Entries

200+

Provenance-gated library

Niches mapped

100+

Each with a sized market

Sourcing

100%

Cited or labeled estimate

Platform

On your Mac

Native macOS · works offline

The problem

The business-advice internet is a highlight reel.

Gurus sell the dream and hide the receipts. You get round numbers with no source, a "course" that's really a funnel, and zero of the failures that actually teach you what to avoid. Academy is the opposite of that.

Numbers with no source

"This niche is a $4B market." Says who? Most advice can't show you. In Academy every market size links to a real source — or is plainly labeled an estimate. The content build literally fails a provenance lint if a number ships unsourced.

Survivorship theater

You only ever see the wins. The failures — where the real lessons live — get buried. Academy publishes our own breakages: what we tried, what broke, the fix, and the proof.

Theory with no mechanics

"Just start an LLC." Okay — where, which state, what forms, what does it cost, what about the EIN and the bank account? Academy gives you the actual step-by-step with official-source citations, not vibes.

AI hype, no operating manual

Everyone says "use AI." Few show you how to direct an AI agent to actually do the work end-to-end. Academy teaches it the way we build — because we build this company with agents.

The six pillars

Everything a founder needs — in one place.

200+ entries organized into six pillars. Every claim is backed by a source you can click or carries an explicit estimate label. Here's what's actually inside each one.

01 · NICHES

100+ markets, each with a sized opportunity

Every niche entry carries a sourced TAM / SAM / SOM (total, serviceable, and obtainable market), a saturation read so you know how crowded it is, the typical margin profile, and a step-by-step start guide. From service businesses to digital products to local trades — when a market figure can't be sourced, it's labeled an estimate rather than dressed up as fact. You leave each entry knowing how big the prize is and what your realistic slice looks like.

02 · OPERATIONS

The real paperwork, with official-source citations

The unglamorous mechanics that actually stand a business up: forming an LLC, getting an EIN, opening business banking, bookkeeping basics, sales tax and income tax, and the records you keep. Steps are tied to official sources (the IRS, state filing offices) so you're following the rule, not a guru's memory of it. This is the pillar that turns "I have an idea" into "I have an entity that can take money."

03 · AI MASTERY

Use AI to do the work — and to build the business

Two layers. First: how to use AI as a force multiplier in the daily work — drafting, research, analysis, content. Second, and rarer: how to direct an AI agent to actually build and run pieces of your business. This is drawn from how we operate — Black Label is built and run with autonomous agents — so the lessons are field notes, not theory.

04 · OUR FAILURES

The case studies no guru will show you

Honest post-mortems from actually building this company: what we tried, what broke, the fix we shipped, and the proof it worked. The mistakes are the curriculum. You get to skip the expensive lessons because we already paid for them — and you can see the receipts on each one.

05 · WISDOM

The canon, distilled to what to use

The business and mindset classics — Think and Grow Rich, The 48 Laws of Power, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and more — reduced to the actionable principles you'd actually apply, with each book credited and linked. Not book reports: a working filter for which ideas earn a place in how you operate.

06 · CREATOR LESSONS

The best business creators, reduced to action in minutes

The most useful operators and creators distilled to their concrete, applicable lessons — credited and linked back to the original. You absorb the signal in minutes instead of hours of long-form, and you always know whose idea it was so you can go deeper at the source.

A week with Academy

From a vague idea to an entity that can take money.

There's no fixed curriculum to grind through — it's an encyclopedia you pull from. But here's a realistic path from zero.

Day 1 — Pick the field: Browse the Niches pillar, read three sized markets side by side, and compare the obtainable slice and saturation. You leave with a shortlist grounded in sourced numbers, not hype.
Day 2 — Pressure-test it: Cross-reference your pick against the Our Failures pillar — find where we (or the pattern) broke before and design around it up front.
Day 3 — Stand up the entity: Work the Operations pillar: LLC, EIN, business banking, bookkeeping — following official-source steps, not a forum thread.
Day 4 — Wire in AI: Use the AI Mastery pillar to set up the agent and prompts that do your research, drafting, and repetitive work, so one person operates like several.
Day 5 — Sharpen the operator: Pull the principles from Wisdom and Creator Lessons that fit your situation — distilled to what to actually use this week.
Ongoing — Stay current: New sourced entries ship only when they pass the same provenance gate. Because it runs on your Mac, your library is yours and works offline.

Inside the app

What an entry actually looks like.

Every entry is structured the same way — the claim, the sourced numbers, the steps, and the receipt — so you can act on it and trace every figure. Watch it work on a sample niche entry.

Watch it work Sample entry

NICHES Example niche entry

TAMSized figure · source linked

SAMSized figure · source linked

SOMRealistic slice · labeled estimate

SaturationCrowded / open read

Start guideStep 1 → Step N

Every number above either links to a real source or is labeled an estimate. Unsourced numbers fail the build.

Sample entry — the real structure every Academy niche follows.

See demos & deep dives →

Who it's for

Built for people who'd rather see the receipt.

The first-timer

Going zero → one

You have drive and no map. You don't want a hype course — you want to know which market is real, how big it is, and the exact steps to stand up a legal entity.

Outcome: a sourced shortlist and a real entity.

The operator

Running, want leverage

You already sell something. You want to wire AI into the daily work and pressure-test your next move against markets that are actually sized.

Outcome: more output per person, fewer blind bets.

The AI-curious

Want to build with agents

You keep hearing "use AI" and want the operating manual. Academy teaches it the way we run the company — with autonomous agents doing real work.

Outcome: a working agent setup, not just theory.

The skeptic

Burned by gurus

You've bought the dream before and got round numbers and no proof. You want sources, failures, and honest estimates — or you walk.

Outcome: claims you can actually verify.

Academy vs. the typical "business course"

Most courses are a funnel wearing a curriculum. Academy is a living, sourced library you keep as long as your subscription is active.

SourcingEvery number cited or labeled an estimate — vs. round numbers with no receipt
The failuresPublished, with the fix and proof — vs. a highlight reel
OperationsOfficial-source steps for LLC / EIN / taxes — vs. "just figure it out"
UpdatesProvenance-gated library drops — vs. a static recording
OwnershipRuns on your Mac — native, works offline — vs. a login that can vanish
Price$30/mo, billed from day one — vs. four-figure one-time

Pricing

$30/mo. The whole library.

$30 per month, billed from day one. No tiers, no upsells, no four-figure "mastermind."

Academy access

Academy

$30/mo

Billed today · cancel anytime from your account

200+ sourced entries
100+ niches with TAM / SAM / SOM
Operations: LLC, EIN, taxes, banking
AI Mastery — direct agents to do the work
Our Failures — real post-mortems with proof
The canon + creator lessons, distilled
Native macOS app · works offline

Subscribe — $30/mo

macOS download unlocks after checkout. Windows and mobile downloads are coming soon.

Skip the gurus. Get the receipts.