Expert DOJO is an important part of the start-up ecosystem in SoCal! Brian, the Head Honcho, and the entire Expert Dojo team, as well as collaborative partners, connect quality entrepreneurs, investors, thought leaders and advisors. Recently, at Startup Arena hosted by Startup Coil, I had the pleasure of meeting esteemed panelists and promising early-stage startups and their management teams, as well as reconnecting with former clients and friends. I greatly enjoyed all the excellent pitches, especially those by Apsy, Katsh Digital ID and Gravvity. The advice/feedback provided by panelists during the pitch event to each company was for the benefit of the companies as well as the audience. I highly recommend Expert DOJO! read more

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I've known Brian Mac Mahon and have been involved with Expert Dojo since Jan 2015, attending events and advising/investing in the startups that come there from around the world. Brian is at once a savvy startup investor, a clever innovator, a force of gravity in the community, and a charismatic leader. The Dojo and its team delivers unparalleled value to early-stage startups in the Southern CA ecosystem and, for the past few years, has been drawing amazing startups from around the world to learn, connect, and accelerate their businesses by leveraging everything the Dojo has to offer. I'm glad to be part of the Expert Dojo community and I always look forward to watching each new cohort of startups come through the program and mature into great businesses. read more

The Expert DOJO team and their accelerator startup program led by Brian Mac Mahon is off the charts. I joined their August 2020 cohort and even through the COVID-19 pandemic, they connected us with a great network of other founders, investors, and top industry experts who coached us on all aspects of our businesses. The DOJO team is still supporting us through outreach, introductions to investors, and business development even after our training has formally ended. I am glad to have partnered with this unique group of people that cares about my startup as much as I do. read more

It's been absolutely a blast to meet and engage with this incredible global community. I can't wait to see what these companies end is doing with our information and the Dojo seed investment. I truly believe these companies are going to change the world! read more

This is a top tier accelerator. As someone who is a founder with an exit, I know a quality team when I see one. Brian and his team are breeding the best in class founders with amazing advice. Highly recommend! read more

I came to Brian and Expert Dojo in March of 2016 with a half baked idea (SmartCSM), a broken MVP (min. viable product) and feeling beat down by the funding space which had thus far expressed little to no interest in bankrolling my company. I was an entrepreneurial cat left hungry, cold and wet in the alley and Brian opened the door to the Dojo! It was warm inside. Brian and Jonathan immediately understood the concept of SmartCSM but more importantly Brian clearly understood why the market had so far rejected it. He understood that the entire concept and positioning had to go through a metamorphosis. We had to take the core concept and re package it. This was and is NEVER a fast process or particularly enjoyable process. Anyone who thinks this is anything other than a long and painful journey should find another line of work because you have to eat a lot of shit sandwiches before you get anything close to momentum or even success in the game. For me and SmartCSM that journey was 18 months. From early 2016 through late 2017 I had well over 175 investors say no, No, NOOOOooooooo. Each time we (Brian, Jonathan, Zolton and me) went back and made changes to the deck, rethought the #'s, launch strategy, software application... Brian got incredibly valuable back channel feedback from investors. I pitched, pitched some more and pitched again and again and again. I pitched people in the elevator, at parties, at churches, synagogues... I think I even went into a mosque one time. I got thrown out of a super bowl party for pitching my friend's mother. But that's what it took. Then one day someone Brian introduced me to an investor, who had watched the journey for several months from afar and he said yes. I went to his house with no idea what the amount was going to be and he handed me a check for $200K. 3 years, two funding rounds, several VC's and $3.5M later Brian and the Dojo were the single biggest success factor beyond the original idea. Look at the end of the day there are no guarantees in life. Many great ideas never get funded and some shitty ones do. But having a mentor like Brian is like being uber connected with investors and having your best mentor on speed dial. Zero possibility that we have the clients, funding and momentum we have now without Brian and Expert Dojo. Of the 3.5M he brought us over 1M of it. Through his connections, efforts and hard work. And Brian and his various team members sat with me late into many evenings, meeting me early mornings, sweating details with me and when I just couldn't do another meeting or pitch got behind me and shoved me through the door and gave me the kick in the ass I needed at that moment. Most importantly he believed in me and said this idea of yours will work and I'm going to move heaven and earth to help you. Yes Brian is a shareholder and yes I paid the Dojo for some consulting work. But dollar for dollar it was the best single investment I made in my company because it was the difference between life and death for SmartCSM at many critical junctures. read more

I've known the Expert Dojo team for a few years now. I have met so many great people through them. The work they do with startups is really terrific. They put them on the right path. Give them great advice and get them the access to people they need so their businesses can really take off. The Dojo team is the best! read more

