Plan B is the job. It is what you fall back on, and it is the reason you never build the business you actually want. Plan A is that business, and it is also the business coaching program we built to get you there.
It is 8 weeks of coaching for you if you have real expertise and nothing earning from it yet. The businesses we build are consulting, advisory, fractional work and productized services. You run it solo, with no investors, no staff and no office, and you can take it anywhere.
You come with an idea, or you come with none. You leave with a direction you are sure of and a business that is set up, priced, findable and ready to grow.
hours of 1:1 coaching, just you and your coach
weeks from choosing to charging
buyer conversations before you finish the program
direction we help you narrow down and commit to
That is why we named the program after the one you are supposed to be building.
These situations look different, and the problem underneath them is the same. You do valuable work, and you still do not own anything that keeps paying you for it.
Plenty of programs hand you a certificate at the end whether or not anything changed. We hold you to these instead. By the end of week 8 you have each of them up and running, and we do not consider the program finished until you do.
1 commercially viable direction you can explain and stand behind, chosen over the other ideas.
1 clearly defined offer, with a price you have set and tested and the reasoning behind the number.
A clear transition plan from being full-time employed (or freelance) to a solo business owner.
A completed website that showcases your business and a way for buyers to find you.
A marketing and content system for reaching more buyers that you can run on your own.
4 documented conversations with potential buyers, and a fully functional go-to-market strategy.
We do not promise a customer by week 8, or a revenue number, because those are not ours to give. We promise that you stop guessing: you know what the business is, who it is for, what it costs to run, and what you charge and how to run it from here.
Most business programs start after the idea. They assume you already know what to build and teach you how to build it. Only a small share of programs cover the idea stage at all.
That leaves out the people who need help first: you have the expertise, and you do not know yet what to build with it.
Plan A starts at zero. You can join with no idea, a rough one, or 2 or 3 you cannot choose between. What we look for when you apply is your commitment to do the work.
Choosing what to build is the decision everything else rests on, and most founders make it alone. We work through it with you in week 1, whether you arrive with no idea or several.
If you build on an untested idea and it turns out wrong, everything on top of it goes to waste, and you usually find out years later. We test your direction with you before you build anything on it.
Plan A runs 2 live 1:1 sessions a week for 8 weeks, with work between them. Your application tells us whether you are ready for that pace. The stage of your idea does not decide it.
Accelerators are built for startups that aim to grow very large, and most invest money for a share of your company. If you want full control of your business, Plan A is built for you.
What you want
Venture accelerators
Free startup programs
Plan A
Complete control
Most take a share of your company
No equity taken
You keep 100%
No barrier to entry
About 1% of applicants get into the best known
Open to anyone
No team, product or track record needed
Fully remote
Mostly in person, often in San Francisco
Online
From anywhere, even while employed
Hands-on 1:1 guidance
Partners shared across a large batch
Self-paced videos or email
16 hours, just you and your coach
Built for expertise businesses
Built for venture-scale startups
Built for startups
Consulting, fractional, coaching, courses
Want each program’s published terms side by side? See the full comparison with startup accelerators →
Either way works. Week 1 is different for each path, so you get the right kind of help. By the end of it you have 1 direction written down with the reasons it beat the others, and from week 2 on both paths follow the same program.
We pressure test your ideas and cut them down, using the same 4 questions every time.
By the end of week 1 you are down to 1 idea, and you can explain why you chose it.
We dig through what you have already done and pull the business out of it.
You finish with a real market and a real buyer, found inside your own history.
The site, the headshots and the first contract draft used to cost thousands and take weeks. Now they cost a monthly subscription. So Plan A spends your time on the choices only you can make: what to sell, who pays and how you reach them.
of new business owners used AI to help launch in 2025, double the rate from 2 years earlier.
You work through 8 modules in a set order, 1 a week, with 2 live sessions each week to help you get through them. Because the sessions are 1:1, you never scramble to keep up with a group.
There are 2 a week, each a full hour long. Your coach builds the work with you while you are on the call.
Every session is with a coach who has built a profitable solo business and still runs it from anywhere.
You get 1 module a week in a fixed order, a deadline on every piece of work, and a coach who notices when your work is late.
You get the written frameworks for the 6 things every solo business has to get right, and they are yours to keep.
Your first month of Uncommon Mentorship is included, so you have a mentor right after week 8.
Path A scores the ideas you brought. Path B digs through your career for the ones you did not know you had.
You walk out with1 direction, in writing, with the reasons it beat the others
You need a specific buyer before a direction can become a business.
You walk out withA clear description of your buyer and the places you can reach them
Work out how many months your savings really last, and pick the date you make the call.
You walk out withA runway number and a date you can plan against
You define 1 offer, price it, and write it the way a buyer would read it.
