THE CLIMB · A FUTURE STATE FOUND PROGRAM

You Built a Team. You Expected Relief.
You Got a Second Job.

You're managing everyone and leading no one, because there's no time left to lead.
Cohorts capped at 6 founders · New cohorts start monthly

The Problem...

  • Delegated work bounces back.
  • Decisions queue up waiting for you.
  • Priorities shift often enough that the team hedges instead of committing.
  • Ten things are "in motion," and almost nothing reaches done and adopted.

Here's the truth the data backs: at this stage, failures are management failures, not market failures. And it's not you. Your team can't carry the change yet. That's measurable, and it's fixable.

If you're like most founders I work with, your problem isn't a shortage of ideas. It's the opposite. Too many strategies. Too many half-started initiatives. A business that still runs through you, and a nagging awareness that the last three big pushes all followed the same arc: kickoff energy, early progress, then day-to-day business won, and the thing quietly stalled at 60% done.

Here's what three decades of leading teams through transformations taught me: that arc isn't a discipline problem. Studies put transformation failure between 70 and 88% and roughly 80% of what decides the outcome is behavioral, not technical. The humans. Whether "done" was ever defined. Whether the team was ready to carry it. Whether the work survived contact with the urgent.

 - Mark R Cooley
Founder, Future State Found

How the Climb Works

The Climb is a 4-month program for founders of  businesses running too many initiatives with a stretched team and a history of big pushes that stall halfway. In four months, we measure your team's readiness, build your plan together, launch it with your people, and stay on it until it holds.
1. Prepare
2. Build
3. Activate

1. Prepare: Team Insight and Shared Context

The virtual format is designed to give you enough time to both run your company and invest what is needed to learn, work with your team, and gain real traction, all during the process, together. Before the live virtual sessions begin, your team completes the Team ATLAS-ESI™ assessment and targeted intake work.

The founder completes a focused intake about the business, the challenge ahead, and what needs to change. Participants also provide their perspective, helping surface patterns, opportunities, and differences in how the team sees the work.

Mark reviews the inputs and prepares a tailored program-readiness report to guide the prep session with the founder.

Included in Preparation: 
  • Team ATLAS-ESI™ assessment for up to five participants
  • Founder intake
  • Participant intake and perspective gathering
  • A 60-minute founder pre-call to review early themes, clarify context, and prepare for the sessions
  • **A brief 15-minute individual check-in with the team to introduce the process, clarify roles, surface early questions, and help the team participate in the work (if needed)
  • A tailored program-readiness report based on the assessment, intake, and conversations

 2. Build: Two Facilitated Virtual Working Sessions

Three live working sessions (2 hours each, small group, two weeks) where you build your plan: vetted, focused, and sequenced to what your business can actually absorb. You learn to operate the system, the DELIVER Operating System (DELIVER OS™), along with the execution frameworks for prioritization, decisions, and leadership follow-through. You do this by using it on your real business, not on case studies.

Between sessions, founders take responsibility for defined pieces of the work and collaborate on a shared draft plan with their team. This is where the team begins moving from discussion into ownership.

The Standard Format Includes:
  • Three live virtual working sessions
  • Approximately two hours per session, including a break
  • Applied work using the Future State Found operating system (DELIVER OS™)
  • Team review of ATLAS-ESI™ and intake insights
  • Structured activities, facilitated discussion, and practical exercises
  • Between-session plan-building work
  • Review and refinement of the team’s draft action plan

3. Activate: Put the Plan Into Practice

When your plan is ready, Mark joins you and your team for the launch session. The moment most initiatives get wrong. Your people hear the plan, see the readiness data, and start with ownership instead of compliance.

Monthly group session (90 minutes): wins, stalls, and one deep teaching topic. Six owners in the same fight, holding each other honest. Two strategic 1:1s, placed where climbs actually break: at 30 days post-launch (is it holding?) and at 75 days (the second-hard-decision window, where most initiatives quietly die). Direct access when you're stuck: one named channel, answered within one business day. Graduation review at 90 days post-launch: your scorecard against the plan, what's now durable in your business, and an honest conversation about what's next.

What You Leave With:
  • A finished, launched initiative, not a binder. Ninety days of supported execution behind it.
  • Your leadership team's readiness map, and a team that's been through a real launch done right.
  • The system installed: the frameworks for prioritizing, deciding, and keeping leadership engaged. Durable skills you'll run on everything that comes next.
  • A business that, on this initiative at least, no longer runs only through you.

WHO IT'S FOR / NOT FOR

  • For: Founders, and founder-operators of $1M–$10M businesses (roughly 10–100 people) with a real initiative on the table: an AI push, a systems overhaul, scaling, growth, a new way of operating, and the honesty to measure before launching.
  • Not for: solopreneurs (no team to transform), businesses in immediate cash crisis (fix that first), or anyone looking for a course to watch. This is a working program. You build, you launch, you execute.
Want deeper, dedicated, on-site work with your organization over a longer arc? That's The Expedition. The Climb is where most owners should start.

ABOUT ME

I'm Mark R Cooley. I spent 25 years leading large scale change initiatives, global enterprise IT portfolios, strategy work with the Gates Foundation, before building Future State Found to bring that system to businesses that will never hire a big consultancy. I built the ATLAS-ESI™ diagnostic, wrote the book on the method (Future State Found, out October 20), and I run my own company on the same system, deliberately AI-native, so my time goes where it matters: this work.

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Apply for the Next Cohort

The first step is booking a call with Mark to see if this is the right fit for you.

INVESTMENT

Founding cohort rate: $4,900 — (regular program price: $7,900) 

The founding rate exists because early cohorts trade me something valuable: proof. You'll be asked for honest feedback and, if the program earns it, a testimonial. That's the whole deal.

Includes: the full team diagnostic (a $997 program on its own), the readiness readout, all working sessions, your team launch session, three months of execution support, and the graduation review.

Applying isn't enrolling. It's a short form plus a 20-minute Roadmap Call with me where we'll map where your business is currently and make sure The Climb is the right move. If it isn't, I'll tell you what is.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How much time does this take?

A: Month 1: ~8 hours across four weeks (sessions + diagnostic). Months 2–4: ~3 hours a month plus the execution work itself, which you were going to do anyway; now it's supported.

Q: Is this live or recorded?

A: Live. Everything. Sessions are small-group and virtual; recordings provided if you miss one.

Q: What if my initiative isn't AI?

A: The system is initiative-agnostic: AI push, operations overhaul, growth reorganization. If it's big and it has to stick, it fits.

Q: What if I can't make a cohort date?

A: Cohorts start monthly. The application call will find your best timing slot.

Q: Refunds?

A: Full refund within 7 days of enrollment or before your diagnostic is issued, whichever comes first. After working sessions begin: no refunds, but a one-time transfer to a later cohort.

Q: What happens after the four months?

A: Most owners graduate with the system running. Some continue into The Expedition for deeper, dedicated work. The graduation review is where we figure that out honestly.

Not Ready to Apply, But Still Interested?

Book a 20-minute discovery call to learn more about The Climb and our other solutions, to find the right fit for you.