What is the relentlessly resourceful experience?
The course
The relentlessly resourceful experience is a 30 day course designed to make you more relentlessly resourceful. The central challenge is to get from Cambridge to Mallorca by 10 August 2019 using only £100 of seed capital. You’ll need to generate enough money, plan your 1200 mile journey and then embark upon an exciting adventure. At the end of the journey there will be a party and prize giving ceremony.
You’ll receive daily mentoring in an office hours session with Simon Galbraith, meet and hear inspiring stories from other very resourceful people and will learn by doing it for yourself. At the end you’ll be transformed, even if you fail.
The course will run no matter how many people take part. Simon Galbraith is taking a 4 week leave of absence from his job as CEO of Redgate Software Ltd, and will get to Mallorca even if he has to hitch-hike!
THE PRIZES
The winning individual or team will take home up to £50,000 in seed funding (at a sensible valuation) for any start up they create in the next 10 years. Any business the winner claims for needs to be real and reasonable (you can’t just claim that you’re running a business and get a check for £50k). You don’t, however, need to persuade anyone that the business will work; if you’ve won, you’ve already proven you’ve got the chops to give it a good go.
There will also be fun prizes for Best Story, Best Entrance, Most Money Raised and Best Hack.
Simon Galbraith will act as a character referee for any participant who successfully finishes and who has attended a reasonable number of the mentoring sessions.
the RULES
The rules are simple:
Every team or individual starts with £100 of their own money
Everything starts with that £100; existing assets like cars, cash or pre-purchased tickets for public travel can’t be used. You can, however, use your laptop, clothes, personal effects. Simon Galbraith will also provide office space in Cambridge for your use and which will include wifi, food (breakfast and lunch) and coffee.
You can’t borrow money or assets from close family members or friends. You can get introductions to other people from family, or use your mum’s house, for example, to host a party and raise some cash.
You can borrow money from the bank of Simon Galbraith at an interest rate of 5% a day. You must fully settle all debts before the end of the course to be eligible for any prizes. You must also present a fairly coherent verbal plan about how you are going to pay it all back.
the criteria
To join the course you must be:
Over 18 (or under 18 but partnered with a responsible adult)
Able to communicate in English
Available to dedicate yourself to the course from 13 July to 10 August 2019
Able to live in Cambridge for the first 3 weeks of the course (less if you start your journey to Mallorca earlier). Accommodation is plentiful and cheap in Cambridge during the summer
Able to provide yourself with £100 seed money
Able to afford the course fee (or otherwise able to persuade Simon Galbraith that this experience will change your life, if only you could afford it!)
Ideally you’ll also be a future entrepreneur, someone who is:
Considering founding a start up
Considering whether to go it alone. Maybe you have to take on a family business or want to buy into one?
Wanting to give yourself an amazing challenge and learn a lot
This isn’t suitable for you if:
You’re a complainypants
You want to be told how to do it
You’re scared of doing things outside your comfort zone or generally doing things unappealing to you
You’re bad at listening
the FEE
The course fees vary depending on your age:
£500 for under 26s
£1000 for 26-30s
£2000 for over 30s
Why? Because the older you are the harder you are to teach resourcefulness to.
Unlimited bursaries/scholarships are available to people who are amazingly persuasive about how this experience will change their life and that really can’t get hold of the full amount of course fees.
You’ll also need your £100 seed capital, and enough money to live in Cambridge for a few weeks (albeit with weekday breakfasts and lunches provided).
the value
Why should you do the course? Because being relentlessly resourceful is the critical characteristic of start up founders. Building up your relentlessly resourceful muscles is a very good idea if you want to be a successful entrepreneur. Paul Graham and Simon Galbraith both believe that it can be taught.
This course is designed to do just that. Simon was inspired to found the course after reading by Paul Graham’s article and a brief correspondence with him.