Expert Dojo led by Brian McMahon is one of the most influential accelerators I've come to find in LA. Brian and his team deliver on their promises and have done an outstanding job getting new companies off the ground. They have opened many doors through the various networking events I've been fortunate to attend. If you're looking to grow your business I highly recommend reaching out to them. read more

Phenomenal vibe :) I like the idea of this academy, Beautiful :) I don't think anyone in the coworking space, accelerator space, incubation space is planning and/or executing what the team at "Expert Dojo" sculpting. read more

There are start-up accelerators and then there are start-up accelerators. It's easy to understand why the Expert DOJO accelerator is the premiere start-up accelerator in Southern California. I think one reason is that Brian MacMahon not only knows how to help start-ups, it's also clear how much he cares about the founders. There is a saying that: People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care. Brian's immense amount of relevant and actionable knowledge is only exceeded by how much he cares, and add to that how much he values interconnectivity in his cohorts and facilitates how the start ups help each other and you will see how you couldn't find a better place to accelerate your success than Expert DOJO. read more

If you are an entrepreneur, start-up, or inventor the Expert Dojo is the place! In just a short period of time I have created a network of entrepreneurs and have been introduced to investors. Brian, Dustin, Jonathan, and the rest of the team have really created something wonderful that is a game changer. Rather than me going on and on about how wonderful the Expert Dojo is and how you have to be a part of it, watch Brian's Ted Talk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6f7lFy0oW0 I couldn't move fast enough to join once I did! read more

I'm writing this review to share my experience at expert dojo and working with Brian. I wasted over $30k becoming a member of Expert Dojo and being coached by Brian. I have honestly grappled with the idea of writing this review for months. Please know that Brian will write a reply to this, it is his job as a business owner. I firmly believe in accountability and honesty. I paid Brian $1500 a month for one on one coaching and mentoring to launch my business. I left with an un-useable business plan, business deck, and more what not to do information than useful business information. Also both the business plan and deck I had to pay an outside vendor of Brian's to do in addition to his fee (one of the many red flags. You'd think a mentor either knows how to make them himself or has someone within his business to do it). My business plan was shredded to piece by a friends friend who owned a bank (yes owned). Thankfully I only paid half the amount they wanted for it, which Brian did help make happen, due to the sheer embarrassment of how awful it was. I was informed by the only two investors I formally met with through the Dojo that my business deck was "lacking the information they needed." Since leaving the Dojo I have learned what a real investor deck looks like and how a business plan is really made. I joined the Dojo as I thought it would be great to have a mentor who "knew how to launch a business". Problem being Brian has no history himself of hardware products OR the cosmetic industry. I did get introduced to one manufacturer through another Dojo friend/member (I had, however, been connected to that manufacture years before through a friend who does business with them). I questioned Brian's ability to truly coach or mentor me and wanted to leave the Dojo after only a few months of paying $1500 a month for weekly one on one sessions. Brian convinced me to stay (trust me one thing he is good at is selling is his own business). While my product was still in prototype stage, Brian convinced me that it was time to hire people and get an office to make a better impression to "all" the investors he would be scheduling me to meet (note this office was a sublet of a lease Brian has and therefore meant I was just paying him even more money). I questioned this and wished I gone with my gut to not hire people or get an office. You do all these things once you are in the black, not the red! Now to the investors and festival. I asked to meet with investors starting in early fall 2017. Due to the disastrous business plan it was delayed till January 2018. Brian told me he would have at least 12-15 investors for me to meet. When it came time, there were only 3. One I had been speaking to for over a year. The second, told me she doesn't invest in pre-revenue business, maybe in the future. The third I cancelled as I found out from Brian's employee at the Dojo I was not nearly prepared enough to meet that investor. The one company I know that raised alot of capital told me it took forever to get the investment and the meeting were more like being grilled. Brian had told me that that one investor just wrote a check after a meeting, like it all happened so quickly and easily, obviously from my own investigating I found out that this was false. Brian also continually assured me my company would be the fastest investment round they had ever done, 2-3 weeks max. So besides that being completely false, there was not 12-15 investors for me to meet. From my mtg with his employee they were struggling to find the right investors. I was asked by Brian, to compile a list of investors I wanted to reach out to from the beauty industry and they would do it for me, they did nothing with that list. I expect Brian to respond saying I didn't give it enough time or some excuse. Truth is he'd had since early fall to figure out which investors would be best and create a plan for meetings. The one investor I had a relationship with, Brain told me he wanted to make sure he took the he lead on it to make sure it went well. Worst advice ever. I did, over the year, at the investor festivals, meet many investors. However, even the Dojo team were skeptical about a few and whether or not they were real investors or if they were actively investing. The majority I met do not invest pre-revenue, very few into hardware products, and no one walks out of the festival with a deal in place, the meetings are minutes long, most deals unless you have a relationship with them or connection take weeks/months. Lastly, Brian insisted that a crowdfunding campaign was the way to launch my business. It was not. You have to spend serious money to have a big campaign and you need to have a bunch of test units ready to send out to get any good press. I left the Dojo immediately following the business plan/deck, investor nightmare, and a sexual harassment issue myself and a girl worked with me had to deal involving a male friend of Brian's / the Dojo. read more

Phenomenal place to hold a meeting. The owner was gracious and charming. The space was spotlessly clean.

