Customer Discovery for Founders: Reach PMF Faster Leveraging AI

Marc Krejci

Managing Director, Pathfinder Foundry

The accountability system founders need to stop building the wrong thing.

Building has never been easier. Validation has never mattered more.

Most early-stage founders are stuck in the same loop: build fast, ship something, wait for traction that doesn't come, then realize they validated the wrong problem with the wrong person. It's not a skills problem. It's an accountability and process problem.

In six weeks, you'll run real customer interviews, synthesize signal from 10+ conversations using AI tools, ship a clickable prototype in 24-48 hours, test it with actual users, and draft your first Design Partnership Agreement, the signal investors ask for before writing a check.

This is not a lecture series. Every session runs on "I do / We do / You do": Marc demonstrates, you practice in the room, you leave with a weekly commit the cohort holds you to. AI compresses the synthesis and prototyping loop. The conversations with real humans are yours to have. No shortcuts.

What you’ll learn

Six weeks of reps, not just theory. Build toward signed Design Partner Agreements and investor deliverables validated by market demand.

Reframe customer development as a skill, not a personality trait, and build your first falsifiable hypothesis.
Understand the validation gradient: curiosity, interest, commitment, payment, and why "would you use this?" means nothing.
Leave Week 1 with a sharpened ICP hypothesis and a committed interview schedule the cohort can hold you to.

Source the right people across three tiers: personal network, social media, and paid channels (in that order).
Run interviews that are 80% listening, 20% showing. No pitching, no leading questions, no "would you use this?"
Set up your AI synthesis stack (Granola, NotebookLM, Claude) before your first interview so nothing falls through the cracks.

Use Google Stitch Ideate mode to generate 3 divergent design concepts from your conjecture in one session.
Ship a clickable prototype in 24-48 hours using V0, Bolt, or Lovable, no engineering background required.
Design Jobs-to-be-Done test tasks so users show you what's broken instead of telling you what they think you want to hear.

Learn exactly what a Design Partnership Agreement is, who to target, and how to pitch it without making it feel like a sales call.
Investors at pre-seed, seed, and Series A expect signed DPAs before wiring funds. You’ll leave with a drafted agreement ready to send.
Present your full PMF journey to the cohort: what you validated, what you killed, what you're building next, and your evidence.

Learn directly from Marc

Marc Krejci

Contact

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

Built with teams from:

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, not theory.

Prerequisites

You have an idea or early MVP to validate
This course is not for the pre-idea stage. You need a hypothesis, even a rough one, that you're trying to pressure-test with real humans.
You're willing to talk to strangers
Customer discovery means real conversations with real people. The cohort provides structure and accountability. The reps are yours to do.
No engineering background required for prototyping
The vibe coding tools in this course (V0, Bolt, Lovable) are designed 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.

6 Weekly Live Sessions

2-hour sessions every Wednesday, April 15 through May 20. Built on the "I do / We do / You do" model: Marc demonstrates in real time, you practice in the room, and every session ends with a public weekly commit the cohort tracks. Not a lecture. A practice.

6 Weekly Project Deliverables

Each week you submit a real artifact: a customer hypothesis, interview log, synthesis document, prototype share link, test synthesis, or Design Partnership Agreement. These aren't homework. They're the evidence base investors ask for at any stage.

Async Lessons + AI Synthesis Toolkit

Pre-session async lessons (30-45 min) cover frameworks, tools, and technique before the live session so we can spend time on reps, not slides. Includes setup guides for Granola AI, NotebookLM, Google Stitch, and protovibing.ai, your AI stack for the full six weeks.

Maven Guarantee

This course is backed by the Maven Guarantee. Students are eligible for a full refund through the second week of the course.

Course syllabus

6 lessons • 6 projects

Week 1

Apr 15—Apr 19

The Validation Mindset

2 items

Week 2

Apr 20—Apr 26

The Art of the Customer Interview

2 items

Schedule

Live sessions

2 hrs / week

Wednesdays, April 15 through May 20, 2026. 90 minutes each. Format is "I do / We do / You do": demonstration, live practice, and a public weekly commit. Cohort size is intentionally small so every student gets reps on the hot seat and real-time feedback from Marc and peers.

Weekly Work

2-4 hrs / week

Each week: a pre-session async lesson (30-45 min) covering that week's frameworks and tools, plus one project deliverable due before the next session. Artifacts build week by week into your full evidence base: interviews, synthesis, prototype, and a drafted DPA.

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