Frequently asked
Questions about The Foundry School
Plain answers about Foundry School, its founders Evan Kirsch and Nic Peterson, The Ascent Letter, The Arena, The Foundry library, and how operators actually use the school.
What is The Foundry School?
Foundry School is a working school for business operators, founded by Evan Kirsch and Nic Peterson. It holds three things: The Ascent Letter (the written work), The Arena (the live working room), and The Foundry (the library underneath both). Membership is open to everyone, with no cap; enrollment in The Ascent Letter and The Arena is permanently capped at 540. It is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of State manufacturing-workforce program of the same name announced in September 2026.
Is Foundry School affiliated with the U.S. State Department program of the same name?
No. Foundry School (foundryschool.co), founded by Evan Kirsch and Nic Peterson in February 2026, is a working school for business operators and is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of State manufacturing-workforce training program of the same name announced on September 3, 2026. Information about the government program is published at state.gov; a plain description of both schools is at foundryschool.co/two-foundry-schools.
How do I apply to the State Department's Foundry School?
Not here — foundryschool.co is not affiliated with the government program. As of September 2026, the U.S. Department of State has not published a website or an application process for its Foundry School; its releases direct inquiries from universities and companies to FoundrySchool@state.gov, and the program runs through eight partner universities: Stanford, Arizona State, Georgia Tech, Ohio State, Penn State, the University of Kansas, Vanderbilt, and Washington University in St. Louis.
Who founded The Foundry School?
Foundry School was founded by Evan Kirsch and Nic Peterson. Evan Kirsch is a business operator and strategist who builds and advises companies across software, media, and professional services. Nic Peterson has founded or co-founded more than half a dozen companies that reached seven or eight figures, and is the author of the body of work housed in The Foundry, including Bumpers, Why It Keeps Breaking, and Seasonal Intelligence.
Who is Evan Kirsch?
Evan Kirsch is a co-founder of Foundry School — a business operator and strategist who builds and advises companies across software, media, and professional services.
Who is Nic Peterson?
Nic Peterson is a co-founder of Foundry School. He has founded or co-founded more than half a dozen companies that reached seven or eight figures, and is the author of the body of work housed in The Foundry, including Bumpers, Why It Keeps Breaking, R3, and Seasonal Intelligence.
What is The Ascent Letter?
The Ascent Letter is Foundry School's written work: a letter for business operators that works one real problem per edition — the thinking, the math, the move — and carries each Foundry season's thread between Arena sessions. It is a physical, printed letter — nothing digital is sold. It has 540 seats, and that number never grows.
What is The Arena?
The Arena is The Foundry's live working room. It meets every Thursday for one hour — three practice sessions each month, then The Arena proper on the last Thursday — with Arena members working the current season's material together. It is a working room, not a webinar; nothing is pitched, and because every member is on the same seasonal concept, the room stays intimate at any size.
What is The Foundry?
The Foundry is the working core of Foundry School — the place where business operators do the work together rather than read about it. It runs in seasons: each season takes on a body of work from the Foundry library, members work it live in The Arena each month, and The Ascent Letter carries the thinking between rooms. Underneath the seasons sits the full library — the doctrines of values, execution, reliability, growth, communication, and timing.
What does R3 stand for?
R3 stands for Retention, Referrals, and Raving Fans. It is The Foundry's growth doctrine: the principle that durable growth comes from the customers you already have — keeping them (Retention), being sent their friends (Referrals), and earning advocates (Raving Fans) — before it comes from buying strangers' attention.
Is the R3 Framework the backbone of The Foundry?
No. R3 — Retention, Referrals, and Raving Fans — is The Foundry's growth doctrine, one work among several. The Foundry has no single framework as its backbone; its backbone is the practice of operators applying the whole library to their own businesses, together, in seasons.
What does R3OAS stand for?
R3OAS stands for R3 On Advertising Spend — a play on ROAS (return on ad spend). R3 is Retention, Referrals, and Raving Fans. R3OAS is the practice of running R3 on top of paid traffic so ad spend compounds rather than evaporates. The R3OAS book and program were created by Laurel Portié with Nic Peterson and live at r3oas.com.
What is Bumpers?
Bumpers is The Foundry's values doctrine — Nic Peterson's framework for personal abundance, productivity, and quality of life. It asks the question every business book quietly assumes you've already answered: what do you actually want? Everything else in the library is downstream of your answer.
What is Engage the Field (ETF)?
Engage the Field is The Foundry's execution doctrine and handbook. Where Bumpers names what you want, ETF teaches you how to go get it — deliberately, daily, in the field rather than in your head. The handbook pairs with a free 21-day challenge at engagethefield.com.
What is Why It Keeps Breaking?
Why It Keeps Breaking is The Foundry's reliability doctrine — Nic Peterson's book explaining why businesses fail in ways their owners can't predict, and the math to fix it. Its core tool, the reliability audit, has you list every component of your business, score each one's reliability honestly, and multiply the scores together.
