Bay Area·Ages 10–18·One family at a time

Make AI your kid's unfair advantage.

Name: Builder Weekend
Price range: $$$

In one weekend, your kid turns their own idea into a live app and a real business — the kind of story that stands out on a college application or a first internship. And they learn the skill underneath it: directing AI, judging what comes back, and making the final call themselves.

Book a free intro call See how it works

The intro is a free 30-minute conversation — just parents, no card, no commitment. We talk before I ever teach.

Pixel-art portrait of the Builder Weekend teacher

Your kid's teacher — built at Google and Meta, founded and sold a startup, taught students across 15 universities.

Full background below ↓

What they build

Three things your kid walks away with.

Everything in the weekend points at these three. They're your kid's to keep.

A live app

Working software at a real web address. Something they made, that runs, that they can pull up on any phone and say — I built this.

A real business

Their own idea with a name, a price, and a customer in mind. The app serves the business — the way it works in the real world.

Judgment you can watch

By the family demo, your kid can hand AI a job, spot where it went wrong, and say what to fix. Out loud, in front of you. That's the part they keep.

What your kid learns to do with AI

Turn a vague idea into clear instructions
Give AI direction with intent, not just questions
Spot bad output instead of accepting it
Decide what to fix next, and why
Explain what they built and how it works

The weekend

Designed around your kid. Built from three blocks.

There's no off-the-shelf curriculum here. At the intro call, you and I decide what your kid should get out of AI. Then I prepare their weekend from three building blocks — the idea space, the tools, and the outcome are set before session one. Each session is two hours, one-on-one, at your home. Usually one weekend; the three sessions can also split across two nearby weekends if that fits your family better.

Block one

Start a business

Your kid brings an idea — something from their world, their school, their hobbies. Together we shape it into a business: what it's called, who it's for, what it costs. It goes live as a simple landing page before the session ends.

Block two

Build the app

The big one. Your kid designs and directs the software — what it does, what looks wrong, what to fix next — while I run the tools and keep us moving. At some point the AI will build the wrong thing; it always does. Your kid is the one who catches it. By the end, the app is live at a real address.

Block three

Learn to think with AI

We name what your kid has been doing all weekend: directing a machine that's fast, confident, and sometimes wrong. Then they demo the app to the family and walk through the calls they made, including the ones where they overruled the AI.

Two versions of the weekend

Ages 10–13

The "I'm a builder" weekend

Middle schoolers ship their first real thing and find out they're the kind of person who builds. Sessions run in short build-test-demo loops — two hours goes fast when it's their idea.

Ages 14–18

The head-start weekend

High schoolers ship something they can put in front of a college or an employer — and defend question by question, because they made every call. Teens usually join the intro call too. It's their weekend.

2 hours per session One-on-one At your home One or two weekends

For parents

We build the curriculum together.

Some families want creative confidence. Some want college readiness. Some want clear guardrails around shortcuts and screen time. Teaching AI the right way means different things to different families — so this starts with you, not your kid.

"Before I teach your kid anything, I want to know what you want them to learn — and what you don't. I bring the plan; we shape it together."

What I'll tell you at the intro

We talk first
The intro call is parents only — and free. You decide what "good AI use" means for your family before your kid ever sits down.
A plan you edit, not a class you take
I bring a weekend plan built for your kid's age and interests. You shape it with me at the intro — even where that goes beyond my regular material.
One family at a time
Every kid is different. I work with one kid at a time and adapt each session to how yours thinks and what excites them.
You're always welcome
Sessions happen at your home, and you're welcome in every one of them — from the first minute to the family demo.
Straight answers
If I don't think the weekend is right for your kid, I'll tell you on the call — before you pay anything.

Who's teaching

I was the kid who had to figure it out alone.

Every Builder Weekend is taught by me — no franchise, no assistants. I've spent my career building products people use, and I taught hundreds of students across fifteen universities before I ever charged for it.

"I made it my goal to help every single student, every day."

