Before you apply, read this please
The reality check
You’re good at what you do, clients love your work, and the revenue looks fine on paper. I was there for years, running what I called an agency and what it really was: me freelancing with a few people on payroll. Every day was client delivery, team questions, sales calls and fires, and every new client meant more of all of it. Revenue went up and my time went with it.
Take a week off, everything stops. Get sick, projects fall behind.
You wake up to Slack messages from your team asking things they’ve asked before. You’re reviewing work at 11pm because nobody else holds the quality bar, or that’s what you tell yourself. You’re on every sales call, every kickoff, every handover, so the agency’s capacity is your calendar.
You’ve hired people, and somehow you’re working more hours than when you were solo. That’s just getting busier with a bigger payroll.
I know all of this because it was my week, for years. Here’s what it looked like, and I’d bet it looks the same for you.
Problems most of us face
What we’ve figured out scaling to $200k months
So for contrast, this is roughly what my week looks like now, with DesignMe at $140-200k a month, a bit over $2M this year, and a team of 16 (we scaled back thanks to AI and upskilling).
Sunday
I sit down for about four hours and do the content for the whole week. That’s the marketing department.
Monday to Friday
One to three hours of admin a day. I read the summary my bots put together overnight, do a quick sync with Luke, go through email and look at the numbers. Sales calls sit on top of that, and I still take most of them myself.
The team
Runs client projects I don’t have to see anymore. Onboarding, delivery and quality control are all written down, with a person whose job it is to run them, so a project can start, ship and get signed off without me in the thread.
The rest of the time
Is mine. I work on things I want to work on, like this cohort, I build stuff and test it, and afternoons I’m home with my family. A few years ago that same afternoon was me reviewing design files at 11pm and making changes until 2am.
It took me over ten years and a lot of expensive mistakes to get here. Every bit of it is a system that’s written down, and that’s what we set up in your agency over the eight weeks.
Pre-sale ends Sunday, November 1
What we’ll set up together
Positioning and going upmarket
We used to charge $5,000 a project, then $15,000, then $30,000. Now most of our larger deals land between $50,000 and $150,000, and the work itself is very close to what we were doing years ago.
What changed was the words on the website, how the case studies are framed, and what the site looks like to someone with a real budget to spend. And yes, it has to be built in a certain way.
I’ll show you exactly what we changed at each price jump, which words pull funded companies in, how to present the work so it brings $50k+ leads, and what your site needs to look like to justify the bigger number. Then we rebuild yours the same way during the cohort.
Increasing lifetime value
A $30k project is worth $30k. The same client on a retainer for ten months is worth $60-100k+: same work, same client, same team. The only difference is what happens after the first project ends.
Most of our clients start on a single fixed project, no lock-in, nothing auto-recurring. We deliver months one to three, then price the retainer on how it went, and they say yes because they’ve already seen what we do. That’s why the average client stays 6-10+ months, and why half our revenue this year came from clients we’d already closed.
You’ll get the timing, the pricing math and the exact conversation: when to raise it, what to charge, and what to say when they want to think about it.
Content and lead gen
About four hours every Sunday are enough to produce 20-30 leads each month.
I use a simple AI journaling workflow and a content system I put together myself. The rest of the week it runs on its own and keeps the pipeline full of people who already get how we think before they book a call.
I’ll show you the whole thing: what to post, when to post it, and how the journaling workflow plus some simple design post curation turns a normal work week into a week of content.
Personal brand and growth
I went from 0 to 650K followers across platforms in about four years, built a 60K email list and sold 25K+ digital products.
There’s a system behind it that I’ve refined the whole way through, and when I ran it with a few friends it worked for them too.
You get the part that turns followers into buyers, and the whole audience into an organic funnel built around the agency, so the next time a prospect googles you, the decision is already half made.
Sales process and retention
This is how we close $50-100k deals with funded startups. On the call I work out where the client is now, where they’re trying to get to, and what that gap is worth to them, and the price gets built from that.
Anchored high, objections surfaced and handled before a number comes up, and the proposal review booked before the call ends, so deals don’t go quiet in an inbox.
