About SVBS
We teach how business in the tech sector actually works.
Silicon Valley Business School helps ambitious professionals and founders go from idea to exit — with self-paced courses, a deep entrepreneurial Knowledgebase, and AI guides built on a startup methodology developed over more than two decades. Every course is written for the tech sector, which is a specialization rather than a boundary: the law, finance and governance material is what any manager needs. Open to everyone, everywhere, all the time.
Meet the founder
A few minutes with David Smith
SVBS founder and author of Zero to IPO, David explains how the school came to be — and how its courses, Knowledgebase and AI guides work together to get you where you’re going.
David Smith, Founder & author of “Zero to IPO”
What you get
One ecosystem, from first course to funded startup
Three enrollments, and they stack rather than replace one another. Start with the courses; add the pieces you need when your startup needs them.
Business School Enrollment
Courses & Knowledgebase
Self-paced courses across business, finance and law, written for the tech sector. Where a general program offers one survey course in business law, SVBS teaches business organizations, contracts, intellectual property, mergers and acquisitions, and securities regulation separately. Prof, your AI tutor, is built into every course and every Knowledgebase resource, and each course you finish earns a certificate of completion.
$50/month · per person, however many startups you run
Certified Tech Entrepreneur
A defined path through the catalog: a named set of required courses, each passed with its certificate, ending in the Silicon Valley Business School Certified Tech Entrepreneur certificate. It is held by a person rather than a company, it is permanent, and it stays yours if you move on to a different startup. It is also what a startup’s founder must hold before that startup can graduate.
Included · no extra charge
Milestone Progress Enrollment
Sherpa, your startup guide
Set your destination, map the milestones that get you there, and watch your Momentum Score move as you hit them. Sherpa guides the whole journey — seed, early, expansion and on to an exit or a listing — not just the fundraise. You can grant an investor or advisor Stakeholder access to follow it in real time.
$100/month · per startup
Startup Funding Program Enrollment
Sandy, your funding guide
The artifacts an investor actually reads — financial model, pitch deck, one-pager, video pitch, data room index, investor update — each built, submitted and critiqued by Sandy against a marking guide published before you start. Then the Consistency Audit and the Mock Investor Pitch. Revise and resubmit as often as you need; there are no deadlines and no attempt limits.
$100/month · per startup
The Startup Investor Network
Investors apply, are reviewed by staff, and are enrolled into the Investor Hub. There they browse the Graduate Pitch Panel by sector, stage and round size, request pitch materials, and ask founders for Stakeholder access to watch progress live. Every startup shown has met the published graduation standard and is run by a certified founder.
Free · investor application and staff review
The VR Conference Center
An online conference center and campus you reach from any browser on any device, with immersive mode if you have a headset. Move through the space as an avatar and attend webinars, investor Q&A sessions, panels and mixers — with expert AI bots as well as live people.
Included · join from any browser
How it works
Your startup, mapped as a journey
Building a company is hard, and the hardest part is knowing what to do next. The Sherpa methodology treats the path to a successful exit like an expedition: pick a destination, plot a route, build a team, and keep your momentum as you climb through each stage. It is what the Milestone Progress system runs on.
Seed → Early → Expansion → Mezzanine → exit or listing
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1
Target your destination
Define what you’re aiming for — an IPO, an acquisition, or sustainable profitability.
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2
Pick your team
Assemble a lean, committed team aligned on reaching the destination.
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3
Plot your course
Map the key milestones and identify the obstacles in your way.
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4
Gather your provisions
Line up the funding, people and resources each stage requires.
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5
Maintain momentum
Keep moving and keep stakeholders engaged with steady, visible progress.
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6
Take your bearings
Check your position and progress before the cash runs low.
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7
Prepare for contingencies
Have a backup plan ready for the challenges you can see coming.
Ready to raise
The Startup Funding Program
Most startups never raise — usually not because the idea was weak, but because the startup was never investment ready, and no investor had a way to verify otherwise. The Startup Funding Program closes those gaps systematically, against a standard published in full before you start — and gives investors a way to see that they are closed.
We prepare founders. We qualify deal flow. Then we bring them together.
We prepare founders
Structured funding preparation across the required courses, with Sandy — an AI with deep knowledge of the startup funding process — critiquing every artifact against its marking guide and running mock investor pitches you can revise and re-pitch until you are ready for the real room.
We qualify deal flow
Graduation is measured against a published standard: the required courses passed, the required milestones achieved, a Momentum Score at or above the threshold and recently updated, every artifact passed, the Consistency Audit clear, and the Mock Investor Pitch passed. Startups that meet it become SVBS Graduated Startups.
We bring them together
Graduates appear in the Graduate Pitch Panel inside the Investor Hub, browsable by sector, stage and round size. Investors request pitch materials directly, ask for Stakeholder access to follow Milestone Progress live, and meet founders at VR Conference Center events.
The program runs at $100/month per startup, and it sits on top of Milestone Progress Enrollment at $100/month per startup and Business School Enrollment at $50/month per person — so one startup in the full program is $250/month. No equity, at any point. You do not need the Certified Tech Entrepreneur certificate to enroll; you need it to graduate.
Explore the ProgramOur story
From a Silicon Valley seminar room to the world
SVBS began as a series of seminars and panels in the heart of Silicon Valley, gathering the entrepreneurs, investors and advisors who actually build and fund companies. Demand took the programs on the road — to Seattle, Mexico City, Barcelona, Montreal, Hong Kong and Auckland — revealing a worldwide thirst for practical, real-world business education.
We moved the curriculum online, recorded lectures, and built one of the most comprehensive learning systems of its kind. The “Silicon Valley Business School” trademark was granted by the USPTO in 2011, and in 2012 SVBS Co. was established as a Delaware corporation, spun out of Cambridge Manhattan Group, LLC.
Along the way, SVBS spawned Silicon Valley High School, a separately operated, accredited online school now serving more than 115,000 students — and still growing.