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We train smart people to succeed in traction roles at high-growth startups.

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“I learned more in 3 months at Tradecraft than I did in 3 years of law school.”

Ariane Mohamadi, Tradecraft Alum

What is Tradecraft? The fastest way to break into the startup community.

Tradecraft is a full time, in-person immersive training program for people who want to work in startups. The program has been designed by industry leading experts to ensure that you graduate with both the depth and breadth of knowledge you’ll need to make meaningful contributions on your first day at a high-growth startup. Once you select your vertical focus you will work with a large group of world-class mentors and a small group of inspiring peers to learn new skills while doing real work for real companies.

Outcome

Skills

You will learn the hard and soft skills you’ll need to thrive in the startup community.

Experience

You will graduate with more real-world experience than any HR person expects of an entry-level hire.

Network

You will establish valuable relationships with industry leaders and peers.

Career

Your experience with Tradecraft, and our support, will not end until you have a job in the field.

Curriculum

Core Skills, Cross Functional Exposure and Deep Vertical Expertise

To be great at any of the traction verticals, you need to understand both human behavior and the general mechanics of tech businesses. That's why, in addition to their chosen vertical, Tradecraft students build foundational knowledge in key social & business areas as well as cross-functional knowledge in the other two tracks. Here is a limited sample of both the hard and soft skills you will learn at Tradecraft:

Product Design

Customer Development
User Research
Interaction Design
User Interface Design
Prototyping
Content & Copy

Growth

Experimentation
Research
Acquisition
Activation
Retention
Copywriting

Sales & BD

Persuasion & Influence
Customer Development
Business Operations
Pipeline Management
Deal Crafting
Business Theory

Engineering

System Architecture
Prototyping
Iterating
Debugging
Scripting
Process Management

Method

You will learn from the best in the business.

An unparalleled group of industry leaders and practitioners have signed on to help at Tradecraft. These are people who push the craft forward, establish industry standards and actively mentor the next generation of leaders. Your work at Tradecraft will give you the opportunity to learn from their experience, collaborate on projects, and establish meaningful relationships.

You will do real work for real companies.

There is no substitute for real-world experience. That’s why you will be required to not just work on, but lead, a number of projects for Silicon Valley companies throughout the semester. The projects will reinforce your track-specific development, provide valuable leadership opportunities and help you make more informed decisions once settled into your new job.

You will learn to adapt.

You will experience varying levels of guidance at Tradecraft. Why? Because that’s how it happens in the real world. These are rapidly changing fields, so being able to adapt and evolve is absolutely essential. That’s why our method involves everything from instructors explaining topics in great detail to assignments where you will be expected to research and teach new concepts to the class.

You will have a unique experience.

Our expectation that you can teach yourself the fundamentals allows us to offer a substantial amount of flexibility throughout the program. We will require you to learn those skills that we consider “core” to your field, but where you dive deep will depend on where you’ve been and where you want to go.