You’ll get our call framework and our proposal template, and we’ll run your live deals through it during the cohort.
Delivery and operations
Everything’s documented now. Client onboarding, delivery, quality control and team communication all run on written systems with a project manager on the day-to-day, and my team runs complex projects I never see.
Once delivery runs without you, you can sell more without working more, take on bigger projects without the quality slipping, and step away for real when you need to.
We’ll share the SOPs and frameworks we use. No need to build from scratch what already works at our size.
Team building
We went from me doing everything to a team of 16 (25 at the peak). I’ll show you who to hire first and when, what to pay them, where to find people who are good, and how to run a test task that tells you something real before you commit.
Then the harder part: taking yourself out of delivery. Which decisions your team makes without you, what the daily rhythm looks like, and what to do when someone isn’t working out.
You get our job descriptions, test tasks and onboarding docs.
AI and automation
We run a set of AI tools and workflows that take the routine work off people’s plates. It’s cut our operating costs by about $50K a year, and the work comes out more consistent and faster than when a person did it by hand.
The middle of all that is what I call the agency’s second brain: an AI setup that knows how DesignMe runs. Our processes, standards, clients and voice all live in the system now. It drafts in our tone, answers the questions my team used to bring to me, and handles the routine stuff that used to eat everyone’s hours. It’s a big part of why my admin is 1-3 hours a day, down from about 10.
We build yours in week one so you’re running on it for the rest of the cohort. You get the skills, SOPs and assets we use, set up alongside whatever you already have rather than replacing it.
You get our actual SOPs, templates and contracts with all of this. And it’s not organised as topics to learn, it’s organised as 8 weeks of implementation.
Pre-sale ends Sunday, November 1
How the 8 weeks run
Every Sunday the new week’s lessons drop, so you can see everything before the week starts. Work through them at your own pace, then connect live with us on Friday at 5pm Warsaw time (CET), and use Saturday to finish anything you’ve still got open before the new week starts.
1xKickoff call
We meet before week one to go through the pre-training together, get your tools and access set up, and walk through the next 8 weeks, so by the time the first lessons drop you know where everything is.
8xSystem implementation calls
One call a week, following the systems in order. You bring whatever you’re stuck on implementing that week, we fix it together on the call, and then we look ahead to next Sunday.
1xFinal plan review
Once the 8 weeks are done, we turn everything you’ve built into your 6-month plan, review it live together, and map out what you do next.
What happens after the cohort?
The cohort turns into the community, and you get two months in it for free: one Q&A call a month, two operations deep-dives a month with me and Luke, and new lessons whenever we build or change something at DesignMe. After the two months you can stay on monthly if it’s worth it to you.
Every call is recorded and posted the same day.
The community part
The cohort ends after 60 days. The room doesn’t.
What we’ll go through
Week 1
Agency control room
We score where your agency sits today, then build the second brain, set up your CRM in Attio, and pull all your numbers into one dashboard, so by the end of week one you can see the whole business on one screen.
Week 2
Positioning, offers and pricing
How our pricing went from $5k to $150k: choosing the ICP, naming your offers, building a rate card, and setting scope properly so revisions stop eating your margins.
Week 3
Delivery OS
Everything from onboarding through to handover: the Client OS, the project management structure, the SOPs, quality control, and a revision policy that holds up when a client pushes on it.
Week 4
Existing revenue and sales
We audit every current client for expansion, work through how to move projects into retainers, then go through the discovery call, the proposal and the follow-up exactly as we run them.
Week 5
Proof, website and content engine
Case studies written to sell, your homepage copy rewritten for higher budgets, and the four-hour content session that turns one Sunday into a month of posts.
Week 6
Outbound and partnerships
Building target lists, spotting buying triggers, writing cold DMs and emails that land warm, and setting up referral partnerships that send work your way.
Week 7
Team OS
Your first hire and when to make it, what to pay, where to find people, how to run a test task, and the sequence for pulling yourself out of delivery.
Week 8
CEO OS
The monthly finance review that took our agency margin from 39% to 65%, every bot I run daily as a founder, and a 180-day plan built backwards from your target.
