optional: Build Clinic 1: Expertise to Problem Map
Week 2
Week 2: Buyer Discovery and Problem Validation
Jul
15
Live Session 2: Validate Before You Build
Jul
17
Optional: Build Clinic 2: Buyer Conversation Prep
Free resource
Founder Optionality Readiness Scorecard
A short self-assessment for senior engineers who are considering business as an option. Use it to evaluate your technical expertise, buyer clarity, AI leverage, and readiness to test a sellable offer.
What it includes
- Technical expertise inventory
- Problem clarity check
- Buyer access check
- AI leverage check
- Offer readiness score
- Recommended next step based on score
Schedule
Live sessions
3 hrs / week
Each week includes one 90-minute core working session and one 60-minute build clinic. Sessions focus on problem selection, buyer validation, offer design, and final offer review.
Wed, Jul 8
11:00 PM—12:30 AM (UTC)
Fri, Jul 10
7:00 PM—8:00 PM (UTC)
Wed, Jul 15
11:00 PM—12:30 AM (UTC)
Projects
1 hr / week
You will complete executor-guided work each week: expertise inventory, problem validation, buyer conversation prep, offer architecture, page draft, and market test plan.
Async content
1 hr / week
Short prep materials, examples, and USL build breakdowns from USL Systems, USL Creative Studio, and Exelita to support the live work.
Why engineers trust this sprint
The sprint is built by a team actively doing what it teaches. USL Systems, USL Creative Studio, and Exelita are live companies, not case studies from someone else's career. The build breakdowns in the program come from decisions made last quarter, not last decade.
This is also a founding cohort. Smaller, more personal, and closer to the instructor than any future cohort will be. You get direct input into what the program becomes. That is the trade for being first.
Frequently asked questions
Maven for Teams
Reimbursement
Get your company to pay
Everything L&D needs: email template, receipts, and certificate of completion.
Get reimbursedPrivate cohort
Run a cohort for your org
A dedicated cohort with a custom schedule and curriculum, tailored to your team.
Book a private cohort$1,850
USD