A twelve-week AI cohort, three hours from Newcastle Central.
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.
The North-East has Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and a growing AI and fintech scene — and is one of the most under-served talent pipelines in the country. Derby is around three hours by train via Birmingham or York. This is a relocation question, not a commute question: past Northern students have stayed in central Derby Monday-Friday and gone home weekends. Central Derby is materially cheaper than Newcastle city centre for the twelve weeks.
Coding · the stack Newcastle employers are hiring for
Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, evals, deploys, observability. Newcastle hosts Sage’s global HQ, HMRC’s second-biggest digital centre, DWP digital, Atom Bank, Accenture Newcastle, Just Group, Northumbrian Water, Hays Travel and a serious post-UoN AI cluster — all hiring AI engineers. A deployed product by week twelve on your CV before any UoN, Northumbria or Sunderland CS finalist has graduated.
Commercials · sell into the under-served North-East SMB market
The North-East is one of the most under-served SMB markets in the country for serious AI tooling — 25,000+ businesses with price ceilings below the South-East and 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 North-East business they already know.
Investment · the North-East capital network
Cap table from week two, ten-slide deck, financial model, term sheets line by line. Northstar Ventures (Newcastle’s flagship VC), the North East Innovation Fund (Mercia), Maven Capital Partners, the Angel CoFund and the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF). A live investor pipeline by demo day — with warm introductions where we have them.
Common questions.
How long is the commute from Newcastle to Derby?
Around three hours by train via Birmingham or York. Realistic for weekly commutes or relocation, not daily. Most past Northern students have taken short-term central Derby accommodation for the cohort.
I am at Newcastle / Northumbria / Sunderland. Can I fit this around my degree?
The Academy is full-time during the twelve weeks. Best fits are sandwich-year placements, gap years, or the summer between final exams and the next academic year.
Is there accommodation help in Derby?
Yes — we can introduce you to short-term central Derby accommodation at sensible rates. Materially cheaper than Newcastle city centre. Several past students from outside the Midlands have done exactly this.
How does this compare to AI courses in Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle?
The North has good academic AI options; the in-person operator-led applied-bootcamp space is thinner. The Academy is a different shape from any of the Northern academic options — less theory, more shipping.
What about Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Durham, the Tees Valley?
All reachable within about three and a half hours by train. Several past students have travelled in from across the North-East and Tees Valley.
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 and where you are based in the North-East. James and Louis read every application personally and reply inside the week.
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