Clarity in complexity
We take the overwhelming and make it achievable. Simple language, real depth, and frameworks you can use today.
Founder and startup education
Start. Grow. Scale.
The knowledge, tools and community to help you start, grow and scale. Books, a learning platform and simulations from Adam Ryan, part of the founding team at SEEK and Professor of Practice at Monash University.
Three ways in
Learn it, practise it, run it.
The Ryan Academy teaches founders the way founders learn: by doing the thing, feeling the consequence and explaining what happened.
01
Books
Practical books for founders, starting with the 4C Framework for building high-performance teams.
The 4C book02Learning platform
A place to work through the books: exercises, tools and other founders doing the same.
The platform03Simulations
VentureSim for universities and FinanceSim for high-school students.
The simulationsBooks
Capability, Capacity, Cohesion & Culture
Building high-performance teams with the 4C Framework [subtitle to confirm]
The hardest decisions a founder makes are rarely about strategy. They are about people. The flagship Ryan Academy book sets out the 4C Framework for building high-performance teams: Capability, Capacity, Cohesion and Culture.
Final title, format, publication date and where to buy: [to confirm]
- C1
Capability
- C2
Capacity
- C3
Cohesion
- C4
Culture
Learning platform
The book is the start, not the end.
The learning platform sits alongside the books, so each chapter turns into something you do with your own team. What's on it at launch, and how to join: [to confirm].
Community of doers
Founders are strongest together. The aim is that nobody has to build alone.
Tools that do the work
Action over theory: templates, diagnostics and exercises that turn an idea into the next decision.
Simulations
Practise the decisions before they're real.
Simulations put students in the seat: decide, see what happens, and learn why.
For universities
Site comingVentureSim
A semester-long startup simulation. Student teams run competing companies in one market, make a board decision each week and get a score that explains what would have been better.
Ask about VentureSimFor high-school students
Site comingFinanceSim
A finance and money-management simulation for high-school students. Year levels, curriculum fit and availability: [to confirm].
Ask about FinanceSimNewsletter and resources
Start Up Growth Hacking
Notes for founders on growth, teams and building companies, written by Adam Ryan and published on Substack.
About Adam
Built by someone who has sat on both sides of the table.
Adam Ryan was part of the founding team at SEEK. Since then he has been a founder, investor, coach, mentor and board member through capital raises and exits in Australia and California, including time on the advisory board of UC San Diego's Rady School of Management.
Today he is a Professor of Practice at Monash University, where he teaches entrepreneurship and designed the Start Up Simulation unit. The Ryan Academy brings that teaching to founders everywhere.
Audendo proficimus · we progress by daring
Building something? Let's talk.
For the books, the platform, a simulation for your course, or speaking, write to [email protected].