AI ProtoVibing Challenge

5.0 (2)

Marc Krejci

Managing Partner, Pathfinder Foundry

5-days to validate an idea with real customers before building the wrong thing.

AI made building cheap. Figuring out what is worth building is the skill this week trains.

Most early-stage founders fall into the same trap: build fast, ship something, wait for traction that never comes, then realize they solved the wrong problem for the wrong person. The root cause is usually process. You know you should talk to customers. Nothing is holding you to it.

In five days you run one complete validation loop inside the ProtoVibing app: sharpen a real bet, define the customer you are betting on, build the right test asset, put it in front of real people, and turn the signal into a clear commit-or-iterate call.

AI agents accelerate the research, the building, and the synthesis. The customer conversations are yours to run. That part never gets automated.

Every session is live demonstration, group practice, and a public commit the cohort holds you to.

What you’ll learn

This is what every loop looks like. You'll practice it together, then keep running it in future cohorts or on your own.

Write one falsifiable hypothesis: a specific customer, a specific problem, and the signal that would prove you wrong.
Cut a vague idea down to the single riskiest assumption you can actually test in a week.

Define one specific ideal customer you can actually find and interview this week.
Put AI agents to work on competitive intel, simulated personas, and journey maps, then decide what matters.

Build only what your hypothesis needs: a prototype, a landing page, a survey, or an outreach sequence.
Keep it lo-fi. Nothing gets polished until the bet holds up.

Run interviews that are 80% listening. No pitching, no leading questions, no "would you use this?"
Put your test asset in front of real customers and watch for the moments that surprise or contradict you.

Turn messy interview notes into one clear signal with AI agents in the ProtoVibing app.
Make the call on evidence: iterate or commit, then seed your next loop.

Learn directly from Marc

Marc Krejci

Contact

8-time founder. 7.5 years at Meta. 20+ years shipping zero-to-one.

Experience with teams from:

See all products from Marc

Who this course is for

Early-stage founders with an MVP that isn't gaining traction and a hunch they haven't validated the right problem yet.
Solo technical founders who build fast but avoid customer conversations because they don't have a repeatable process for them.
Repeat founders or corporate operators going independent who want a rigorous zero-to-one validation framework they can actually run.

Prerequisites

You have an idea or early MVP to validate
This is not for the pre-idea stage. You need a hypothesis, even a rough one, that you want to pressure-test with real people.
You will talk to your ICP this week
This only works if you interview real prospects. You define your ICP Monday and interview live by Thursday. Come prepared to get feedback.
No engineering background required
The build tools in this challenge are made for non-technical founders. If you can describe it, you can build it.

What's included

Live sessions

Learn directly from Marc Krejci in a real-time, interactive format.

5 Daily Live Sessions

Five 60-minute sessions, one a day, Monday to Friday. Marc demos live in the ProtoVibing app, the cohort works the day's practice together, and each session ends with a commit the group tracks.

5 Daily Project Deliverables

Each day you submit a real artifact: your hypothesis, your customer definition, your test asset, your interview notes, and your synthesis. Each one is the evidence base for your next real decision.

ProtoVibing App Access

Your whole validation loop lives in the ProtoVibing app, with a curated AI stack for building and synthesizing your customer work. It is yours to keep, so you can run the loop again long after the challenge ends.

Maven Guarantee

Your purchase is backed by the Maven Guarantee.

Course syllabus

5 live sessions • 5 lessons • 7 projects

Week 1

Oct 19—Oct 23

Monday – Idea

Oct
19
Day 1 - ProtoVibing Challenge
Mon 10/193:30 PM—4:30 PM (UTC)

4 more items

Tuesday – Plan

Oct
20
Day 2 - ProtoVibing Challenge
Tue 10/203:30 PM—4:30 PM (UTC)

2 more items

Wednesday – Create

Oct
21
Day 3 - ProtoVibing Challenge
Wed 10/213:30 PM—4:30 PM (UTC)

2 more items

Thursday – Test

Oct
22
Day 4 - ProtoVibing Challenge
Thu 10/223:30 PM—4:30 PM (UTC)

2 more items

Friday – Synthesize

Oct
23
Day 5 - ProtoVibing Challenge
Fri 10/233:30 PM—4:30 PM (UTC)

2 more items

Free resources

Schedule

Live sessions

1-2 hrs / week

One 90-minute live session per week, four weeks total. Live demonstration in the protovibing.ai canvas, group practice, volunteer hot seats, and a public weekly commit. Cohort is small by design so every student gets real feedback from Marc and peers.

Mon, Oct 19
3:30 PM—4:30 PM (UTC)
Tue, Oct 20
3:30 PM—4:30 PM (UTC)
Wed, Oct 21
3:30 PM—4:30 PM (UTC)

Weekly Work

2-5 hrs / week

Each week you run 3 to 5 real customer conversations: discovery interviews early on, prototype tests as your build progresses. One project deliverable is due before each session. Marc reviews your work and leaves feedback directly in your project between sessions.

Testimonials

Marc’s program was truly transformative, with exceptional ROI. In a short time I gained more clarity, structure, and momentum than I’d built in months of working alone. His targeted guidance and proven frameworks saved me countless hours and gave me a confident, impactful path forward. I fully trust Marc’s experience and methodology, and I’m excited to continue working with him as I take my projects to the next level.
Rachel Guthrie
Principal CX Manager at Microsoft
Marc helped us focus on customer discovery and validation before building anything. We refined our ICP, mapped user journeys, and validated pain points early instead of jumping into code. The customer insights we gathered transformed how we understood our market. Marc brings experience from cutting-edge products used by millions, and it shows in how he helps teams validate the right problem before building solutions. This process delivered immediate clarity on product-market fit.
Greg Kostello
CTO at Cogzia
Marc's approach to customer discovery was eye-opening. He guided me through systematic validation of my business idea using customer interviews and user research methodologies I'd never applied before. Instead of building based on assumptions, I learned to validate pain points with real customers first. The customer insights I gathered gave me confidence that I was solving a real problem people would pay for.
Diana Schuetz
Founder at Safe Players
Before working with Marc, I had ideas but no systematic way to validate them with customers. Now I understand how to conduct proper customer discovery, validate pain points, and test assumptions before building features. The customer research framework he taught me transformed my approach from guessing to knowing what customers actually need. I strongly recommend this to anyone who wants to validate product-market fit.
Lubica Lutz
Lead Researcher at Pontis Foundation