You walk out with1 clearly defined offer with a price
You build a place online that says what you do and lets potential customers reach you. Real proof matters more than a polished design.
You walk out withA live page and a way for customers to contact you
You pick 1 way to reach customers that you can run alone, with no budget, no agency and no team.
You walk out withA plan for reaching customers that you can run on your own
This is the week you stop planning and start talking to potential buyers. Most founders find it uncomfortable, and it is also the week you learn the most.
You walk out withA written record of every buyer conversation so far
You look at what held up with real buyers, decide what changes, and plan what you do next.
You walk out withA 90 day plan you wrote yourself
You finish Plan A with a solo expertise business built and ready to grow, which is when the harder decisions start. To help you continue the growth journey, your first month of Uncommon Mentorship with the Build plan and the full set of Uncommon Toolkits are included in your Plan A program. After the first month, you can choose whether to continue mentorship but the toolkits are yours to keep forever.
These cover the 6 things every solo business has to get right, from choosing a niche to closing sales and selling through content. They sell separately for $199 each, or $849 as a set. Already bought some? What you paid for toolkits in the 60 days before you join comes off your Plan A price.
You meet your mentor twice in the month after week 8, and you can message them between sessions.
These are the prices we charge when you buy each one on its own.
You get 16 hours of live 1:1 time across 8 weeks, spent on your actual situation. Between sessions, your coach reads your work closely and scores it against the same rubric we use for every founder.
A common complaint about business coaching programs is that the frameworks are generic and never account for your situation. Spending 2 hours a week on yours fixes that.
You pay for a plan that has already worked, and your own situation fills in the details.
The program lasts exactly 8 weeks. Mentorship afterward is optional, and nothing renews unless you choose it.
You have 2 live sessions of 1 hour each, in time slots you agree on before you start. Everything between them happens on your own schedule and in your own time zone.
You never wait for a group to fill. Once we accept you, you pick your start date and your 8 weeks begin from there.
Stella has been an incredible mentor, and I’m deeply grateful for her guidance. She played a crucial role in helping me refine my brand and website, steering me from a path that wasn’t yielding results to one that is far more effective. Stella’s transparency, professionalism, kindness, and genuine care for my journey were evident in every interaction. I’m fortunate to have worked with her and am excited about continuing our collaboration in the future.
My session with Stella was exceptionally informative and truly inspiring. She offered plenty of go-to-market strategies and tactics, all rooted in her rich experience of e-commerce. Stella’s approachable and engaging manner made the conversation not just enlightening but also very enjoyable. I wholeheartedly recommend her for anyone in need of comprehensive and practical market and design insights.
Stella is a superstar!! I loved our conversation, she was so passionate, open, honest, and completely invested in my own success. It felt incredible to discuss a range of topics with her on this call related to my landing page, conversions, etc. I’ll definitely be booking in another slot with her – highly recommend if you’re looking for a no-bullshit, warm, and all-in mentor for your startup. Thank you Stella! x
Plan A builds expertise businesses: consulting, advisory, fractional work, productized services, and the products you can sell alongside them. The businesses below can all work well. Plan A just does not build them, and it is better for you to hear that now than after you pay.
Raising money swaps 1 employer for several investors, right when working solo gives you the biggest advantage. Some businesses really do need outside money, and Plan A does not build those.
Plan A builds a business you run on your own. If your plan needs a team in its first year, a different program will serve you better.
That means inventory, storefronts, equipment, or anything you have to buy before your first sale. Those businesses need a different kind of program.
Here, working from anywhere comes from owning your income. If you want to work remotely for an employer, Plan A will not get you there.
If paying for Plan A would put you into debt, do not do it. Build your free Solo Founder Roadmap instead, and come back when the numbers work.
We decide based on where you are and what you have already done.
With the Head Start Award, you pay $3,420, which is 10% off.
Award applications close on the last day of each month.
That is $3,980 in total.
With the Head Start Award, you pay 4 monthly payments of $895, which is $3,580 in total.
Award applications close on the last day of each month.
Everything you paid for toolkits in the 60 days before you join comes off your Plan A fee, up to $849.
What you paid comes off in full. Buy the complete set and all $849 comes off.
Buy any toolkit, or the complete set.
Apply to Plan A within 60 days. Applying takes about 10 minutes.
Get accepted. Your checkout link already takes off what you paid.
What you get back depends on which week of the program you are in when you tell us. There is no retention call, no form to hunt down and nothing that renews.
You can also pause once and pick it back up within 6 months. The clock stops while you are paused.
I came to the United States on a student visa and made it through the H-1B lottery. Then I was laid off, and the visa gave me 60 days to find another employer or leave the country. I did 40 interviews in 6 weeks and signed in the final week.
After that I made myself a promise: no employer would ever again hold the outcome of my life in their hands. So I self-petitioned my own EB-1A green card, with no one sponsoring me, and built 2 profitable solo businesses without raising a dollar.
