A twelve-week AI cohort worth the move from Glasgow.
Moonlabs is the operator-led AI Academy in Derby. We run three live companies — Homemove, home.co.uk and homedata.co.uk — and we teach twelve students per cohort to ship a real AI product, sell it to a real customer, and raise on it. Three pillars: Coding, Commercials, Investment. Twelve weeks. £6,000.
Moonlabs is what we are. Two operators — James Freestone and Louis O’Connell-Bristow — who run Homemove, home.co.uk and homedata.co.uk, have raised £5m+ for their own companies, and have been AI-native since the week ChatGPT shipped.
The Academy is what we do. A twelve-week, in-person, twelve-student cohort in Derby. You build a real AI product. You sign a paid pilot. You write a deck and a financial model. You leave with a deployed system, a paying customer reference and a live investor pipeline. Coding, Commercials, Investment — the three pillars taught in equal weight every week.
Glasgow has UoG, Strathclyde, Glasgow Caledonian and a serious fintech and AI scene — and not yet an operator-led AI bootcamp of its own. Derby is around five hours by train from Central Station; this is a relocation question, not a commute question. Central Derby is materially cheaper than Glasgow city centre for the twelve weeks, and past Scottish students have stayed Monday-Friday and gone home weekends.
Coding · the stack Glasgow employers are hiring for
Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, evals, deploys, observability. Glasgow hosts JPMorgan’s second-largest UK tech hub, Morgan Stanley, Barclays Glasgow, BlackRock, Tesco Bank, FreeAgent, Skyscanner’s parent Trip.com, Iomart and Scotland’s NHS digital lead — all hiring AI engineers right now. A deployed product by week twelve on your CV before any UoG, Strathclyde or Glasgow Caledonian CS finalist has graduated.
Commercials · sell into the Scottish SMB market
Glasgow sits at the centre of the largest SMB market north of Manchester — 40,000+ businesses across the Central Belt with AI buying decisions still mostly unmade. Pricing, discovery, a one-page pilot agreement, the first £500 invoice. A paid pilot by week six — for many graduates, sold into a Scottish business they already know.
Investment · the Scottish capital network
Cap table from week two, ten-slide deck, financial model, term sheets line by line. Scottish Enterprise, Par Equity, Eos Advisory, Equity Gap, Edinburgh-based Mercia Scotland office, plus the Techstart Ventures and the Investing Women Angels — we know the regional capital and we make warm introductions for graduates raising in Scotland. A live investor pipeline by demo day.
Common questions.
Is five hours from Glasgow really worth it?
Depends on what you want. For a CPD weekend course, no. For a twelve-week, operator-led, in-person AI cohort with a deployed product at the end — we have had Scottish students relocate and they have not regretted the move.
What about accommodation in Derby?
We can introduce you to short-term central Derby accommodation at sensible rates — materially cheaper than Glasgow city centre, let alone London. Several Scottish-based students have stayed in Derby Monday-Thursday and gone home for the weekend.
How does this compare to AI courses in Edinburgh?
Edinburgh is genuinely strong on academic AI; the in-person operator-led applied-bootcamp space is thinner. The Academy is a different shape from any of the Scottish academic options — less theory, more shipping. Edinburgh comparison page.
What about Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen, Stirling?
All under six hours by train. Several past students have travelled in from across Scotland; we have introductions to past students if it helps you talk through the relocation question.
Could I do this remotely?
No — the Academy is intentionally in person. Honest case for that decision on the online-vs-in-person page.
More Academy entry points.
The Academy is one course with many doors. Each of these pages is a different entry point into the same twelve weeks.
Build it. Sell it. Raise on it. In twelve weeks.
Tell us what you would build, where you are based in Scotland, and whether a twelve-week relocation to Derby is realistic. James and Louis read every application personally and reply inside the week.
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