Know where to focus, what to sell, who to sell to, what to fix first and how to turn customers into repeatable revenue.
Every week you guess, the business pays for it.
Know who pays, what problem they pay to solve, and what to offer them. Then put it in front of real buyers.
Build the path from attention to pipeline to sale, with conversion math you can trust and a weekly rhythm that keeps it moving.
Put systems behind what works. Bootstrap to strength, and decide on outside capital only when there's proof to multiply.
Settle who you are in Faith and what you're called to in Purpose. Then lead under pressure without drifting.
Solo founders, 40+, usually still trying to land customers.
Faith-driven or open to God’s help.
If you only want funding, this is not your door.
We’re customers first. Investors second.
Sean Jones
Founder, Foodynamics · Former Fortune 5 COO
Leah Harrison
Founder, Rhema Wealth Strategy
Jeff Kaufman
Founder, JiTpro
Christian Dodge
Founder, DEVCO
30 days. 90 days. Year One. Then beyond.
Develop the business and the founder you need to become to lead it.
Establish how you're going to build.
Map
Map where the business actually stands
Name
Name the old story that's been running your decisions
Clarify
Clarify the assignment
Set
Set your priorities as a founder
Define
Define your customer, their problem, your offer and your price
Start
Start customer conversations
Build
Build your first 90-day plan
Lock
Lock in a weekly rhythm for God, work, customers, family and rest
By Day 30: ten real customer conversations lined up and a 90-day plan on your calendar.
Real buyers. Real commitments. A revenue motion you can repeat.
Days 31–60: Validate
1/ Put your assumptions in front of real buyers.
2/ Test the customer, the problem, the offer and the price.
3/ Get a real commitment: a payment, a deposit, a signed pilot.
Compliments don't count.
→
Days 61–90: Convert
One buyer.
One offer.
One way to reach them.
Then build the path:
Attention → Leads → Conversations → Pipeline → Sales → Revenue
→
By Day 90
1/ Paying customers or real commitments.
2/ A pipeline that tells the truth.
3/ A weekly revenue motion you can repeat.
4/ And a founder steadier than on Day 1.
Every week, the founder is formed alongside the business: time with God, decisions tested against the mission, and rest protected.
Q1 (Days 1–90)
Activate, validate and convert.
Face the old identity, learn to listen, and get clear on the assignment.
Q2 (Days 91–180)
Position the business and build demand.
Become teachable, fix your environment and learn to stand under pressure.
Q3 (Days 181–270)
Capture demand, convert it and put systems behind it.
Put money in its place, deploy the mission and install a Rule of Life.
Q4 (Days 271–365)
Prove what works, prepare for what's next and decide whether outside capital helps or distracts.
By the end of Year One, you're building evidence across customers, revenue, demand, pipeline, systems, founder development through faith and purpose, and capital readiness where appropriate.
→ 3 complete Playbooks: Startup, Faith and NEWMEFY® Purpose
→ 30.3 hours of curriculum
→ 23 Pressure-test Workbooks
→ 104 hours a year of Working Sessions: private live mentoring with the CanaGlobal Operators
→ Private Founder Circle
→ The CanaGlobal Startup Accelerator Guide, including the 30- and 90-Day Business + Founder Sprints and the One-Year + 10-Year Business Guides
Private 45-minute session with Gerald Duran. Normally $750, included for the first 10 October founders.
Membership begins after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
“Enrollment opens the Accelerator. Membership keeps you in the room.
Founders don’t need more content. They need to do the work, take correction, stay accountable, and keep a weekly sequence.
The $99 monthly membership includes the Private Founder Circle, the Working Sessions (Tuesday Faith & Purpose, Thursday Customers & Revenue), weekly scorecards, quarterly planning, and Playbook updates.
Faith is oxygen, not branding. The work is discipline, not vibes.”
— Gerald Duran & Christian Sisson
The Operators at CanaGlobal
→ Working Sessions
104 hours a year of private live mentoring. Bring real problems. Leave with decisions, corrections and next actions, in the trenches with the CanaGlobal Operators twice a week.
