Katsu

What Katsu does

Katsu is a founder coaching and education business targeting founders and CEOs of early to mid-stage companies seeking breakout revenue growth. It was established by Liz Connolly in 2025, drawing on her track record of scaling Trifecta from $0 to over $100M in ARR and $500M in total product sales. The company operates from Davis, California (Katsu Learning, Inc., Delaware-incorporated) with 46 employees and no institutional funding disclosed.

The product portfolio spans four offerings on a single price ladder: a free Negotiation Genius Playbook as a lead magnet; a $49.97/month (or one-time lifetime) AI Academy self-paced course with 50+ video sections and a personalized AI Chat Assistant trained on the course content; an Executive Group Coaching program covering EOS implementation, partner programs, and financial modeling; and a $5,000 pre-paid 1:1 coaching and consulting engagement delivered personally by the founder. The AI Academy's chat assistant provides step-by-step, personalized guidance for AI implementation, Answer Engine Optimization, automated CEO workflows, and partnership negotiation, supported by proprietary frameworks such as the GROW Leadership Framework and the Deal Machine.

The business model is hybrid: a low-touch subscription/self-serve revenue stream through Shopify combined with a high-touch professional services stream sold via direct founder-led sales conversations. GTM is similarly hybrid, leveraging Liz Connolly's personal brand across Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook, supplemented by paid acquisition on Meta, Google, and LinkedIn, speaking engagements at events including Startup Grind and Mr. Olympia, and referral from existing coaching clients. No funding rounds, M&A activity, patents, or regulatory actions are disclosed.

Name

Katsu

Legal name

Katsu Learning, Inc.

Website

https://learnkatsu.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2025

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Katsu is a founder coaching and education company built around Liz Connolly's track record of scaling Trifecta to $100M+ ARR. It sells a self-paced AI Academy course, executive group coaching, and $5,000 1:1 founder coaching to founders seeking breakout revenue growth.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Founder Coaching & Education

NAICS

Professional and Management Development Training (61143), Educational Support Services (611710)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Advanced Study Skills & Executive Function Coaching for High Achievers (time management, workload planning) (EDANAKAJ)

Keywords

• Founder coaching services
• AI business training
• Executive growth consulting
• Partnership strategy coaching
• Small business scaling

Headquarters

HQ city

Davis

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Founder Coaching & Consulting: High-touch 1:1 coaching and consulting services delivered by founder Liz Connolly. Includes weekly one-on-one sessions, strategy development, and expert feedback tailored to the founder's leadership style and business needs. Priced at $5,000 pre-paid.
2. AI Academy Subscription: AI Academy self-paced course offered as monthly subscription with recurring billing. Provides 50+ video courses, AI assistant, and lifetime access to updates. Multiple payment options including credit card, PayPal, ShopPay, and GooglePay. 90-day money-back guarantee for eligible users.
3. AI Academy Lifetime Access: AI Academy also offered as one-time lifetime access purchase at $49.97. Includes on-demand videos, AI assistant, and all course content with no recurring fees.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Katsu is a coaching and education business for founders, offering high-touch 1:1 coaching and consulting with founder Liz Connolly, group coaching programs, and a self-paced AI Academy online course. The platform combines personalized executive coaching for scaling founders with an AI-powered learning curriculum covering partnership strategy, AI adoption, and growth marketing. Products range from $5,000 prepaid coaching programs to $49.97 monthly subscriptions for the AI Academy.

