Attributed (possibly misattributed) to Henry Ford.
Innovators build what's needed, ahead of what's expected.
Start and grow what you build
Think clearer, know yourself
Available now
Twelve weeks. One business. Yours at the end.
The Young Founders course runs across twelve phases, one a week. Each phase opens with a short intro video, then a short walkthrough for every activity, so you see how it's done before you do it in the printed Workbook, on your own idea. By the end you have a named offer, a price, real customer responses and either your first sale or a clear reason to change the idea.
See the twelve phases$297 · Kit included · digital access the day you join
The eight Kits
Or pick the part of business you want to learn first.
Every Kit is two books, a Playbook that teaches it and a Workbook where you run it on your own business. Start with one and add others as the business grows.
Young FoundersStart a businessTurn the idea you keep having into a business with paying customers. Start the guided course, or work the Kit on your own.Start the course · $297Just the Kit · from $67
The InnovatorsInnovate at workInnovation is a process. This is the one you run.From $67 AUDGet this KitBrand MavericksEvolve your brandA brand is the soul of a business, made visible.From $67 AUDGet this KitXD 4.0Create better customer experiencesThe experience designer AI can't replace.From $67 AUDGet this KitLos OriginalesUnlock your creativityCreativity is a skill. Here's the training.From $67 AUDGet this KitPsychonautsPersuading humansPersuade the most irrational creature on earth. The human.From $67 AUDGet this KitBe YouKnow yourselfCome out knowing exactly who you are.From $67 AUDGet this KitScar BearersNavigate failureUnpack the failure. Take everything it paid for.From $67 AUDGet this KitWhat you get
A playbook that explains it, and a workbook where you do it.
Every Kit is two books. This is the Young Founders Kit, inside and out.
The playbook
Inside the playbook
The workbook
Inside the workbook
Real businesses, not theoryEvery move came out of a company Charbel built, or one he coached a team through. You get the order of operations rather than a list of principles.
You work on your own ideaEach exercise applies to the business you're starting or running, so what you finish with is yours to keep going with.
Digital, print, or bothDigital arrives the moment you buy. Print includes the digital edition and ships free to Australia, the UK and the USA.
Proof from the work
8,500 people have been coached through this work. The Kits put it in your hands.
They did a great job at coaching our team through the delivery of six major ventures. By working side-by-side on live business challenges, they embedded a new cadence of innovation across our product teams. Our team now builds the capability to launch at speed independently.
Charbel and his team transformed our approach to delivery. By coaching our 20 sponsored teams through active, real-world initiatives, they helped each of the teams, and us, build the internal capability to navigate a complex business and customer landscape. They taught us how to sustain our initiatives long-term.
Faster Zebra embedded a complete HCD and Service Design capability within our company. By coaching our teams through live initiatives, they helped us integrate design thinking and doing into our daily workflows. We now have the internal proficiency to drive user-centric research and design independently.
Faster Zebra coached us through a complete digital rebrand and rebuild, ensuring our team could own and manage the new systems. The business grew, but the long-term win is the capability to maintain that growth trajectory independently.
This helped me lift up my career to another level. It's providing me a great knowledge and technique to be pro, and it helped me to grow myself as a solution finder. Love the passion and energy from Charbel.
I came here to learn a range of skills, and I ended up learning about myself and life lessons. It went beyond what I expected.
An amazing Leader, Teacher, all round star, Charbel brings a warm, comfortable environment along with a wealth of knowledge. When mentoring, Charbel quickly captivates your mind and imagination, always leaving you wanting to learn more.
His enthusiasm for people is contagious, which is exactly what I need from a teacher. He has plenty of experience and examples to draw on, and always has tips and current info to share. You'll get more than you bargained for with any interaction with Charbel.
Charbel is probably the most likeable and kind person you will ever meet. He has so much patience and would do anything for his students. He has put incredible effort into the material and the documentation we received and I would recommend it to anyone. You won't regret it.
Built in the real world
By a founder who's been building since 1988.
Academy Xi valuation at its Series A
$22 million
Capital raised across three rounds
$3.6 million
Founded Academy Xi in 2013, sold his stake in 2019 for
Seven figures
Coached through Academy Xi and Velvet Onion
8,500+ people
Why eight Kits
Nine languages run a business. Most of us speak two.
A founder has to understand the money. An operator has to see the customer. A specialist has to hold the whole thing together. While those parts stay disconnected, decisions get expensive, good ideas stall, and the business keeps depending on you for everything.
Each Kit teaches one of these languages, and your own business is where you practise it. You meet Customer when you find a problem worth solving, Product when you build the solution, Brand when you give people a reason to care, Money when someone pays, and Growth when you learn to do it again.
BusinessMoneyBrandProductCustomerInnovationGrowthTechnologySelf
Fluency is what's left when the steps get automated. Information can be downloaded. This has to be lived.
You build your way into who you're becoming.
Young Founders coaching
Your young person builds a business of their own, and becomes their own person doing it.
Over 12 weeks with Charbel and a small group of other young founders, they take one idea and turn it into a business that's theirs.
They find their idea, or sharpen the one they've got. They build the brand around it, put an offer in front of people, and win their first customers. Step by step, it becomes a viable business that's entirely their own. And the young person who reaches week 12 has grown with it, into someone with a clear sense of who they are and what they can do. That's the steadiness the overwhelm and the endless scroll keep pulling out of reach. 2 live calls a week, a second Kit of their choice included. Founding intro rate $3,950.
See Young Founders coachingThe Village, our year-long membership, opens later this year. Lock the founding $4,950 rate now. Join the waitlist
How the Kits are grouped
Mind. Skills. Soul. Make.
The eight Kits sit in three realms. Mind shapes how you think. Skills help you do the work. Soul shapes who you become. Make puts all three against reality.
MindHow you see, frame, judge and choose. Los Originales and Psychonauts live here.Enter the Mind realm →SkillsHow you research, sell, build and operate. Young Founders, The Innovators, Brand Mavericks and XD 4.0 live here.Enter the Skills realm →SoulWho you are, and who you become through the work. Be You and Scar Bearers live here.Enter the Soul realm →
↻
Make
The act that ties the three together. You bring all three to something real, reality answers, and you come back sharper. That's the loop. As you build something, it builds you back.
For teams
The capabilities that survive automation are the ones no course can teach.
Facilitated sessions where your people work a live business challenge they own, using the same methods our members use on real work.
The capability gets built inside your real work, so it holds after the session ends. Your team leaves with a business challenge moved forward and a capability they keep.
Explore team training Start the conversation
The name
Why Faster? Why Zebra?
Faster.
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.
Zebra.
A new founder mindset. Unicorns chase valuations. Zebras solve real problems.
Zebras build profitable, sustainable, purpose-led businesses. They work in herds, not alone.
They're real. So is the Village.
Good things come to those who make.
Start the course and take your idea to its first customer. Pick a Kit and learn one part of business on your own. Or bring a live business to the Village.