→ Private Founder Circle
Founders in the trenches together, with the operators. Accountability, support, friendship and camaraderie with founders who build the same way.
The Startup Accelerator Guide maps the work across your first 30 days, first 90 days, Year One and beyond, and breaks it into focused sprints of execution. It tells you:
→ What to work on
→ What to watch
→ What workbook to complete
→ What to bring to mentoring
→ What to execute
→ What comes next
Customer, problem, offer, positioning, demand, buyer journey, pipeline, sales and revenue.
Customers first. Investors second.
Truth, obedience, stewardship, integrity, family-first leadership and customers-first execution.
Faith governs your decisions under pressure.
Identity, calling, discipline, environment, mission and continuity.
Become the founder your startup requires.
Build
The Business
→ A business model you can test
→ A clear customer and offer
→ A way to generate demand
→ A pipeline and sales process
→ A path to repeatable revenue
→ A Year One plan
→ Founder decision frameworks
→ A Rule of Life for faith, family, health, work and rest
→ Faith and Purpose filters
→ Systems for continued execution
→ Evidence to decide the next stage
Build
The Founder
→ Faith governs how you build.
→ Purpose directs what you're building and who you're building it for.
→ Startup execution produces evidence.
→ Pressure Tests expose what needs correction.
→ Working Sessions give you correction.
→ The Private Founder Circle keeps you accountable.
A business that lasts needs a founder who lasts.
Pre-revenue:
GTM Execution Sprint
Best for:
→ Pre‑revenue founders
→ Early traction founders who need a real pipeline, fast
→ Teams stuck in “activity” but not conversion
Post-revenue:
Scale Studio
Best for:
→ Founders already past $1M who need durable scale
→ Teams with chaotic growth, messy pipeline, or inconsistent conversion
→ Operators ready to run cadence and build a machine
One path. A decade-long horizon.
Deeper access is earned through honesty, coachability, execution, and fit.
The CanaGlobal Startup Accelerator is a complete business-building accelerator that helps founders land customers, make revenue repeatable, build a durable business, and become a better founder, grounded in Faith and Purpose.
It includes:
→ 3 complete Playbooks (Startup Playbook, Faith Playbook & Purpose Playbook)
→ 30.3h of curriculum
→ 23 Pressure-test workbooks
→ 104h/year of Working Sessions: private live mentoring with the CanaGlobal Operators
→ Private Founder Circle
→ The CanaGlobal Startup Accelerator Guide, including the 30- and 90-Day Business + Founder Sprints and the One-Year + 10-Year Business Guides
The investment is $1,495, then $99/month after 30 days. Cancel the $99 anytime.
You get access to all three Playbooks, download the CanaGlobal Startup Accelerator Guide, and join the Private Founder Circle and the Working Sessions.
Your first 30 days are a clear start. You will:
→ Map where the business actually stands
→ Define your customer, their problem, your offer and your price
→ Start real customer conversations
→ Build your first 90-day plan
→ Lock in a weekly rhythm for God, work, customers, family and rest
On-demand access starts when you enroll.
Your Year One schedule follows the published October start date.
Plan on about three to five focused hours a week, depending on your stage.
Your $1,495 includes the first 30 days.
On day 31, membership continues at $99/month. Cancel anytime. You keep the Playbooks.
The $99 keeps you in:
→ The Private Founder Circle
→ The Tuesday and Thursday Working Sessions
→ Weekly scorecards
→ Quarterly planning
→ New tools and updates
Enrollment opens the Accelerator. Membership keeps you in the room.
Yes. Cancel the $99 anytime.
You keep the on-demand Startup, Faith, and NEWMEFY® Purpose Playbooks you purchased.
When membership ends, you lose the Private Founder Circle, the weekly Working Sessions, scorecards, quarterly planning, and future member-only resources.
If you come back later, you rejoin at the membership rate then in effect.
They are Working Sessions with the CanaGlobal Operators, not lectures and not generic Q&A.
Tuesdays: Faith & Purpose
Identity, mission, spiritual formation, decisions, discipline, pressure-handling, family, and leadership.
