The First Anvil Founder Cohort is Here and They're Ready to Scale

On January 29th, we welcomed the inaugural cohort of The CEO Strategy's Anvil Founder Coaching Program to Avenu Workspaces to kick off the program.

This six-month program is all about equipping these 11 startup founders with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to scale their businesses. But more than that, it’s about meeting founders where they are, understanding their unique challenges, and helping them turn their goals into actionable steps.

We have a variety of founders at different stages working on different products and services. The one thing that ties them all together? They have clear goals for what they want to achieve over the next 6 months. In the first training, I told them that they choose the pace they want to execute. If they want to sprint, we’ll sprint right alongside them.
— Max Polec, Executive Coach with The CEO Strategy.

The program has three main goals:

  1. Share training on key topics and theory to help founders build their startups and their growth as a business leader. 

  2. Work with each founder to apply the theory covered in trainings to their specific context through office hours, 1:1 coaching, and additional mentor speakers. 

  3. Most importantly, empower the founders to take what they are learning and turn it into action. 

Each month, the cohort will explore critical topics like productivity, customer discovery, problem validation, growth strategy, fundraising, and leadership. By spring, they’ll take the stage at a showcase event to share their progress and the businesses they are building.

Meet the Founders

Baktybek Asanov of Nova Cleaning Service

Nova Cleaning Service LLC is a growing company providing professional residential cleaning services, with plans to expand into a full-scale home service company offering a variety of solutions for homeowners in Pittsburgh, PA.

Stephanie Barchetti of innermore

Innermore is a groundbreaking health-tech platform designed to empower individuals to take control of their health by building foundational skills, fostering health literacy, and creating personalized, real-time support. 

Rene Canady of Equity Systems Design Consulting

Equity Systems Design Consulting bridges the gap between biomedical engineering and real-world social needs through strategy, inclusive design, research, and education.

Georgia Crowther of Reclamation Factory

Reclamation Factory is making plastic recycling real and accessible by building automated recycling micro-factories that turn plastic waste into new, useful products on-site.

Sophia Fang of Peachy Day

Peachy Day is an integrative migraine care app providing health tracking, neurologist video visits, and coaching to reduce migraine severity for life.

Mitchell Fogelson of Beyond Reach Labs

Beyond Reach Labs is creating rapidly deployable infrastructure for defense and disaster relief.

Victoria Kallsen of Build Bedrock

Build Bedrock is a revenue generation agency that lands tech startups their first 50 B2B customers.

Miles Mufuka Martin of Relai

Relai is building hyperlocal infrastructure so anyone can drop off and pick up items asynchronously.

Priscilla Prem of Pittsburgh Coastal Energy

Pittsburgh Coastal Energy is powering underwater drones using energy harvested from ocean waves.

Olivia Suchko of Olive

Olive is democratizing made-to-measure clothing by modernizing the product development process with technology and robotics.

Prem Viswanathan of SwiftCX

SwiftCX is an AI-enabled CX platform that increases customer satisfaction through automation and helps CX teams be more efficient.

Early-stage founders face a unique set of challenges. Having direct access to experienced mentors and tactical coaching can be a game-changer for navigating the ambiguity of building a startup. I’m excited to support this cohort, connect them with the broader Pittsburgh startup ecosystem, and see them tap into the incredible resources and networks that can accelerate their success.
— Charles Mansfield, Startup Ecosystem Manager at InnovatePGH

Stay up to date with the Anvil Founder Coaching Program 

The Anvil Founder Coaching Program is just getting started and we can't wait to see where it goes. With monthly training, office hours, and workshops led by some of Pittsburgh’s most experienced mentors, this program is designed to not only support the current cohort but to leave a lasting resource for the broader founder community.

Whether you’re an early-stage entrepreneur looking to sharpen your strategy or a founder ready to take your business to the next level, there’s an opportunity to get involved. All program trainings will be recorded and made available to founders outside the cohort, ensuring access to valuable insights and training.

Ready to be part of what’s next? Join the Anvil Founder Coaching Program waitlist today and take the first step toward scaling your startup.

Charles Mansfield III