Educator
You get a structured learning experience with clear outcomes, practical assignments, and a reason behind every step.
I'm Kristi.
40 years building businesses. 10 years teaching entrepreneurship at Butler University.
This is where those two worlds meet.
WHY THIS MATTERS FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Practical guidance from someone who has built, led, and taught it.
I created My Venture Coach for people who are serious about building something real and want a clearer way forward than scattered advice, guesswork, or another course that treats every business the same.
Your business changes as it grows. The decisions you face while clarifying an idea are different from the decisions required to launch it and grow it. That is why everything here is stage-based, practical, and designed around the work your venture needs now.
You are not learning from theory alone. You are learning from experience earned in the classroom, the boardroom, and inside businesses of my own.
40 yearsbuilding businesses
15 yearsteaching and working with founders
Multi-million-dollarbusinesses built and led
3 degreesin entrepreneurship, finance, and an MBA
Those are the credentials. What matters is how they help you make better decisions.
WHY I UNDERSTAND THE STAKES
I know what it means to build without a roadmap.
I grew up as the daughter of a single mother working multiple jobs. We experienced financial insecurity and homelessness. What I did have was a mother who believed in me and a determination not to let where I started decide where I would finish.
I started my first business at 15. That decision began a 40-year journey through entrepreneurship, more than a decade leading global operations at General Motors' Delco Remy division, and the work of co-founding GCR Security Experts in 2004.
Today, I continue to lead GCR Security Experts, which has grown to roughly 150 employees and serves individual clients as well as Fortune 500 companies. That experience means I understand the weight of payroll, the pressure of making decisions with incomplete information, and the discipline required to keep growing after the early excitement fades.
For the past 15 years, I have also taught entrepreneurship beyond Butler University and worked directly with founders. That work began through consulting, expanded through Launch HOPE, and evolved into My Venture Coach so I could bring practical, stage-based guidance to more entrepreneurs.
Across classrooms, consulting conversations, and businesses in motion, I kept seeing the same gap: too much entrepreneurship education stopped at information. Founders needed a way to turn what they were learning into decisions, evidence, and practical work for the business in front of them.
WHY MY VENTURE COACH EXISTS
Your business deserves guidance that grows with it.
At Butler University, I direct the Real Business Experience, where student teams build real ventures with real customers, real money, and real consequences. The work is practical because entrepreneurship is practical.
That experience reinforced what four decades in business had already taught me: a venture is a living, growing thing, and every entrepreneurial journey is personal. The work that matters while you are clarifying an idea is different from the work required to launch or grow it.
So is the life around that venture. You may have a few hours a week for a side hustle, want a lifestyle business that supports the life you value, or plan to build a company with employees. All are valid entrepreneurial paths. Your pace and definition of success belong to you.
01Map
Turn an idea into a business model grounded in customer evidence and clear choices.
02Launch
Translate that model into a focused plan for entering the market with confidence.
03Grow
Identify what is limiting progress and build a practical 90-day path forward.
My Venture Coach meets you where you are, helps you focus on what your business needs now, and gives you practical ways to keep moving at a pace that fits your life.
Celebrate every step forward
SEE HOW THE CEP WORKS
Begin with the course that fits your business today. Work through focused lessons at your own pace, put the learning to use right away, and earn a certificate that recognizes what you completed.
If your journey continues through Map, Launch, and Grow, those three course achievements build naturally toward the Certified Entrepreneurial Professional designation, brought together with one final assessment.
THE PRINCIPLE
You do not need more entrepreneurial noise.
You need the right next decision for the stage your business is in.
ONE GUIDE. THREE PERSPECTIVES.
Business education shaped by practice, leadership, and evidence.
Executive
You learn to think in systems, priorities, financial discipline, and the operating realities that support sustainable growth.
Entrepreneur
You get guidance tested in real companies, with real customers, real employees, and real money at stake.
Together, those perspectives help you replace uncertainty with a clearer decision, stronger evidence, and practical work you can use in your venture.
EXPLORE THE CEP PATHWAY
READY FOR A NEXT STEP THAT FITS?
Choose the kind of support that fits your life right now.
Your goal may be a side hustle, a lifestyle business, or a company you plan to grow with employees. Whether you have a few hours a week or are preparing to go all in, your next step should fit both your business and your life.
Six quick questions. Free. No purchase required.
Already know what kind of help would feel right?
01Work at my own paceExplore practical tools and self-paced learning you can use when your schedule allows.EXPLORE THE STORE 02Connect with communityBuild alongside other entrepreneurs with encouragement, shared experience, and ongoing support.EXPLORE COMMUNITY 03Get direct guidanceBring a specific decision or challenge to Kristi for focused, practical feedback.EXPLORE COACHING 04Support a groupBring stage-based entrepreneurship education and direct support to the people you serve.FOR ORGANIZATIONS
FIND YOUR PATH