I have just joined the dojo after an incredible meeting with Brian. I was looking for an accelerator and a workspace - but the Dojo provides so much more! Brian, for starters, is an incredible human. He spent some time coaching me on our first visit and completely sold me! I love the space, the energy there and community vibe. I look forward to updating this review after spending some more time there. read more

This is truly an amazing community. Expert Dojo is the place to come get support, guidance, connect with other entrepreneurs that are always willing to help each other out. Brian and his team are amazing. The coaching I have received has helped me get a lot of clarity on the financials of my business AND actionable steps to work towards achieving profit. I left a coaching session inspired and grateful for the knowledge that has been shared with me. Without a doubt I would recommend this community to every entrepreneur. read more

If you're an entrepreneur in the Santa Monica area, then you need to check out expert dojo. They offer free work spaces in addition to dedicated paid options. The location is perfect as its on the top floor of the third street promenade and next to the Cheesecake Factory. There are frequent events at this location making it great for networking and meeting other start ups. Also, the on thing that sets this shared office space apart is the mentorship you get from the founder Brian McMahon. He is always trying to connect the businesses in the dojo with expert resources in the community. A must have for any start up trying to make it in silicon beach. read more

This place is great! So supportive, so enlightening, such a wonderfully valuable resource for entrepreneurs, startups, and all tech pros! Six stars. read more

I attended a Growth Hacker meet-up last week hosted by Expert DOJO at the Santa Monica Library and was impressed by the diversity of speakers and the amount of information that was provided for free! The room was filled with great energy, fun and informative people and it felt like a great community. There was tons of great digital marketing and branding information and I'd highly recommend checking them out!! read more

I absolutely love this place! It's become my home away from home for taking care of all things related to my business. The culture is supportive, the view of the 3rd street promenade is spectacular! I've met some incredible people while spending time here and even found new business partners! Brian MacMahon is an incredible human being and is always willing to offer guidance and help when it's needed. If you're an entrepreneur and are looking to find a supportive community and an amazing office space to operate your business, get over here now! read more

This is the place to know when it comes to networking and getting proper consulting for your startup business. Expert Dojo has been a huge asset to our company, through their amazing events and coaching we are able to get in front of the clients we need to help further our success. Brian is amazing, he is always there to help startups and business owners, constantly connects people with who they need to meet and is overall one of the nicest guys I've ever met. If you are a business owner or startup in LA you need to check out Expert Dojo and see what they are all about! read more

Expert Dojo is a great community. Fun to meet people and they put on decent events and can connect you with investors. The location is great for the view, the decor is borderline awful and not somewhere you'd want to have business meetings (it's an old restaurant with chipped paint, furniture all over the place, bathrooms are dirty, there isn't even a place to get water, you have to ask at the mall food court). They want you to pay to take part in the events they put on, up to $1500 for coaching, or $950 for the accelerator course. While this is great, there in no guarantee of funding through them. Also one thing I think all entrepreneurs need to know is one person cannot now everything about every type of business. It lacks the involved of mentors from a variety of industries to help each startup. Brian is a great sales guy, and good at running his business. There is a major lack of knowledge for specific industries. I'd highly suggest just joining for the free community and focus on getting into a real accelerator or incubator to grow your business where they invest into you, rather than you into them. FInd a group and mentors that know the ins and outs of the industry you are working in and can provide access to investors who are actively investing in these areas, as well as angels who truly back startups that aren't generating revenue. read more

Brian and Expert Dojo are amazing! He really deeply cares and wants to help entrepreneurs. Brian has coached me many times on my business Stressaway.me and it is always great advice. I also met some solid investors at the last investor festival. Definitely the best place for early stage start up in LA would highly recommend. Thank you Brian and team for making it possible for us! read more

Talk about heart, knowledge, caring and value! The amazing vibe you get from the moment you enter to when you meet the wonderful Brian! He is the heart and soul of the amazing Dojo concept. Brian truly cares about the viability of your vision and makes sure that whatever you are passionate about brings an added value to our world! What an inspiration and honor to have met him. read more