Thursdays: Customers & Revenue
Buyer, offer, message, price, how people find you, customer conversations, sales, and revenue.
Bring real problems.
Expect honest feedback, correction, encouragement, and a clear next step.
That does not disqualify you. It may be why you need to begin.
The first 30 days help you slow down, face the truth, name what matters now, and stop treating every problem as urgent.
We will help you separate:
→ Truth from fear
→ Mission from distraction
→ Busywork from real movement
→ This week from "someday"
We will not shame you for being stuck.
We also will not let you stay stuck and call it preparation.
Not if you are building a company. For founders, it comes as part of the complete Startup Accelerator.
We do not separate landing customers from the faith and purpose meant to govern it.
Faith and Purpose remain available on their own for personal formation.
The Startup Accelerator is the front door and the guided Year One.
A 90-day Studio sprint is 1:1 work with Gerald Duran on landing customers.
Scale Studio is for companies already past $1M.
Most founders under $1M begin with the Startup Accelerator.
You cannot buy your way into the deeper rooms. Stage, coachability, execution, and fit matter.
Sometimes, but not through the Startup Accelerator, and not as the first step.
We lead with customers and repeatable revenue.
Funding is considered later, when there is proof, a clear use of funds, and confidence the money will grow something that already works.
Customers first. Investors second.
CanaGlobal is explicitly Christian.
All CanaGlobal material includes Scripture, prayer, and faith in identity, purpose, money, leadership, customers, and the work of building a business.
You do not have to pretend.
You do have to be open to, and respectful of, that foundation.
Faith-driven and faith-friendly founders are welcome.
If you want business help without faith and Scripture, this is not the right room.
The CanaGlobal Startup Accelerator gives you the path, the steps, and the order.
During October, the first 10 founders who enroll also receive a Private First-$1M GTM Diagnostic with Gerald Duran — a 45-minute session to find what is blocking customers and repeatable revenue.
We identify the one problem actually holding you back.
A focused plan. Not a longer to-do list.
One clear next step, in the right order.
"You do not need more things to work on. You need the right thing, in the right order." — Gerald Duran
Land customers and make revenue repeatable, grounded in faith and purpose. In the right order.
Founder, Bonder
Scott Swanson says God led him to Cana’s doorstep to remind him he is not alone. What he found was a pack — a family, and consistent reminders inside a community grounded in God. The work now is to be the brand, and to walk the journey he has been handed.
The most important lessons were simple and hard at the same time. Be the brand. The optics have to be on point. And if you are showing up, aligned with God, inbound is imminent. Those three changed how I think about building.
Purpose got clearer once I stopped treating the work as something I was doing by myself. God led me to Cana’s doorstep to remind me that I am not alone. Now I have a pack. A family, and consistent reminders inside a community grounded in God. I am not alone, and we are not supposed to be.
Faith has not been replaced here. It has been reinforced. Cana reinforces what I already knew: that God is working through me while showing up through others. I am here to re-member.
The ongoing support has been steady. Always there. Always present. I choose to see what Cana is, and I remember when I was down and out, God put me on the doorstep of Cana. That has not left me.
If you are a founder considering the program, CanaGlobal Startup Accelerator is a great place to re-member, to begin, to root in something that can lead to a divine outcome. They hand you the map. They remind you along the way. It is still on you to walk the journey.
Founder, The Palmer Code Academy
Dr. Francis Palmer came to CanaGlobal Startup Accelerator after other incubators, drawn first by the faith. What stayed with him was the realization that a founder’s path could be measured, compared, and refined. Not guaranteed. Just a way forward that had already been walked.
The most important lesson was that success as a founder can be measured, compared, analyzed, and therefore refined. CanaGlobal Startup Accelerator’s go-to-market and revenue formulas made that concrete. It was a light-bulb moment. There was a proven strategy. A path that could be followed. No one said it would be easy, and no one called it a guarantee. There is still a way forward, and it can be adjusted when the evidence says to pivot.
Purpose got clearer once the work shifted from intention to process. Focus on the go-to-market strategy. Identify what you are building, who exactly you are building it for, why they would care that you built it, how you reach them, and how you measure progress along the way. Those questions turned a calling into something I could actually run.
