Half podcast. Half real business, built out loud — pricing, branding, the market research nobody glamorizes, zero fluff. You bring the idea. We bring the tasks, the tools, and the deadlines to actually launch it.
Every week pairs a real conversation with real work: tasks, worksheets, and small building blocks you actually complete, applied to the business you're starting — not a hypothetical one. Your progress saves as you go, so by Week 12 you have a real launched idea, not just twelve episodes listened to.
An episode with founders and specialists, cut to match each week's focus.
Real tasks and worksheets for each week — small, specific pieces that stack into an actual business.
Every task you check and every note you write saves automatically, so you can see exactly how far you've come.
Every week ends in something real — a document, a decision, a launched piece — built for your business, not a grade.
Every week is free to view, right now — no sign-in required. Create an account if you want your progress saved and synced later.
Every week is fully open below — pick any one and start.
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Get notified when new weeks, tools, or the podcast go live.
Each week unpacks its own tasks and modules below, with the podcast clip for that week. Your task-checking and notes save automatically to this browser.
One shareable card with your business name, pitch, numbers and progress — download it or send a link to a mentor.
Pricing & margin calculator, break-even calculator, cash flow planner, persona builder, SWOT grid, and an elevator pitch builder — all live, all save automatically.
One quick question, then we’ll show you around — no experience needed.
There’s no wrong answer. Pick the one that sounds most like you, and we’ll take you through it one stop at a time.
The tour takes about a minute. You can skip it at any point, and replay it from here whenever you like.
For young people whose money comes in lumps: freelancing, gig work, tutoring, making videos, seasonal jobs, helping in the family shop. Five short lessons, five simple tools and four real-life stories. It works on a phone, on paper, or in a classroom with no internet at all.
You do not need to know anything about money. Here is the whole idea in three steps.
Plenty of young people already earn: a summer on a beach, tutoring after school, a few brand deals, an afternoon at the shop. None of it pays on the same day, in the same amount. Nobody teaches how to live on that. Money 101 does.
Each move ends with one thing to do this week, a tool to try it with and a printable card.
Nothing here is saved anywhere except on your own device. No account, no sign-up.
Most people get surprised by the same few months every year: a holiday, an exam season, a slow summer. Pick the dates that matter in your life, mark your busy and slow months, and get a simple save-up plan. Move anything by dragging it, or add your own.
Dates move every year, so check your own calendar. Everything here stays on your device.
Four young people, four kinds of uneven income. Read each one, pick what you would do, and see the numbers. These are example characters. The numbers are made up to be realistic.
Two teams get the same six months of luck. One spends what comes in. One pays itself first. Who ends up with a cushion, and who ends up in debt? You can also play it on paper with a die: it is in the facilitator guide.
Everything a teacher, youth club or older sibling needs to run Money 101 with paper, a pen and a die. Print it once and teach anywhere.
SDG 4 is quality education for everyone. Target 4.7 is about every learner gaining the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions and thrive in a fast-changing world. Money skills are one of those skills. Money 101 teaches them to the young people who earn in uneven ways, where they already are.
Tell us what to fix: hello@thefirst99.com
Fill in “Before” now. Come back after the moves and fill in “After”. It stays on your device.
Money is personal, so Money 101 is built to ask for as little as possible.
All twelve weeks are open right now — click any one to jump straight in.
No business background assumed. If a word shows up anywhere in the twelve weeks, it's explained here — search for it or just scroll.
Educate. Amplify. Inspire. Sustain. Open access. Every week of the programme is designed to serve all five at once.
We teach students real business and entrepreneurship skills through hands-on activities, real deliverables, and a curriculum built directly around the podcast — learning business the way it actually works, not the way it's described in a textbook.
We give Cairo's youth a platform for their creativity and ideas, spotlighting student projects so their work generates real, visible impact and reaches a genuine audience. The communities and business owners they work alongside are treated as partners in that spotlight, not case studies.
We generate conversations with experts — through podcast interviews and direct exchanges — that open students' eyes to what's possible and show them a real, walkable path into social entrepreneurship.
Social impact and sustainable thinking are built into the initiative's core, so students learn to create ventures and outcomes that last — for their communities, and for the environment.
No background in business, no connections, and no cost to start — every week is free to explore from day one, because a good idea shouldn't need permission to begin.
We're just getting started, and open to the right people — if your brand, bank, venue, or tool wants in front of Cairo's next generation of founders, here's where to start.
Tell us what you make, and we'll tell you honestly whether — and where — it fits.
partnerships@thefirst99.comNothing's set in stone — these are early ideas for what working together might look like, shaped around what you actually make.
If your brand fits the show's world, this is the kind of integration we'd build together — something woven into a specific segment, not just a logo slapped on at the end.
If you make a biomaterial, a digital tool, or anything students would genuinely reach for while building a product, Week 5 is the obvious place to start that conversation.
Demo Day, workshops, recording sessions — if you've got a real space, we'd love to talk about tying it to a specific moment in the programme rather than a one-off booking.
Banks, fintechs, and financial educators would have a direct line into the exact week students are building budgets, pricing, and cash flow trackers for a real business.
None of this is a fixed program yet — whatever you're picturing, email us and we'll figure out the shape of it together.
