We help ambitious people build a profitable solo business on their lunch breaks so that they can work independently and live anywhere.
Stay in one place. Get a good job. Trade your best years for a salary and a schedule someone else sets. Then, at 67, collect the freedom you were promised.
By then, plenty of people are not well enough to spend it. If we want to thrive, we have to build our own.
But building badly is expensive. That is the whole reason this exists: pick something worth building, and get the right guidance to build it to actually work.
days of paid vacation a year, after 20 years with the same employer. In your first year, it is 10 to 14 days.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2024
new businesses are gone by year 2.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics
You sell what you already know to the clients who need it, with no staff, no investors and very little money to start. In the age of AI, this is easier than you think.
See how it worksFrom your first idea to a business that keeps growing, we have a way to help at every stage, with a coach or at your own pace.
Know when you can afford to leave.
Answer 5 quick questions and get your next step.
Plan a successful move out of your 9 to 5.
Find the idea your expertise supports best.
Start an idea from the expertise you already have.
Narrow them to 1 direction in a free 60-minute training.
Build your offer in 5 days with a free email challenge.
Choose how much guidance you want.
8 weeks and 16 hours of live 1:1 coaching.
Build faster with a proven framework for every step.
Get a second opinion on the big decisions.
For founders who have launched and want consistent, ongoing help growing their business.
Meet founders at your stage in person.
Salons, Summit and Retreats with founders like you.
Most business programs assume you walk in with an idea, then sell you the build. We start with the choice, because the idea you pick shapes everything you build after it.
We test it for a niche with buyers already spending, few competitors and a low barrier to entry. Then we check it against your proof and your network, and cut what does not fit.
We dig it out of what you already own: your career history, the problems you have been paid to solve again and again, and the network you can reach.
Whichever path you start on, you build on a choice you have checked against real buyers, your proof and your network.
For professionals with real expertise, in a 9-to-5 or not. Come with 0, 1 or several ideas. Leave with a business ready for customers.
One validated direction
An offer priced correctly
A product ladder
Tech, marketing and sales set up
A lean system you can run
Customer insights, documented
or 4 monthly payments of $995
We do not promise a customer by week 8. We promise a business ready to welcome one.
Systems that already worked for successful solo founders, so you set yours up right the first time instead of rebuilding it in Year 2.
Turn know-how into income
Find buyers already spending
Organic, no budget needed
Posts that bring in clients
Without becoming someone else
Run lean while you grow
or $849 for the complete set
1:1 mentoring from founders who run profitable solo businesses, using the same method as Plan A, our launch program.
a month, cancel any month
3 ways to meet founders who are building what you are building, all in person.
An evening story night in your city
Once a year, in person
Small themed retreats around the world
Mentorship members book first
At 18, I moved from China, on a full scholarship, to the US with 3 suitcases, on my own. By my mid 20s, I was making over 6 figures at a Fortune 500 company in New York City and owned a home. I was winning in life, or so it seemed.
Deep down, I wanted to build my own dream, not someone else's. So I self-petitioned my EB-1A green card, planned my business on my lunch breaks, and within months quit to start a profitable-from-Day-1 education tech company as a first-time solo founder. Today, I run several solo expertise businesses while traveling the world.
This Uncommon Life is how I help you do the same: build your Plan A on your lunch breaks, so you never have to ask anyone's permission to take a vacation again.
Read my full story →Follow Stella
Her strategic insights and practical feedback were both precise and impactful.
Highly recommend if you’re looking for a no-bullshit, warm, and all-in mentor for your startup.
Working with Stella Guan was eye-opening for our up-skilling platform.
You bring your career history. You leave with 3 candidate directions of your own and the 4 tests that cut them down to one.
Save your seat.
Free, no card needed. We email you your link to the training room before the session.
Not sure which step comes first? Answer 5 quick questions about where you are, and get the next step that fits, from free training to 1:1 coaching.
Whether you’ve just been laid off, are currently employed with a 9-to-5 job, or have been freelancing but want to stop trading time for money, answer a few questions and get a roadmap for making that transition, built for where you actually are.
A template that helps you fill in the skills people have already been paying you or your employer for, then guides you step by step through how to turn that into a business idea.
Get 1 short lesson and 1 task a day by email. Finish all 5 and earn 10% off Plan A, our launch program, or the complete toolkit set, your pick.
Answer 5 quick questions about where you are, and get the next step that fits, from free training to 1:1 coaching.
You just read about one piece of leaving. The Solo Founder Roadmap lays out the whole first year in order, built around whether you were laid off, are still employed, or already freelance. There are 6 questions, and it costs nothing.
Get a quick answer below, or message our team and a real person replies, usually within a day.
Tap a question for a quick answer.
A real person replies, usually within a day.