My faith in God and Jesus was already strong. It is what drew me to CanaGlobal and to Gerald in the first place. His teaching resonated deeply. What I learned here is that faith is strengthened by reading and learning the Word of God. The journey didn’t replace that. It put it back at the center of how I build.
Ongoing support is where CanaGlobal Startup Accelerator excels. A founder can find education, knowledge, and operational guidance in more than one place, because you don’t know what you don’t know — and you have to know it in order to succeed. That gap is exactly where the support has mattered.
I was in other incubators before this one. CanaGlobal is head and shoulders above the rest. Faith-based. Driven by formulas and a strategy proven over decades of real experience. One purpose: help founders succeed. I don’t know what else you could ask for.
Founder, AriaTalks
Soo Horobin joined the startup accelerator to build ARIA, an AI tool for inbound lead management. The work forced a harder question than whether the product worked: what she was actually called to build. That clarity became The ARK, a way to help other founders build what they are uniquely called to build. ARIA stayed. It just stopped being the whole assignment.
Process is not a four-letter word. A strong idea is not the same thing as a viable business. I had ideas I believed in deeply. CanaGlobal Startup Accelerator taught me to test them through real customer conversations, selling, feedback, and iteration, instead of perfecting everything in my head first. I am more willing now to put something into the market, listen honestly to what comes back, and change it without treating the pivot as failure. Being committed to the assignment does not mean being attached to one version of the idea. The process is often what reveals what the business is actually supposed to become.
When I joined, I was focused on ARIA as an AI solution for inbound leads. The incubator gave me room to test that idea and to ask what I was actually called to build. I could see how naturally I think about growth, revenue, positioning, and what it takes to make something viable. More important, I started to see that my purpose was bigger than any one product. That clarity is what led to The ARK. I am called to help founders build what they are uniquely called to build, and The ARK is the vehicle. ARIA still has a role, as a practical tool inside that larger purpose.
Faith gets tested when you build God’s way instead of the world’s way. It is a day-by-day relationship. There are no shortcuts. The biggest shift for me has been learning to go to God first, instead of making the decision and then asking Him to bless it. That has meant slowing down to seek wisdom, listen for direction, and trust Him with the outcome, even when the direction does not look like the obvious business move. Faith in business is not just believing God will make things work. It is letting Him shape how I build, what I decide, and what I am willing to let go of. That is still one of my biggest areas of growth.
I am grateful for Gerald’s continued investment, and for a line I come back to when a decision is hard: faith must be operational. It helps me tell the difference between faith, fear, and simply forcing something to work. I am also grateful for Christian, and the role he plays alongside Gerald in shaping the community. The courses do not just hand over information. They force you through the foundations: who you serve, what problem you solve, whether people will pay, how it becomes viable, and whether it is aligned with your purpose. I have had to rethink ideas I was attached to. That has not always been comfortable. It has made me a stronger founder. Teaching, challenge, personal support, and community together are the kind of process I think every founder needs.
Do not join expecting someone to validate your idea. Come ready to be challenged. You will have to think honestly about what you are building, who actually wants it, whether the model works, why you are building it, and whether you will change direction when the evidence says to. That is uncomfortable, especially after you have invested yourself in an idea. It is also where a lot of the value is. If you are willing to do the work, question your assumptions, listen to the market, and let God shape the process instead of trying to control the outcome, you will leave with more clarity — about the business, and about the founder you are becoming.
Founder, AgriVeris
Jonathan Nuhu is building AgriVeris to create trust, transparency, and opportunity in Africa’s agricultural ecosystem — connecting farmers to better markets and to greater participation in global trade. CanaGlobal Startup Accelerator did not hand him that purpose. It made him treat the idea as something to validate, execute, and steward.
The most important lesson was that a startup is not a great idea. It is something you create and steward because it genuinely serves people. The program put weight on clarity, validation, and execution, and on being willing to learn and adapt along the way. Without those, the idea stays an idea.
