The problem
You're good at your job. Maybe great. Lawyer, designer, developer, consultant, operator, whatever. People trust your work. Your boss is happy. Your LinkedIn looks right.
And you're slowly dying inside.
Not because the work is bad. Because the box is too small. You can see the whole chessboard, but the system wants you to move one piece. You've got ideas that don't fit in your job description. Energy that doesn't fit in a 9-to-6. A restlessness that no amount of "career development workshops" will fix.
You've tried the playbook. It doesn't work for people like you. Because the playbook was written by people who are terrified of people like you.
The corporate world wasn't built for creative people. But creative people are exactly who it needs.
I know this because I was you. Goldman Sachs in London. Good suit. Good salary. Miserable. Not because the work was bad. Because the box was too small. So I left. Moved to Nairobi. Then Kigali. Then wherever the interesting problems were. Structured $6 billion in deals across 10 countries. Built a firm from a laptop and a refusal to be bored.
Along the way, I kept meeting the same person. Different names, different cities, different industries. Same fire. Same frustration. Same question: "How do I get out of this box without burning everything down?"
This accelerator is the answer I wish someone had given me at 27.
What you're signing up for
Four months. Five people. No theory, no frameworks, no slides. Just real work that scares you a little and changes how you see yourself.
1:1 Calls
Bi-weekly, one hour, just us. Your career, your decisions, your stuckness. I don't give advice from a textbook. I give it from 15 years of doing the thing you're trying to do.
Group Sessions
Monthly, with the full cohort. Five misfits from different industries, sharing what they're building and what's breaking. The best ideas come from people who think nothing like you.
Monthly Projects
One project per month designed to push you out of your comfort zone. Not homework. Not busywork. Real things that make you uncomfortable and prove to yourself that you can do more than you think.
The Cohort
Five people max. That's it. No Slack community with 500 strangers. Five people who are going through the same thing at the same time. Some of the best professional relationships of your life will start here.
The goal is simple: make you into someone who doesn't need me anymore.
If you still need a mentor after four months, I failed.Read these. If even one hits, we should talk.
You're technically excellent but strategically invisible
People trust your work. Nobody asks for your opinion on where things should go. You're the best-kept secret in your own company.
You've looked at your boss's life and thought "I don't want that"
You can see the top of the ladder clearly. You're not sure you want to climb it. But nobody's showing you a different ladder.
You keep starting things that never go anywhere
A blog. A side project. A startup idea in your notes app. Not because you're lazy. Because nobody showed you how to turn restlessness into something real.
You moved countries, changed careers, or blew up your plan at least once
And it was the best decision you ever made, even though everyone thought you were crazy.
This isn't for lawyers only. It's for the lawyer who wants to build a startup. The designer who wants to lead. The developer who thinks about business models in the shower. The consultant who's sick of PowerPoint and wants to build something real. The operator who sees the whole system but can't get anyone to listen.
If you're a creative professional stuck in a specialist's world, this is for you.
What people I've worked with say
"Someone who's not a stickler for rules and old ways of doing things. I'd warn them to not let the fun demeanor fool them. You are actually serious."
Faith Wanjiku · The Room, 2020–2022
"Your greatest strength lies in making a team believe a mental idea can be made real, and you'll be there to make it happen."
Colleague · The Room
"Work will always be there, so find ways to enjoy yourself while you do it. I relaxed and became more comfortable. I needed to get used to working under pressure and enjoy it."
Farai Munjoma · ALX
"I don't exactly know how, but he'll get you sorted, and you'll somehow have fun doing it."
Michael Muturi · Head of Biochar, Tupande (One Acre Fund)
How it works
4 months
Bi-weekly
Monthly
5 people
$300/month
$300/month for four months. That's $1,200 total for 8 one-on-one sessions, 4 group sessions, 4 projects that will change how you think about your career, and a cohort of people who will still be in your life years from now.
For context, a single hour with a career coach in any major city costs more than a full month of this programme.
Can't afford it? Apply anyway.
Every cohort has 1-2 scholarship spots for remarkable applicants who can't pay the full fee. I don't care about your bank account. I care about your fire. If you've got the drive but not the funds, tell me. The worst I can say is "not this cohort."
Who this isn't for
People who want comfortable. People who want a certificate to put on LinkedIn. People who think "mentorship" means someone validates their decisions and tells them they're doing great.
I will be honest with you. Sometimes uncomfortably. If your strategy is bad, I'll say so. If you're avoiding a hard decision, I'll call it. If you're brilliant but coasting, I'll tell you that you're wasting something most people would kill for.
The projects will push you. That's the point. Growth doesn't happen inside your comfort zone. It happens in the place that makes your stomach flip a little.
This is for the ones who'd rather hear an uncomfortable truth today than a comfortable lie for the next ten years.
From people I've worked with
"I know someone extraordinarily capable who will enable you to do things you thought were impossible to achieve. Get ready to rumble, he is no joke."
Lucie Talichet · Senior IP Legal Counsel, ALX
"I don't exactly know how, but he'll get you sorted — and you'll somehow have fun doing it."
Michael Muturi · Head of Biochar, Tupande (One Acre Fund)
Interested?
No committee. No 12-step application process. Write to me. Tell me three things:
- Who you are and what you do right now
- What's in your way — the box you're stuck in
- What you'd build if nothing was stopping you
Keep it short. If you can't explain it in a few paragraphs, you haven't thought about it enough yet.
Cohort 1 is forming now. 5 spots. When they're gone, the next cohort starts in 4 months.