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TubeForge
Academy

A two-month cohort academy teaching the media business and paid acquisition for YouTube Shorts creators — the same operating system we run inside our 14M+ subscriber network.

Nikita with the YouTube Silver Play Button
academy.tubeforge.co / cohort-04 / week-3
Paid acquisition for Shorts
module 03 · week 3 of 8 · 47 students enrolled
live · 19:00 MSK
Cohort
47
students
Avg CPM
$1.84
cohort median
Avg ROAS
2.4×
week 3 cohort
Creatives shipped
312
this week

This week's curriculum

module 03 · 4 lessons
Reading retention curves42 minDONE
Killing creatives early28 minDONE
Scaling winners 10×36 minLIVE
Audience triangulation31 minSOON
Workshop · review your account90 minTHU

Cohort throughput

creatives shipped per week

Cohort leaderboard — by 7-day ROAS

anonymized · top 6
ChannelNicheSpendViewsROASStatus
CR-014history$2,4201.84M3.6×scaling
CR-008finance$1,810920K3.1×scaling
CR-031science$9601.21M2.8×iterating
CR-022true crime$1,440680K2.4×iterating
CR-005tech$640410K1.9×testing
CR-039sports$22098K0.7×rebuild

Thesis.

Most creator-business education is theory written by people who haven't run the business. TubeForge is the opposite — it's the internal operating manual from a network that grew past 14M+ subscribers, packaged as a cohort program for creators who want to treat their channel like a media company.

The core bet: YouTube Shorts is a paid-acquisition game disguised as an organic-content game. Creators who learn unit economics, hook engineering, and ad-mediated scaling beat creators who learn "tips and tricks." We teach the first thing.

Who it's for.

  • Existing Shorts creators with at least some traction who want to turn the channel into a real business.
  • Media operators running multiple channels or accounts who need a unified operating playbook.
  • Founders & marketers using short-form as a paid acquisition channel for a product or brand.

Curriculum.

Eight weeks, structured as four two-week modules. Each module pairs frameworks with workshops and homework reviewed by the team.

01

Media business fundamentals

P&L for a creator business. Format economics. Retention vs. acquisition trade-offs. How to read your channel as a portfolio of bets, not a content calendar.

02

Hook & format engineering

The anatomy of a Short that holds. Hook taxonomy, retention curves, A/B testing creative at scale. Building a format library you can rerun.

03

Paid acquisition for Shorts

Buying views as a real channel. Ad accounts, creative iteration cycles, measurement, scaling profitable creatives, killing unprofitable ones fast.

04

Operating cadence & team

Weekly rhythm. Roles to hire (and not). Tools, dashboards, review meetings. How we run dozens of channels with a small team — and how to run yours like that.

Format.

  • Two months, cohort-based. Live sessions plus async workshops.
  • Weekly office hours with the team — direct review of your channel and creatives.
  • Russian-language program. Russian-speaking creators and operators.
  • Paid program. Multiple cohorts delivered since 2024.

Get involved.

Applications for the next cohort run at academy.tubeforge.co. For partnerships, brand deals, or licensing the curriculum — write me directly.

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