Purpose got specific. I want to build systems that create trust, transparency, and opportunity in Africa’s agricultural ecosystem. Through AgriVeris, that means helping connect African farmers to better markets and enabling greater participation in global trade. That is the work I am called to do.
Faith has moved from believing God for the outcome to trusting Him through the process. The uncertainty of building has taught me to depend more on God — His word, His promises, and His leading — while still taking action. One does not replace the other.
CanaGlobal has been a meaningful part of the journey and a real catalyst for where I am today. Mentorship from Gerald, the community, the practical learning, and the relationships have helped me grow as a founder and as a person. I am grateful the support did not stop when the program did.
If you are considering joining, come with an open mind and a willingness to be challenged. Do not expect to be pampered. Expect to learn, grow, build meaningful relationships, and become a better founder. For me, CanaGlobal Startup Accelerator is not just a program. It is a place where faith-driven founders are equipped, and a community where water can be turned into wine.
Founder, Savanna Kicks
Benson didn’t come to CanaGlobal to learn how to stay busy. He came to learn what actually moves a business. Along the way the company got sharper too — not just an ecommerce store, but an African lifestyle brand built so people far from home can carry a real connection to the continent.
The most important lesson has been to focus on evidence, not activity. Validate the customer. Test the offer. Measure traction. A lot of startup work feels productive and isn’t. I’ve had to get honest about what actually moves the business forward, and let the rest go.
My purpose got clearer in the same stretch. I’m not just building an ecommerce business. I’m building an African lifestyle brand that helps people around the world carry a connection to Africa through products that mean something. That distinction changes what I make, who I make it for, and why the work is worth the long version.
Faith has grown in the gap between effort and outcome. I’ve learned to trust God while still doing the work in front of me. Entrepreneurship keeps teaching the same thing: surrender the outcome, stay faithful to the process. One without the other doesn’t hold.
The support has been accountability, frameworks, and a community that doesn’t let ideas sit. CanaGlobal has helped me move from ideas to clearer action and execution. I’m grateful for people willing to keep walking alongside the work, not just launch it.
If you’re a founder considering the program, come ready to be challenged. If you’re willing to be honest, take action, and learn, it can change how you approach the business and how you approach yourself. It is not a place to collect advice and leave it unused.
Founder, DEVCO
Christian came into CanaGlobal already clear on his calling. What he didn’t have yet was the assignment — how to stay on the wall, say less and mean more, and build without leaving himself exposed. A year of working alongside the program has sharpened his language, his pace, and the kind of brothers he wants in the room when the work gets heavy.
The first thing that changed was how I communicate. It isn’t enough anymore to have a good product. Today’s buyer is distracted, and cutting through that noise takes intentionality. You have to understand not only where the market is going, but how the customer feels right now, from their side of the table. Getting the language right is real work. So is the follow-up.
I already knew my purpose, my calling, and the mission. What I hadn’t thought through was the assignment, and what it actually takes to stay on the wall. That distinction has gotten clearer the longer I’ve been in the program.
My faith was already strong. I still let my guard down. In baseball, if you play catcher, you wear a cup so you don’t take one in the wrong place. I tried to do too many big things at once, and I got hit hard. The lesson wasn’t that faith failed. It was that faith isn’t a substitute for being prepared. Even with the most faith, we can’t do everything at the same time without the spiritual protection of our Lord, Savior, and Friend. My faith keeps growing through every challenge. I just don’t leave myself exposed the way I used to.
The ongoing support has been fuel, not fluff. This week both of them told me they see God’s hand in this, and that it’s going to be huge. That isn’t generic encouragement. It’s the kind of word that keeps the fire going. I’m glad I finally found brothers who can handle someone given a calling this size. From here, it’s on us.
If you’re a founder thinking about joining, don’t waste your money unless you’re willing to become the founder God has called you to be. This isn’t a coaching program, a Tony Robbins feel-good group, or a place to just take. Come ready to add value. Listen more than you talk. Don’t be afraid to be transparent, vulnerable, and authentic. No BS, and no half-assing it.
Founder, Rhema Wealth Strategy
Leah arrived busy and a mile wide. She had already spent thousands building on questions she didn’t know she was supposed to ask. Halfway through CanaGlobal Startup Accelerator the purpose she thought she had nailed came apart, and what replaced it surprised her. She now plans her week around the working sessions.
