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Early Builder Shortlist - now open

Build your idea. Launch it properly.

Turn your app or software idea into a real product using AI-assisted development, professional guidance, and production-ready infrastructure. No previous development experience is required.

Take the 5-minute survey See what's included

Free to join · 20% off your first six months

01 - The gap

AI can generate code. That doesn't mean the product is ready.

It has never been easier to begin. You can describe an idea to an AI tool and receive pages of working code within minutes. You might even have an impressive prototype running on your own machine by the end of the evening.

Getting something to work locally is only the beginning. The questions that decide whether a product survives contact with real users are exactly the ones an AI tool is least likely to raise on your behalf.

Still unanswered

  • Is the database designed properly?
  • Are users and their information protected?
  • Where should passwords and API keys be stored?
  • How do you safely update the application?
  • What happens when a deployment fails?
  • Is the application backed up?
  • Can one user access another user's information?
  • Will the system cope as more people begin using it?
  • How do you know the AI-generated code is actually correct?
  • What happens when the AI breaks an existing feature?

These are the points where most first-time builders get stuck. You do not necessarily need a full development team to explore your idea - but you do need the right foundations, professional oversight, and a safe way to launch it.

02 - What it is

Between learning alone and hiring an agency.

Software University is a guided subscription programme for people who want to build their own applications, SaaS platforms and business systems using AI.

You remain the builder and the owner. You decide what the product should do, and you use AI-assisted tools to create it. This is not a coding course built around imaginary exercises - you learn by working on a real product that matters to you.

Our role

  • Teach the essential development principles
  • Help you structure your project properly
  • Review the code being produced
  • Identify likely security and architectural problems
  • Help you understand the technical decisions
  • Provide managed deployment environments
  • Set up a controlled deployment process
  • Move you from prototype toward production
The pale oak desk and matching oak chair in a quiet daylit studio, the laptop, linen notebook and terracotta mug set out on the desktop.
You build it We make sure it can be launched

03 - How the work moves

From a blank page to production.

A person's hands at the desk, one holding a pencil above an open blank notebook, the laptop and terracotta mug beyond.
Close view of the open laptop on the pale oak desk, its screen calm and orderly, the terracotta mug soft behind it.
Two matched screens side by side on the same desk - a larger display and the laptop - standing for staging and production.
A person's hands at the desk, one holding a pencil above an open blank notebook, the laptop and terracotta mug beyond.
01 / Plan

Define the problem, then the first useful version.

Before anything is generated, you decide what the product is actually for and what the first genuinely useful version of it looks like. We help you break a large idea into features small enough to build one at a time, and to write instructions an AI tool can act on without inventing the rest.

Close view of the open laptop on the pale oak desk, its screen calm and orderly, the terracotta mug soft behind it.
02 / Build and review

Ten code reviews a month. Two hours a week.

You build with AI. We review what comes out - whether it matches the requirement, whether permissions and data are safe, whether the database changes are sound, whether anyone could maintain it in six months. Two private one-hour sessions each week cover what a review cannot: what to build next, why an approach will not hold, how to read the error in front of you.

Two matched screens side by side on the same desk - a larger display and the laptop - standing for staging and production.
03 / Deploy

Staging first. Then production.

Your application is connected to GitHub with a controlled deployment process - the right branch structure, automated checks before release, secrets kept out of the repository. Every change proves itself in staging before it reaches the people using your product, and there is a way back if it doesn't.

04 - What's included

What a subscription actually gives you.

01

A foundations course you have to pass.

Before you are given access to the managed environments, you complete and pass a practical foundation course: how web applications work; frontend, backend and database responsibilities; development, staging and production; Git, branches and pull requests; database design and migrations; authentication and permissions; secrets and environment variables; testing, backups and monitoring; and the mistakes AI-generated code makes most often.

The purpose is not to turn you into a professional developer before you begin. It is to give you enough understanding to build more safely and make better decisions.

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02

Two managed environments.

A staging environment to test in and a production environment to launch from. We own and manage the underlying infrastructure, so consistent security, deployment, backup and monitoring standards apply to your product from the first day. Additional environments are available for a further monthly fee.

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03

Two private sessions every week.

Two one-hour sessions, every week, with an experienced developer. Plan the next feature, review a technical approach, work through an error, argue about database design, or get a feature ready to deploy. Responsibility for the building stays with you - the guidance does not.

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04

Ten code reviews a month.

Submit up to ten review requests each month. A review looks at whether the code matches the requirement, security and permission risks, database changes, maintainability, testing, error handling and deployment risk - and returns feedback you can understand. Extra bundles are available if ten is not enough.

Also included

  • Guidance on AI-assisted development - how to give an AI tool the context it needs, review what it proposes, and recognise when a decision needs a human.
  • GitHub and automated deployment setup - repository, branch structure, automated checks before release, and secrets kept outside the repository.
  • Deployment and production guidance - environments, domains, migrations, background jobs, logging, backups, monitoring and rollback planning.
  • A structured path from idea to launch - you are not handed a server and left alone.

05 - Honest about scope

What this is not.

Software University is a guided building programme, not an unlimited software-development service. It is worth being precise about the edges before you decide.

Not included

  • Our team building your product for you
  • Unlimited development work, sessions or reviews
  • A guaranteed completion date, or commercial success
  • Legal, financial or regulatory advice
  • Unlimited server resources or paid third-party API usage
  • Custom infrastructure outside the supported environment
  • Immediate support at any hour

What stays yours

  • Your idea, your business and your application source code
  • Your repository, held in an account you or your business controls
  • A defined offboarding path when you are ready to manage your own infrastructure
  • Every decision about what the product should be

You remain responsible for your product, customers and legal obligations. Our guidance and reviews are there to reduce risk and improve quality - they cannot guarantee an application will never contain a bug or a vulnerability. If you need our team to build something substantial, that work can be assessed and quoted separately.

06 - Early Builder Shortlist

Tell us what you want to build.

We are researching the challenges people face when trying to build real software with AI. The survey takes about five minutes, and everyone who completes it is welcome to join the free Early Builder Shortlist.

  1. 1

    Tell us what you want to build

    Your idea, how far you have got, your biggest challenges, and the support you would value most.

  2. 2

    Join the shortlist

    No application score, no payment, no deposit and no approval requirement. Everyone who completes the survey may join.

  3. 3

    Help shape the programme

    Your answers will help determine the final structure, support model, pricing and launch plan.

  4. 4

    Receive your launch invitation

    When the programme officially launches, shortlist members get the final details and an invitation to join.

  5. 5

    Claim your early-builder benefit

    Subscribe within the launch period and receive 20% off your first six consecutive months.

Take the 5-minute survey

No fee, no deposit, no approval process, and no obligation to subscribe later.