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P.S. I wrote the Armenian version of this entire text myself; I asked Claude to translate it and place it on this landing page.
The background, the idea, and why I would love to do this with EPIC.
Since 2016, I have been studying methods of self-knowledge, self-development, health, and the preservation of intellect and consciousness from a variety of sources: psychology, neurobiology, philosophy, science, spiritual teachings, and more. Beyond theoretical study, I have run numerous experiments on myself and with my friends, recorded the results, analyzed them, and gained well-grounded knowledge. Throughout this time, I have observed the state and activity of people in our country and identified three problems that are interconnected, and on which no work is being done with a methodology that leads to a meaningful solution:
People do not know the details and possibilities of their vital resources: health and vital force (energy), emotions, intellect and reason. They cannot manage their own state and end up in chronic stress.
Today in Armenia, people's minds and hearts are filled with destructive thoughts and emotions: hatred, envy, greed, indifference, anger… This has turned into an active background state and has become a major obstacle to real development in any field. There is no talk of true love; it is absent, and cannot exist, in people living in such a state.
Yes, we have great resources in our country: people with deep knowledge and experience, connections all over the world, various funding channels. But they are scattered; they do not unite and focus on solving essential strategic programs.
Working on exactly these problems became my goal in 2024, and I developed a long-term social program called "Lusakamar." I met and spoke with specialists and experts from different fields, and with people who have financial resources, to try to unite resources and work actively in this direction. Unfortunately, people did not believe in my efforts alone; they neither joined nor supported the program.
It was with this program's core toolkit — the HumanUp model — that I joined the EPIC program, aiming to understand whether it could be turned into a viable product capable of generating income to fund my programs.
To put the essence of the program briefly:
8–12 young people spend a full year intensively focusing on self-development: they learn to use their great vital resources and free themselves from destructive thoughts and emotions. In parallel, they work on the "100 Perspectives" strategic program, which involves meeting and holding discussions with people who have deep knowledge, experience, connections, and financial resources. The topic of discussion is the educational and entrepreneurial sphere in Armenia. Everyone was to be asked 5 questions:
These discussions are filmed and published on social media, with the goal of drawing people's attention to this process and increasing the young people's visibility and reputation.
After talking with 100 such people, we would bring together all their answers to the same 5 questions, single out the common points, and use them to build a strategic plan for developing the educational and entrepreneurial sphere.
To bring the plan to life, we would turn to the same people and ask them to provide some small resource for implementing it step by step.
As a hypothesis, they would provide that small resource — money, knowledge, advice, an introduction — because we would have built a warm relationship with them beforehand and would now be showing them the result of those meetings: a strategic plan that they themselves agree with, along with 80+ other field experts.
In this way, we begin bringing the plan to life step by step, moving from small problems to big ones, and actively present that process to the public. History has shown that people truly respect and embrace those who solve problems, are inspired by them, and strive to become like them.
Having reached influencer level, we then begin, by our own example, to guide people toward self-knowledge, self-management, and improving their own state, so that the overall state of the country is set right.
And so on: solving ever bigger problems by focusing ever more people's resources on them.
As I said, I was unable to find funding for this program. After that, I tried to continue my program in several directions: engaging people through volunteer work, running a free educational program, holding events on self-development. My aim was to find people like me — like-minded friends with whom I could develop the program together.
These attempts were fruitless for a clear reason: there was no clear structure, no attainable medium-term result, and no benefit (in the positive sense) that would help draw people in.
And two months ago, looking back at the path I have walked over these years and at the 6 educational programs in business and startups, I decided to bring all of it together into a systematic educational program for finding like-minded people: a startup incubation program.
I chose an incubation program specifically because I have accumulated a great deal of knowledge in this area and have systematized and classified it. Besides, the concept of starting a startup fully develops in a person the very qualities and knowledge needed for my program: uncovering root problems, talking to people and validating those problems, finding solutions, attracting resources, drawing up a strategic plan and bringing it to life. Throughout the process, a person also develops stress resilience, teamwork skills, public speaking skills, and more.
So I have decided to create a startup incubation program designed for those who haven't found a problem and don't have an idea for starting a startup, but want to do it. Over the 4-month program, they will go through phases of finding a problem, validating it, developing a solution, drawing up a strategic plan, and pitching it.
A problem with demand so large that customers are truly willing to pay for its solution. Beyond working on problems and ideas, throughout all 4 months participants will gain knowledge about ways of thinking, soft skills, and stress resilience. Together, these contain everything that is sufficient as a foundation for starting work on large-scale projects.
The program is designed for working people over 22 who want to start their own business but do not yet have either an idea or a team. The admission requirements are a completed bachelor's degree and at least 2 years of work experience in their field. Preference is given to those who have already tried to start a startup but did not succeed. Each cohort has a maximum of 12 participants, because the work is individual.
Participants take part in the program individually, but throughout the program they receive the necessary knowledge and guidance on how to find their teammates and how to organize teamwork effectively.
To take part in the EPIC Incubation Program, you need to have an idea and a team. This program is precisely the preparatory stage for it. The goal is for the participant to leave the program with a validated problem, a clear idea, as a prepared founder, and with a strong team.
The program lasts 16 weeks, part-time. There are 3 meetings a week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 19:00–21:00. In addition, each participant works independently for about 10 hours a week.
Throughout the program, the participant's state and behavior are recorded every day and summarized in an individual Talent Report.
Talent ReportTo select from the program's graduates and form a team of 8–12 people who can bring to life the "100 Perspectives" strategic program and its logical continuation process.
The incubation program must provide income for me, so that I can devote as much time to it as possible. In recent years, when I have tried to run my social program alongside my main job, I have clearly observed that, besides time, my energy and my ability to focus on it also decline. Thus, the income generated by the incubation program can solve this problem.
The goal of the young people selected from the incubation program's graduates will be to continue the process of self-development, to reach the state and master the skills through which — by their own example, word, and deed, and with the ability to lead and inspire people — they will solve the three problems I mentioned at the beginning:
People do not know or manage their vital resources and live in chronic stress.
Destructive thoughts and emotions have become a background state and hinder real development in any field.
The country's great resources are scattered and do not unite and focus on essential strategic programs.
I have found numerous tools and methods for developing problems and solutions for startups from various incubation programs around the world and from books, for example, YC and MIT Innovation Headquarters. I have combined and systematized them, and as a result I have:
EPIC's programs are the best of all those I have personally taken part in, and I have noticed how many of the methods I found they already include. As the best option, I see the possibility of running this incubation program together with EPIC. I understand that EPIC has its own programs, which are very similar to this one in many ways.
But because I truly love and value EPIC as an organization and the people working within it, I am reaching out with this proposal: to run this program together, without even ruling out the option of presenting the program entirely as an EPIC program rather than as mine.
The worst thing I worry about is becoming a competitor in your eyes and EPIC's, and our relationship deteriorating. I have no intention of competing, or of running an incubation program purely for its own sake — that is why I described the whole background in such detail.
So I would very much love to talk and discuss this together: the possibility of doing it together, how realistic it is, or perhaps some other form of collaboration.