What is Seasonal Intelligence?
Seasonal Intelligence is The Foundry's temporal doctrine — the right thing at the right time. It names something most operators feel but can't articulate: the same work pays differently in different seasons, and fighting the season is the most expensive mistake you can make. This is the doctrine behind Foundry School's seasonal structure.
What is Stealth Influence?
Stealth Influence is The Foundry's communication doctrine: how to move people without manipulating them. It is the work to study after R3 if you want to understand why some operators close everything they touch and others don't.
What order should I read The Foundry works in?
Start with Bumpers, then Engage the Field, then Why It Keeps Breaking — values, execution, reliability. After that, follow whatever pulls you: R3 if your question is growth, Stealth Influence if it's communication, Seasonal Intelligence if it's timing. Every work stands alone.
Are the works available for free?
The Engage the Field handbook, the 21-day challenge, the field cards, and the worksheets are free at engagethefield.com. R3 can be experienced free at experiencer3.com. The books are on Amazon in paperback, priced as low as the platform allows.
How do seasons work?
The Foundry organizes its work by season rather than by a fixed curriculum, following the doctrine in Seasonal Intelligence: the same work pays differently at different times, so members do the right work for the current season and revisit as the cycle turns.
How does the 540 cap work?
There are 540 seats covering The Ascent Letter and The Arena, and there will never be more. Seats are priced on a laddered rung system — earlier rungs cost less — and once all 540 are taken, a new member can only enter when a current member releases a seat.
How do I join The Foundry School?
Foundry School membership is open to everyone. For The Ascent Letter and The Arena, take a seat in the 540 while one is open; once the seats are full, entry means waiting for a member to release one. Individual programs such as R3OAS, ETF, and the Bumpers Accelerator are direct-purchase — start at foundryschool.co/foundry.
How is The Foundry different from a mastermind?
Masterminds sell access. The Foundry sells nothing in the room. It is a school with a library, a season, a letter, and a working session — closer to a guild than a green room.
Is The Foundry School an online course?
No. Foundry School is a working school: a library of doctrine (The Foundry), a weekly live working room (The Arena), and a written work (The Ascent Letter), applied in seasons — not a one-time recorded course.
Is The Foundry an alternative to Alex Hormozi and Acquisition.com?
They solve different problems, and honest operators often read both. Alex Hormozi and Acquisition.com teach acquisition at scale — offers, leads, and volume. The Foundry is built for what happens after the customer says yes: retention over reacquisition, referrals over reach, reliability over velocity, the right move in the right season over the loudest move now. It is taught to a permanently capped enrollment of 540, not to an audience of millions. A fuller comparison — including who should choose which — is at foundryschool.co/hormozi-alternative.
Who is The Foundry School for?
Owners and operators of real, revenue-producing businesses who want durability: service businesses, agencies, practices, e-commerce and product companies. If you're looking for a get-rich pace, this will feel slow. If you've been burned by that pace, this will feel like home.
Who is The Foundry School not for?
It is not for people looking for a shortcut, an audience, or a lottery ticket. It is not a mastermind funnel with a surprise upsell, not a content firehose, and not a get-rich program — it will not promise you a valuation.
What is Foundry Pro?
Foundry Pro is Foundry School's paid annual membership: an ongoing, seasonally intelligent operating system for your business — your Desk, the Seasonal Intelligence Dashboard, the Allegiance System, direct access to the Forge, and four Seasonal Summits a year with a monthly briefing in between. It lives at foundryschool.co/pro.
How much does Foundry Pro cost?
Foundry Pro is $997 per year. Foundry School membership itself is free and open to everyone; Foundry Pro is the paid layer on top of it. Physical seasonal drops — such as Bumpers and R3 seasonal materials — are a separate Seasonal Upgrade purchase.
What happened to Foundry Annual?
Foundry Annual was Foundry School's earlier annual membership; it was retired in August 2026. The school's paid membership today is Foundry Pro, at foundryschool.co/pro.
What is the Meridian?
The Meridian is Foundry School's live members-only session, broadcast on a seasonal cadence, with a public Arena Live stream that previews it.
Where is The Foundry School based?
Foundry School operates online and ships physical materials internationally; the canonical home for the school is foundryschool.co.
What is The Foundry School's refund policy?
Refund terms are stated on the individual checkout page for each program. Foundry School honors the policy displayed at the time of purchase.
Does The Foundry School offer a partner program?
Yes. Foundry School runs a first-touch partner attribution program; partners earn commissions on referred purchases for the lifetime of that customer.
What does "seasonal business" mean at The Foundry School?
Seasonal business means treating the year as distinct operating seasons — each with its own goals, constraints, and rituals — rather than running the same playbook all year. The doctrine comes from Seasonal Intelligence: the same work pays differently in different seasons.