Sequence matters. Building a business is like building a house: do it out of order and it crumbles under a weak foundation. Before the startup accelerator, sequence wasn’t even on my radar. I was a mile wide and an inch deep, doing everything I was told a new business owner should do. Super busy. Not effective. There were important questions about the business I hadn’t answered, and I didn’t know they were questions I should have been asking from the beginning. I had already poured thousands of dollars into that guesswork. It wasn’t until I saw what clarity looked like with CanaGlobal that I realized how much of a fog I had actually been in.
Purpose shifted about halfway through. I thought I had it nailed. Gerald challenged me in the ways I needed to be challenged. What I love about this program is that CanaGlobal doesn’t hand out participation trophies. If something is off, he calls it out and lovingly — but truthfully — sends you back into the fog to wrestle until you come out with clarity. Where I landed took me by complete surprise. I wouldn’t have gotten there without someone willing to make me uncomfortable and push me through it.
Startup Church has been like going to church, and in some ways better, because it ties faith to calling in a practical way. We talk about the real things founders wrestle with while building. The working sessions are so full of raw, authentic faith that this has become an extension of my church family. I look forward to the calls. Learning how to build with a faith-driven mentality has been even more valuable than simply learning how to build a successful business. Watching them, I’ve learned that protecting time with God in the mornings really is the secret sauce. I’ve also learned to stop fighting the fact that it’s okay to be flawed. Being faithful matters more. God can work with the hot mess.
The ongoing support has been excellent. The founder working sessions are the after-party. Training sets the foundation. The work continues after the training ends. Those sessions keep me accountable and motivated, and I learn from what other builders are running into. It’s a mastermind for new businesses. I try to plan my week around them.
If you’re considering joining: do it. If you need more than that, the advice is still do it. The time, energy, and money you save will be worth its weight in gold, because you won’t have to figure out what has already been figured out. Buy yourself wisdom.
Founder, Foodynamics · Former Fortune 5 COO
Sean Jones had already been a chief operating officer inside a Fortune 5 company, earned an MBA, built companies, and raised capital. CanaGlobal Startup Accelerator still changed how he prepared for investors and how he thought about the buyer. What he learned there contributed to hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue, and in relatively short order, to the sale of the company.
The lessons came in two parts. Before CanaGlobal, I did not have a clear enough understanding of how to prepare a company for investors. I had significant business experience. Gerald Duran put a disciplined, practical framework around the process: how investors evaluate an opportunity, how a founder needs to prepare before seeking capital, and how to pitch a business so it makes sense to someone considering an investment.
The second shift mattered even more. I learned to think strategically about attracting both investors and customers. The teaching on customer acquisition, positioning, and the buyer journey changed how I approached B2B and direct-to-consumer growth. We stopped approaching people as if we were trying to convince them to choose us. We got intentional about positioning the company as something investors and customers would want to pursue. That change affected how we communicated value, how we approached opportunities, and how we thought about the whole buyer journey.
It was not theoretical. Refining the buyer journey contributed to hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue I do not believe we would have generated otherwise. The preparation and strategic clarity contributed to something larger than customer acquisition. In relatively short order, we accepted an offer and sold the company. I have been through many business programs. Very few have produced that kind of measurable impact.
We had always called ourselves purpose-driven. CanaGlobal challenged us to go deeper than the label. We reexamined assumptions about the company, the customer, the problem, and why the problem mattered. Gerald pushed us on problem-solution fit: understand the customer, define the problem, communicate the solution, and connect those to the larger purpose. It forced a distinction between what we assumed and what the market was actually saying. We moved from believing we were purpose-driven to being able to articulate the purpose and build a strategy around it — why the business existed, whom we were called to serve, and what we were uniquely positioned to provide.