Product overview

Katsu is a coaching and education platform for founders, founded by Liz Connolly (9-figure founder who scaled Trifecta to $100M+). The core offering combines high-touch 1:1 Coaching & Consulting with the self-paced AI Academy course. The AI Academy is a subscription-based program featuring 50+ video sections and an AI Chat Assistant trained on course content. Executive Group Coaching provides a lower-priced alternative with group sessions covering partner programs and financial modeling. The free Negotiation Genius Playbook serves as a lead magnet offering templates and frameworks. The product portfolio ranges from $5,000 personalized coaching to $49.97/month self-paced courses, targeting founders seeking breakout revenue growth through partnerships, AI adoption, and strategic execution.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• 1:1 Coaching & Consulting One-on-one personalized coaching with founder Liz Connolly priced at $5,000 prepaid. Includes weekly sessions focused on identifying growth bottlenecks, building partnership strategies, business execution, leadership development, and tailored feedback for the founder's scale, industry, growth goals, and leadership style. Targets founders and CEOs seeking breakout revenue growth.
• AI Academy Self-paced AI course for founders with 50+ video sections and a personalized AI Chat Assistant trained on course content. Covers AI marketing engine (including Answer Engine Optimization), Automated CEO Workflow, The Deal Machine frameworks, GROW Leadership, and AI frameworks for high-stakes negotiations. Offered as a monthly subscription at $49.97 or a one-time lifetime access fee, with a 90-day money-back guarantee and installment payment options.
• Executive Group Coaching Program Group coaching program delivering hard-won playbooks for Entrepreneur Operating System (EOS), company-wide prioritization, partner program building, and financial model refinement. Designed for founders transitioning from incremental to breakout revenue growth.
• Negotiation Genius Playbook Free downloadable playbook providing email templates and negotiation frameworks for closing major deals. Includes pre-game strategy, battle-tested email templates, strategic frameworks, quid pro quo mastery, and power moves for brand partnerships, vendor negotiations, and personal negotiations.

Quantifiable outcome

• Liz Connolly scaled Trifecta from $0 to $100M+ ARR in 4.5 years on less than $2M outside capital
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration8 records

AI capability2 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered minor.

• Entrepreneurs' OrganizationminorOthers
• EO AcceleratorminorOthers
• Growth Factory VenturesminorOthers
• Startup GrindminorOthers
• Startup SacminorOthers

Scale indicators4 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Reforge: Reforge offers professional development programs for product, growth, and engineering leaders. It is comparable to Katsu in its positioning as premium, practitioner-led education targeting senior individual contributors and managers — overlapping with Katsu's founder and executive audience.
• Strategic Coach: Strategic Coach is an established executive coaching firm targeting entrepreneurs and founders. It is comparable to Katsu in its high-touch, premium-priced coaching model for founders focused on growth and execution, though operating at significantly larger scale and tenure.
• Conscious Growth Advisors: Conscious Growth Advisors is a coaching and consulting firm for founders and CEOs focused on scaling leadership capacity. It is comparable to Katsu in offering high-touch founder coaching on delegation, team building, and breakout revenue growth.
• Section: Section is an AI and business education platform offering cohort-based courses for executives and operators. It directly competes with Katsu's AI Academy by selling premium online courses that teach leaders how to implement AI in their organizations.
• MicroConf: MicroConf is a community and education platform for bootstrapped SaaS and e-commerce founders. It is directly comparable to Katsu in its focus on founders seeking repeatable, non-ad-dependent revenue growth and offers both events and online courses targeted at the same SMB founder persona.
• Demand Curve: Demand Curve provides growth marketing training and playbooks for early-stage founders and marketers. It is comparable to Katsu because it sells cohort-based courses and frameworks that teach customer acquisition cost reduction — a core pain point Katsu addresses.
• Foundr: Foundr is a media and education company producing content, courses, and events for entrepreneurs. It is comparable to Katsu in combining founder-focused content, online courses, and community, targeting similar SMB and early-stage founder audiences.
• Maven: Maven is a platform for cohort-based courses taught by practitioners to professional learners. It is comparable to Katsu because both sell premium, expert-led online education to working professionals and founders using a similar productized-course distribution model.

Broad incumbents

• Tony Robbins Business Mastery: Tony Robbins Business Mastery is a well-known business coaching and training program targeting entrepreneurs. It is comparable to Katsu as a broad incumbent in the founder coaching space with a similar premium event and coaching model, but operates at substantially larger scale and brand recognition.
• Y Combinator Startup School: Y Combinator Startup School is a free online program and community for early-stage startup founders. It is comparable to Katsu in educating founders on customer acquisition, growth, and execution, though operates as a broader incumbent backed by Y Combinator's brand and network.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@liz.connolly
• Facebookfacebook.com/learnkatsu
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/katsu
• Instagraminstagram.com/katsu.learning

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Katsu