Become a Technical Marketer for Free

update: this opportunity is now over and yielded 131 applicants + 3 final recipients. here’s the recap.

i’ve published over 200 essays on marketing, technology, and leadership.

these ideas are inspired by:

• courses
• books
• programming
• conferences
• traveling
• years of experience (most important)

but before before all this, someone took a chance on me.

today i’m thrilled to return that favor.

why me

my growth course trains marketers to be genuine with their prospects. my software projects add value to honest businesses at scale.

learning these disciplines took years, sure, but also thousands of dollars and a lot of luck: people who encouraged me, bosses who were lenient about my qualifications, freelance clients who agreed to figure something out.

through the grace of others i won a full-ride scholarship to Silicon Valley.

now you can win a full ride, too.

introducing the Honest Marketer scholarship

i’m convinced marketers need to know how to manipulate machines. i’m convinced developers need to know how to talk to humans. i’m convinced co-founders are a fad and the polymath solo founder is the future of company building.

to put these ideas to the test i am sponsoring 3 candidates to learn to sell, learn to code, learn to manage, and learn to lead at a software company.

this package is worth $7,000+ and includes the following:

• programming – LaunchSchool.com for 2 years ($200 /month => $4,800)
• marketing – Million Dollar Marketer tuition ($1,999)
• leadership/management – 1:1 mentorship with me ($ ???)
• context – books ($200+)

instead of wasting years on trial and error, let me help you skip a few steps.

don’t be martyr.

genesis

two of my least favorite things: San Francisco and excuses. in the self-improvement realm, “can’t afford” is the most popular excuse and this scholarship will eliminate that for up to 3 people.

i debated how to roll out this program for weeks. do i partner with another organization? lock in discounts from Launch School, friendly authors, et al?

but that’s complicated. it requires permission. and i prefer doing things with my bare hands.

then i saw this tweet, which accelerated my timeline:

The next Lambda School experiment I want to try:

* Housing in San Francisco for 1 yr
* $500/mo living stipend for 1 yr
* Macbook + external monitors
* 30 week full-time iOS + CS training
* Career services

$0 until making $80k+, then 10% of salary for four years, capped at $40k

— Austen λ (@Austen) December 8, 2018

from what i understand, Lambda School is a $0 down, ~$30k paid later business model for coding classes. the new idea, tweeted above, is a $40k fee in exchange for added housing and a stipend.

yet San Francisco is a horrible place to live, so i consider that perk a net-negative.

the alternative to paying $40k to sniff homeless poop is the Honest Marketer scholarship, which costs $0 and lets you live wherever you want.

how to apply

we’ve all witnessed discrimination in selection processes… colleges, orchestras, dodge ball tournaments.

for this reason i will not permit personal emails, “charm,” in-person interviews, or anything else that would give 1 candidate an unfair advantage over another.

i don’t even want to know your name, gender, race, age, location, if you graduated college, or whether you stand or sit while wiping your ass.

to apply for the Honest Marketer scholarship, complete this Google Form:
https://goo.gl/forms/OsubRaCkXetsY17J2

1. responses feed into a spreadsheet
2. a trusted collaborator will assign every applicant a unique ID
3. i will be given a copy of unique IDs + responses (no Name or Email)

with this i will evaluate candidates based on answer quality, then contact my top choices anonymously via the same collaborator. after final probing questions are answered by shortlisted candidates, i will make a decision.

timeline

i will grant 1 scholarship per 100 applicants, up to 3 scholarships total.

this is unscientific, but a selection pool of 100+ applicants seems like a reasonable quantity from which to garner quality. it also incentivizes applicants to share the opportunity, a mechanism absent in most good products.

applications are open today (Dec 11) through January 31, 2019.

everyone who applies will hear from me by February 8, 2019, and the 2nd+ rounds of questions will begin at that time. recipient(s) will be chosen by February 22, 2019, with a public announcement to follow.

i give a FAQ

if i botch my application, can i apply again?
yes, but please do so soon after. my assistant will use your name/email to de-dupe and will keep the newest one.

do i need to be in tech to be chosen?
no, but i’m using answers to decipher sincerity. someone who never previously considered the tech industry should not pursue an offer like this to “break in.”

i’m already good at programming / marketing. should i apply?
probably not. we only have a few “bullets” so i would like to make the biggest impact possible… a zero to one.

is this related to Fomo?
great question, no. Fomo cares deeply about honesty, but this is a personal project.

what’s the catch?
there is no catch.

my question isn’t answered.
express your concerns and i will respond publicly, here.

i look forward to working with you.

good luck!