Type real numbers in, get real answers out. Everything here saves automatically to this browser, so your work is still here next time. A couple are tagged 📦 Physical product — building a website, app, or service instead? Skip those two and use the swap suggested on the matching task.
Markup and margin sound the same but are different numbers — this tool shows both so you never confuse them.
Break-even units = fixed costs ÷ (price − variable cost per unit).
Add a row for every regular source of income and every regular expense, type in your best-guess monthly amount for each, and the totals below update as you go — net cash flow is income minus expenses.
Fill in the fields for one real (imagined) customer based on people you actually know or have talked to — use the tabs above the form to build a few different personas if your customers aren't all the same.
Write a few honest, specific points in each quadrant — strengths and weaknesses are about you, opportunities and threats are about the outside world. Short bullet-style lines work better than full paragraphs.
Fill in all six blanks in plain, specific language — the finished pitch below updates live as you type, so you can hear how it sounds and tighten it.
For each stage, write what really happens — not what's supposed to happen — and what could go wrong.
Add one row per real competitor — even an indirect one, like "doing it themselves" — and fill in each column honestly. "+ Add competitor" adds another row; the × removes one.
| Competitor | Price | Biggest strength | Biggest weakness | Why someone picks them anyway |
|---|
Fill in your details and add a line item per product or service sold — quantity × price per unit is calculated for you, and the total updates as you type. Use your browser's print option to save it as a PDF.
Reorder point = (average daily sales × lead time in days) + safety stock. Running a website or service instead? This one's not for you — your equivalent is deciding your maximum weekly booking/client capacity in the Partnership & Funding Tracker or MVP Planner notes.
Click a day to type what you're posting and pick the platform — switch between weeks with the tabs above, and "+ Add week" when you're planning further ahead.
Name the one number you're trying to grow, then set a realistic goal for each month — the chart below plots your six goals automatically so you can see the trajectory at a glance.
List everything you need to pay for once, and everything that repeats every month — this adds them up so nothing quietly gets forgotten.
Describe what you sell in a few words, pick the vibe that fits your brand, then hit Generate — "Shuffle again" gets you a fresh batch with the same inputs if nothing clicks yet.
Just for viewing while this page is open — not saved long-term like the other fields here.
Before using any of these: always ask for a small sample order first, confirm the Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ) and lead time up front, and never pay the full amount upfront to a new supplier you haven't verified — a bit of caution here saves a lot of regret later.
Egypt's official, government-backed national directory of factories and manufacturers, covering 26,000+ registered companies across 205 industrial sectors. The best general starting point whatever you're making.
A large directory of packaging companies and suppliers across Egypt, searchable by category and location.
For custom product labels, stickers, and small-run printing.
A directory of 350+ verified food and agriculture manufacturers and suppliers, useful for finding a co-packer to produce a food or drink product without your own kitchen/factory.
Factories that can produce cosmetics and personal care products, including private-label manufacturing.
Search Egypt's Made in Egypt Gate directory by the “Textiles” industrial sector for garment and fabric manufacturers.
This isn't a ranked list of specific companies because prices and minimums change constantly and vary by exactly what you're making — use the directories above, get real quotes from 3+ options in your actual category, and compare them against this framework instead of trusting any one listed price.
These are directories to start your search from, not personal recommendations — always vet a supplier yourself (ask for samples, check reviews, confirm registration) before committing money.
Type a few honest words or phrases into each circle — one-word answers are fine. The sweet spot is the middle, where all four overlap, so don't overthink any single circle; fill in what's true for you and let the overlaps do the work. Then use the twist generator below to turn whatever you've written into an actual idea prompt.
Stuck turning this into an actual idea? Fill in at least two circles above, then get a random prompt that mashes them together into something you could actually build.
Colors and a tagline are the easy part — the brand story is what actually makes people remember you. Write it in three short beats: how things were before you (status quo), what's broken about that (conflict), and what's different once you're involved (transformation).
Fill in as many boxes as you can right now, even roughly. The box you most want to skip is usually the one worth filling in first.
An MVP isn't a cheap product — it's the smallest version that still gets you an honest answer from a real customer.
Aim for CLV at least 3x CAC. Below that, growth is costing you more than it's worth.
A good prompt is specific — your business name, your tone, the exact task. Save the ones worth reusing.
An episode for each week's focus — real founders and specialists, not scripted advice, cut to match whatever that week's module is actually about. No fixed release schedule yet; episodes land here as they're recorded.
Nothing's recorded yet — these slots are placeholders for the real episodes, which will drop in right here once they exist.
Every week of the programme pairs a conversation with real work: an episode with founders and specialists, cut to match that week's focus, followed by the tasks and worksheets that turn what you just heard into something you actually build. The episode isn't the homework — it's the briefing before the homework.
That means the show is built alongside the programme, not ahead of it — so instead of a fixed drop every week, expect one episode per week's topic, recorded and released as each one comes together. Foundations and mindset early on, pricing and cash flow around Money Matters, where AI actually helps versus where the line is, and what sustains things after Demo Day. Half podcast, half build — always both at once.
Built from the tools you've already filled in. Download it, post it, or send the link to a mentor — nothing leaves this page unless you share it.
The card fills itself from your Pitch, Lean Canvas, pricing, break-even and customer-economics tools. Edit the name and one-liner here if you'd like it to read differently.
Each item you fill in adds something to the card.