Want to see the full curriculum?
Every lesson, week by week, in one sheet.
| Week | Day | Lesson |
|---|---|---|
| Week 2 | Mon | How we went from $5k to $150k projects |
| Week 2 | Mon | Decide the ICP you're attracting |
| Week 2 | Mon | What to say no to: bad fits, the six refunds, red flags |
| Week 2 | Tue | Turning "we do design" into named offers |
| Week 2 | Wed | Building your rate card and pricing projects |
| Week 2 | Wed | Where agencies lose deals on price |
| Week 2 | Wed | Pricing recurring work: the floor and the math |
| Week 2 | Thu | What's in, what's out, what a revision is |
| Week 2 | Thu | Jurisdiction and contract basics: pointer only, full treatment Week 3 Mon |
| Week 2 | Fri | Assemble offer, price and scope into the thing you sell |
| Week 2 | Fri | Friday live call, 5pm Warsaw time (CET): integration and weekend task briefing |
| Week 6 | Mon | Translate the Week 2 ICP into targetable criteria: company size, funding stage, signals |
| Week 6 | Tue | GTM basics: building your target list |
| Week 6 | Wed | Buying triggers |
| Week 6 | Thu | Cold outreach: DMs, email and the follow-up, now running warm |
| Week 6 | Fri | Partnerships and referral relationships |
| Week 6 | Fri | Friday live call, 5pm Warsaw time (CET): integration and weekend task briefing |
The investment
$2,250
$3,000 from November 2
Pre-sale ends Sunday, November 1
What you’re really getting:
Access to the behind-the-scenes of a $140-200k a month agency that runs on 1-3 hours of admin a day.
Eight weeks of the systems we use ourselves, taught live: the second brain and the automations first, then the CRM and the pipeline, the delivery OS that ships projects without me on every call, the sales process behind our $50-150k deals, the content engine, the outbound, the hiring, and the monthly finance review that took our margin from 39% to 65%. Every SOP, template and doc we run internally is handed over so you can copy it straight into your own agency.
You get me and Luke on a live call every Friday for the whole eight weeks. Bring your website, your pricing, your proposal or your live deal and we go through it together. The recordings and the material stay with you through the two months in the community, and when that’s over you’re in the alumni Slack with everyone else who went through it.
Or split it: 2 x $1,200, at signup and on day 30.
Why not gatekeep?
Ever since I started sharing my story and progress online, I’ve been getting 20-30 coaching requests a month from people who want to know how we run things: what systems we use, how we structure the team, how we handle clients, feedback and upsells. For years I never had a good way to give back, because there was no format where I could help beyond the occasional call. That changed once I pulled myself out of delivery. The agency runs without me sitting in it now, and that’s what gave me the time to build something properly.
So I figured, why not a live cohort?
This gives people an insider view of how we operate: the real systems, the processes and the behind-the-scenes most people never get to see. Whatever it brings in goes straight back into growing DesignMe, because we’re heading for $3M, then $5M, then $10M ARR and beyond, and everything I learn on the way gets passed back in.
Once it launches, the cohort becomes a community, with new lessons going in as we build things, test things, win and get things wrong. As far as I can tell there’s no place online for design founders that’s run by someone doing it right now, so that’s what this is meant to be.
Eight weeks of the cohort, then two months inside the community on us, because you’re the people trusting this before anyone has been through it. After that it’s monthly if you want to stay.
I think the market is big enough for all of us. I don’t believe in competition, design is not a zero-sum game, and if I help you grow you might help me back one day, which is how this industry has always worked for me. Most of what I know came from people sharing what worked for them, and this is me passing it on.
What got us to where we are is not what will get us to $5M. Every stage has needed different systems, a different team and a different version of me, and the next one will too. That’s the next goal, and the cohort is part of how we get there: we build it in the open, and you get every step as we take it.
Where we are
$2M+
this year, $140-200k a month
Next
$3M ARR
with the systems in this cohort
Then
$5M ARR
the goal we’re building for now
After that
$10M ARR
and everything we learn goes back in
Adrian, founder of DesignMe
Now, are you a good fit for the agency accelerator cohort?
