Start with Your Customers

The most successful startups don’t begin with the product — they begin with the customer. Customer Discovery Lab is a 6-week cohort program that helps early-stage founders validate their ideas, test assumptions, and build a business model rooted in real customer needs.

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What to Expect

Weekly Sessions: 2.5-hour sessions once a week for 6 weeks.
Hands-On Learning: Practical tools, templates, and guided exercises you can use immediately.
Peer Support: Join a small cohort of founders working through the same challenges.‍
Expert Guidance: Learn from facilitators and mentors with deep experience in customer discovery.

What You’ll Learn

How to identify and connect with your earliest potential customers.
How to ask the right questions to uncover real needs.
How to test and validate your assumptions quickly.
How to use insights to shape your business model and prepare for funding opportunities like NC IDEA MICRO and SEED grants.

Who It’s For

Customer Discovery Lab is ideal for:

Aspiring entrepreneurs with an idea they want to validate.
Early-stage founders who want to make sure they’re building on the right foundation.
Startups preparing to apply for grants, accelerators, or investment.

Why It Matters

Too many startups fail because they build products no one actually needs. Customer Discovery Lab helps you avoid that trap by focusing on the only thing that matters in the beginning: your customer.

Ready to validate your idea?

Because sometimes the best way to learn is to do. Founder Jams bring Charlotte’s entrepreneurial community together — founders, mentors, and industry experts — in a fast-paced format that produces real progress in just one day.

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Ready to Go Further?

Looking for a shorter, intensive format? Explore our Founder Jams, one-day deep-dive workshops on product, growth, and operations.

Learn More About Founder Jams