What is the path, and what does each workshop do?

The path is the linear sequence of workshops that takes you from a rough idea to a validated business. Each workshop is designed to be finished in one sitting. It is the first thing you see when you open Draper and it stays there, so you always know where you are and what comes next.

What a workshop is

A workshop is one working session with a defined output. You sit down, work through it with Draper, and come away with something finished rather than a reading list or a set of homework.

They run in order because each one depends on the last. The Idea Summary captures the idea; the Biz Plan tests it; everything after that builds on both. Working through them out of order would mean researching a business whose foundations have not been settled yet.

What the path is for

The end of the path is a business with real customers who are interested in the product, and a clear read on whether to keep building or to change direction.

That second part matters as much as the first. The path is built to give you an honest answer, and sometimes the honest answer is that this version of the idea does not hold up. Finding that out at the end of a few focused sessions is the point — it is far cheaper than finding it out after a year of building.

Where the path starts

The first workshop is the Idea Summary, a guided conversation that gets the idea out of your head and onto paper. The second is the Biz Plan, where Draper challenges those assumptions and researches them.

From there the path works through the foundations a business needs before anyone spends money on it — brand, product, customer, website, ads — and ends with real demand tested in the market. Each workshop tells you what it covers, what it is for, and roughly how long it takes before you start it, and they unlock in order as you go.