Brand Builders Academy

A six-month ecommerce mentorship built around live coaching

Brand Builders Academy (BBA) presents itself as a mentorship rather than a course. The distinction it draws is structural: instead of selling video content to be consumed alone, the program is organised around six months of live coaching delivered by instructors who are themselves operating ecommerce businesses. The academy was founded in 2019 by Alex Fedotoff and now runs in partnership with Mark Builds Brands, who first joined as a student before becoming Fedotoff's business partner.

Access is by application only. The organisation states that it accepts a small percentage of applicants and that the application process consists of a single conversation with a growth partner about the applicant's position in ecommerce and whether the program would help. According to the site, applicants deemed not to be a fit are told so rather than sold to, and each applicant is eligible for only one such call.

Three areas the curriculum is built around

The program concentrates on three stages that, in the academy's framing, determine whether an ecommerce brand survives: product research, store build and paid advertising.

• AI product research. Students are taught research methods intended to give them a detailed understanding of their market, with artificial intelligence integrated into the workflow.
• Store build. The focus is on offer, copy and page structure as the means of differentiation, rather than the general-store approach the academy associates with earlier periods of the sector.
• Paid ads. Instruction covers creatives, testing, reading numbers and handling bans and restrictions, supported by what the site describes as a large body of paid-ads resources.

AI is presented as embedded across the workflow — product research, creative and testing — following the way the two founders say they use it on their own stores.

What membership includes

The core commitment is six months with 12–14 live calls each week. Alongside the call schedule, the academy lists an assigned account manager who follows the student's store, product and previous sticking points; a Monday numbers call in which Mark reviews members' real store and ad data on screen, line by line; and a coaching team whose members are each required to be operating an ecommerce brand of their own. The site specifies that former operators are not accepted as coaches. Members also join a cohort the academy puts at 721 people.

The founders

Alex Fedotoff founded the academy. His account begins in 2014, working from his parents' apartment in Ukraine while selling cookies for around $100 a month, learning English and Facebook ads at the same time. He went on to build multiple seven- and eight-figure ecommerce brands and states he has generated over $100 million in ecommerce sales across dozens of niches and stores. His team, according to the site, spends more than $40 million per year on Meta ads alone. He also founded eCommerce Scaling Secrets.

Mark Builds Brands co-founded the academy with Fedotoff. He started in 2018 from a college dorm, testing fifty products without success before finding a winner with his last $500. He has since scaled several ecommerce brands to eight figures. He joined BBA as a student and later became Fedotoff's business partner; within the program he runs the Monday call analysing members' stores and ad accounts.

Who the program is aimed at, and who it excludes

The academy is explicit that the format suits only part of its audience. It describes the ideal member as someone able to commit real hours every week for six months, with budget available to test products and run ads, willing to receive direct criticism, and for whom a previous failed attempt counts as a positive signal rather than a disqualifier. No prior experience is required.

It advises against applying for those seeking a passive or done-for-you arrangement, a shortcut that avoids the work, self-paced video consumption without attending calls, or results within a weekend.

Reviews and corporate details

The site states that reviews hosted on its own website are easy to fake and directs members and alumni to leave honest reviews on Trustpilot instead. At the time of writing this profile, the academy indicated that its Trustpilot profile was still being set up and that a review link would follow. The page also carries an earnings disclaimer noting that results vary, that no guarantee of income is made and that nothing on it constitutes financial advice.

Brand Builders Academy is described as a subsidiary of AF Media LLC, with a registered address at 40 SW 13th St Ste 902, Miami, FL 33130-4346.