What got me through was knowing exactly how many months of runway I had, refusing to move the deadline, and doing the unglamorous work while nothing was working yet.
I have run both businesses from more than 40 countries, and that is the part I care about most. Working from anywhere becomes possible once you own your income, so owning your income is where you start.
Plan A is the program I needed and could not buy.
Follow Stella
Possibly, but we do not promise it, because a customer is not ours to hand you. We track the number of real conversations you have with potential buyers instead. That number is in your control, we can both see it, and those conversations are what bring in a customer in the end.
You have an income. A business keeps earning when you stop working, because it has a niche, a repeatable offer and a way for customers to find you. Freelancing usually has none of those, which is why every month starts at zero and new work only comes in when a past client remembers you.
Plan A often fits freelancers even better than employees, because you have already learned the hard way that picking a service and picking a market are two different decisions.
No. That is Path B, and it is the reason this program exists. Finding the idea is the first week of the work.
Yes, and most of our founders do. You commit to 2 hours a week in 2 sessions that you schedule before you start, and we fit them around your job. Everything else happens on your own time.
Set aside real hours for the work between sessions, because the leftover hours at the end of a long day rarely get it done.
You start as soon as we accept you, and your own 8 weeks begin then.
If you apply for the Head Start Award, you start once you have our decision. We reply within 7 business days, and award applications close on the last day of each month.
A course hands you frameworks and leaves you to apply them alone. This business coaching program gives you 16 hours of live 1:1 time, and your coach reads and marks up your work between sessions.
You can launch something in 30 days, but it is rarely enough time to test it with buyers, and that gap is where most founders give up.
Here is how the time breaks down. Choosing the direction properly takes the whole first week, because the idea that excites you first is often the wrong one. Deciding who your buyer is, working out your numbers and setting the price take the next 3 weeks. Then you need several weeks in front of potential buyers, finding out what they say no to and changing the offer in response.
If you squeeze all of that into 30 days, you end up launching something no one buys.
No. We review every application against the same 4 questions you use in week 1 to test ideas, and we say yes only when your answers show you are ready to do the work.
No. The application takes about 10 minutes and helps us understand your situation. If it fits, you book 1 call with us, ask every question you have, and decide after. You only pay if we both say yes. Have a quick question first? Ask it here, and we answer by email within 1 business day.
No. Plan A includes all 6 Uncommon Toolkits, so what you paid for toolkits in the 60 days before you join comes off your Plan A price, up to $849. The checkout links in your acceptance email already include the credit.
Waiting is a decision. It just never feels like one, because there is nothing to sign.
You never sit down and decide to spend another year not starting. It happens anyway. Here is what that year actually costs you. None of it is dramatic, which is exactly why it is easy to miss.
Most sales pages will not tell you this, so we will.
So the question was never whether you can afford $3,800.
You get a full refund in week 1 if you have not attended a live session, and a published scale after that, with no retention call and nothing to cancel.
Plan A only looks expensive next to doing nothing. Put it next to a wrong launch, a slow launch and everything the price includes, and it becomes the cheaper option.
Going it alone rarely fails loudly. It fails slowly, and the months are the expensive part.
We price Plan A honestly, so here is the full receipt.
That puts your 1:1 coaching at $172 an hour, or $148 an hour with the Head Start Award. Coaching on retainer runs $1,000 to $6,000 for 2 months, with no fixed finish.
Run your own numbers.
Put in your own estimates and compare the cost of a later launch with the price of Plan A.
On your numbers, waiting costs 3.2 times the program price.
These are your estimates, not a promise. Nobody can guarantee you an income, and we will not pretend to. The math leaves out the savings a later launch also burns.
So the question is not whether $3,800 is a lot of money.
The application takes about 10 minutes, and every question is about you. You do not need a business plan.
Have these ready:
Or split it into 4 payments of $895.
There are 2 ways to qualify for the Head Start Award.
1You can describe the idea specifically. You can say who buys it, why them, what they would pay, and what proof you already have. We judge it against the same 4 questions you use in week 1.
2You have already invested in this. You have put real money or years into this path, such as a course you finished, an accountant you consulted, or savings you set aside for it.
The founders most likely to finish are the ones who have already invested something to get here.
Apply by the last day of the month. We give Head Start Awards month by month and reply to every application within 7 business days. If you apply, you start Plan A once you have our decision.
You can ask us anything here before you apply. Applying takes only 10 minutes.
Get 1 short lesson and 1 task a day by email. Finish all 5 and earn 10% off Plan A or the complete toolkit set, your pick.
The Shortlist is a free 60 minute workshop, once a month, where you pull 3 real options out of your own career history and leave knowing which one to test first.
Next session: Thu October 15, 2026 · 12:00 pm ET
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