From a published profile, 2022

Lagos, Nigeria

Wanted to be an engineer from age five. By the end of high school, what I really wanted to know was how the code behind websites worked.

Alone to America

Moved to the U.S. by myself for college, landed in a Python class, and never stopped coding. Community college in Chicago, a 4.0 in CS and math, then the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

CodePath — where I learned to teach

While still a student I started teaching: volunteer, then the TA answering hundreds of student questions a week, then the manager running mobile-development courses across fifteen U.S. universities.

Google

Built machine-learning products at scale, including one of the first image models behind Google Shopping ads.

Founded Approachable

My own startup — built it, ran it for three years, and saw it through to acquisition.

What it costs — and what you get.

Step one

Intro Call

Parents only — the fit conversation

Free

30 minutes · video, or in person if you prefer

You tell me what you want your kid to get from AI — and what worries you
I walk you through exactly how the weekend works
We shape the plan for your kid specifically
If it's not a fit, you'll know in 30 minutes

Book a free intro call

Pick a time, get a confirmation the same day. No card required.

Step two

Builder Weekend

Three sessions, one-on-one with your kid

$1,200

3 × 2 hours · your home · one or two weekends

One of six founding fall slots

A live app at an address your kid keeps
A named business with a landing page
A family demo to close the weekend
A written debrief for you: what your kid can now do with AI, where they're strong, and what to practice next

Book a free intro call

Booking opens at the intro call. You pay nothing before we've talked.

The founding six

Builder Weekend is new, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. The first six families are the founding cohort — and the first kids present their work at a public family demo day in late September. Come watch before you decide anything.

That's also why the guarantee is real: if session one doesn't convince you — or your kid — stop there, and I'll refund the other two sessions in full. $800 back, no questions asked. No subscriptions, no auto-renew, no fine print.

I run at most two weekends a month, around a full-time engineering job — which is exactly why it's one family at a time.

Questions parents ask

The questions I'd ask too.

Does my kid need coding experience?

No. The weekend is built for kids starting from zero. What matters is that your kid has ideas and opinions — the sessions turn those into something real. Kids who already code just go further, faster.

Is this just AI doing my kid's work for them?

The opposite — and this is the heart of it. Your kid makes every decision: what to build, what's wrong with it, what to change. They learn to direct AI, question it, and catch its mistakes. That's the skill that will matter for the rest of their lives, and most schools are still figuring out how to teach it.

It's also the antidote to the thing parents actually worry about: dependence. A kid who leans on AI accepts whatever it says. A kid who directs it checks the work. The whole weekend trains the second kid.

What ages does this work for?

Ages 10–18, and the weekend flexes hard across that range. For 10–13, sessions run in short build-test-demo loops with breaks — two hours goes fast when it's their own idea. For teens, we go deeper on product decisions and launch quality, and they usually join the intro call themselves. Where your kid lands is exactly what we work out on the call.

What exactly is the curriculum?

The structure is fixed; the project is custom. Every kid goes through the same three blocks — start a business, build the app, learn to think with AI — but what happens inside them is designed with you at the intro call: your kid's age, their interests, and what you want them ready for. That's the difference between this and a class.

What if my kid doesn't have an idea?

That's normal — most kids don't walk in with a pitch. I bring idea prompts tuned to their age and interests, and we mine their world: school annoyances, hobbies, things they wish existed. The idea is theirs by the end of the first hour, and that ownership is the point.

Are parents around during sessions?

Always. Sessions happen in your home, you're welcome to sit in on every minute, and I never need time alone with your kid. Two more things you shouldn't have to ask about: nothing personal about your kid goes into AI tools, and anything that goes live on the internet is reviewed with you first.

Where in the Bay Area do you teach?

I'm based in San Francisco and teach in-home across SF and the Peninsula. Farther out? Book the intro anyway — I'll tell you honestly whether the logistics work before you pay anything.

What happens after the weekend?

The app stays live and stays your kid's. Families who want to keep going can book follow-up sessions, but there's no subscription and no pressure — the weekend is complete on its own.