Faith had been in the business for years. What I rarely said out loud was the guilt. I have already been extraordinarily blessed, personally, professionally, and with my family. Praying for the success of a company, or asking the Holy Spirit for direction on a business decision, sometimes felt selfish. I questioned whether I should be asking God for help with something related to business when I already had so much to be thankful for. Gerald and CanaGlobal helped me see that differently. Seeking God’s guidance is not asking Him to make a business successful. It is seeking wisdom, discernment, stewardship, direction, and courage in how to use what we have been given. Business is one of the places faith gets lived out: in how we serve people, treat employees and customers, steward resources, and decide when the right path is not obvious. Faith does not have to sit outside the business.
If an entrepreneur is considering the accelerator, I would tell them to do it. I have multiple graduate degrees, including an MBA. I have spent decades in business, including as a chief operating officer in a Fortune 5 company. I have built companies, scaled them, raised capital, and seen both success and failure. I learned more practical, immediately usable information from Gerald Duran and CanaGlobal Startup Accelerator in a matter of weeks than I learned during large portions of my business education and career. I do not say that casually. He connects strategy, customer acquisition, investor readiness, positioning, purpose, and faith into a framework a founder can actually use. He challenges assumptions, forces clarity, and turns aspirations into something executable. For a founder serious about building something sustainable, this was one of the most valuable business experiences of my career.
Founder, JiTpro
Jeff came to CanaGlobal with almost 40 years of construction experience and a strong conviction that his industry had a serious procurement and planning problem. What he had to learn was that experience alone doesn’t build a company. Along the way, JiTpro stopped being just a procurement tool and became a mission: helping contractors prevent problems before they ever reach the field.
One of the biggest lessons for me was slowing down enough to clearly define the problem before rushing to build a solution. I came in with almost 40 years of construction experience and a strong conviction that the industry has a serious procurement and planning problem. But experience alone does not automatically translate into a successful company. The programs helped me think more intentionally about the customer, the problem we are actually solving, how to validate assumptions, and how to communicate JiTpro’s value in a way others can immediately understand. I also learned that a startup requires a different mindset than running an established construction company. You have to be willing to test, listen, adjust, simplify, and sometimes let go of ideas you were convinced were right.
At first, JiTpro was primarily about building better procurement tools for contractors. Over time, I realized the deeper purpose is helping contractors prevent problems before they ever reach the field. I spent most of my career dealing with the consequences of decisions already made — or decisions not made soon enough. Crews would be ready to work, but materials were late, information was missing, approvals were incomplete, or dependencies had never been identified. JiTpro has become less about simply managing procurement and more about helping contractors gain control earlier. The program helped me separate the product from the mission. The software may evolve considerably over time, but the purpose is much more durable: identify tomorrow’s problems early enough to prevent them.
This journey has required me to trust God in a different way than I have before. I have spent most of my life in construction, where I generally understood the business, the risks, and how to solve the problems in front of me. Building a technology company has put me in situations where I do not always know the next step or the outcome. That has forced me to become much more comfortable with doing the work I believe I am called to do while leaving the results to God. It has also caused me to think much more seriously about stewardship — of my time, my experience, the people God has placed around me, and the opportunities I have been given. My faith has become less about asking God to make my plans successful and more about asking whether I am faithfully pursuing what He has put in front of me.
I have been very grateful for the continued support. One of the things I appreciate most is that the relationship did not simply end when the formal program ended. Having people available who understand entrepreneurship, understand the challenges of building something from the ground up, and are willing to continue asking questions and offering perspective has been valuable. As JiTpro has developed, the problems I am working through have changed substantially. Continuing to engage with people who understand the journey has helped me maintain perspective as the company has evolved. I also appreciate that the support has gone beyond the mechanics of the business. The integration of faith, purpose, leadership, and entrepreneurship has been particularly meaningful to me.
I would tell a founder to come into the program willing to be challenged. Do not come simply looking for someone to validate your idea. Come willing to have your assumptions questioned, your message simplified, and possibly even your understanding of the problem changed. For me, the greatest value wasn’t getting a formula for building a company. It was being placed in an environment that forced me to think more deeply about the problem, the customer, the business, and ultimately why I was building it in the first place. If you are teachable, willing to do the work, and willing to examine your business and purpose honestly, the program can materially change how you approach building your company.