This is for you if
This won’t work if
- Not a fit: You’re doing less than $10k a month. Focus on content and your foundations first, then come back when you’re ready to scale.
- Not a fit: You want to stay solo and just charge more. This is about teams and systems, so you design less and grow more.
- Not a fit: You’re looking for quick fixes and growth hacks
- Not a fit: You want pre-recorded courses instead of live coaching
- Not a fit: You aren’t willing to invest time in the calls and in building proper infrastructure
Is there a limit on spots?
No hard cap. Doors close at the first live call on Friday, November 6, so everyone starts together. The next cohort will cost more.
However many people join, we will still:
- Review what you’re building each week, not just broadcast information at you
- Give real answers to your situation on every call: your deals, your hires, your pricing
- Keep the Slack useful, a working room of serious operators instead of a noisy feed
- Know whose agency is whose, so the week 8 plan review is about your business, not a template
Still have questions?
Who is this for?
Agency founders and freelancers doing $10-30k a month who want to get to $100k. You should have clients already, some kind of process, and be the bottleneck in your own business.
Why $2,250?
One extra client at your normal rate covers it several times over, and most of what’s inside took me years and a lot of expensive mistakes to work out. It’s $2,250 during the pre-sale until Sunday, November 1, then $3,000 (or 2 x $1,200) until doors close at the first live call on Friday, November 6, and the first cohort is the most affordable it will ever be.
Is there a payment plan?
Paid in full is the default, and if it helps you can split it: 2 x $1,200, at signup and on day 30. Both options are on the checkout page you get once your application goes through.
Do you offer refunds?
No. There’s an application step before you can join so we can check the fit before anyone pays. If it isn’t right for you, I’ll tell you.
Do I need to have a team already?
No. Week 7 covers your first hire, what to pay, where to find people and how to run a test task. Plenty of people come in solo.
What if I’m below $10k a month?
Most of the material still applies, but the pricing, hiring and delivery lessons assume you have work coming in to systemise, so the application will point you to the waitlist and I’ll let you know when there’s something built for that stage.
How much time does this take each week?
Lessons run Monday to Friday and take roughly 30 to 60 minutes a day. There’s a live call every Friday at 5pm Warsaw time (CET), and one task over the weekend. Budget 5 to 7 hours a week.
What if I can’t make the live calls?
Every call is recorded and posted the same day. Send your questions in beforehand and I’ll answer them on the call, so you still get a direct response.
Are you actually on the calls?
Yes, every one of them. Luke runs the operations and automation sessions with me.
How is this different from a course?
Courses get recorded once and left alone. This runs live while the agency is still scaling, so what you see is what we’re using that week. You bring your own website, pricing, proposal or deal and we work on it in front of everyone.
Do I need to be technical for the AI and automation parts?
No. Luke walks through the setup step by step, from Obsidian and the MCP connections to the bots we run daily. Follow along and you’ll have a working version by the end of week one.
What if I’m not a design agency?
Most of it transfers to any service business. The examples, case studies and templates are all from a design and development agency, so you’ll get the most out of it if that’s what you run.
When does it start?
November 2nd. Payment and onboarding happen before then, and you get the pre-program training to watch before the first week starts.
Will you run this again?
Not sure yet. Our plan is to run one live cohort every three to six months. The first cohort is the most affordable it will ever be.
Next steps
If this sounds like what you’ve been missing, go through the application below, and if you’re a fit you get the checkout link straight away and can grab your spot right now. If you’re still not sure, book a call with me and Luke and we’ll go through where your agency is and whether the eight weeks fit.
Pre-sale ends Sunday, November 1
The pre-sale runs until Sunday, November 1 and the price goes to $3,000 after that, so if you’re in, now’s the cheaper time to be in. The call is for anyone who wants to talk it through before deciding: twenty minutes, no pitch, just a look at where you’re at and what you’d build over the eight weeks.
Either way, you’re joining a small group of agency owners who are here to build, not to collect another course, and who’ll be in the room with you every Friday.