Online AI bootcamp. Or twelve weeks in a room.
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. In person.
Moonlabs is what we are. Two operators — James Freestone and Louis O’Connell-Bristow — who run Homemove, home.co.uk and homedata.co.uk. We have run online cohorts before, watched the commercials and investment work degrade through a Zoom tile, and decided not to run the diluted version. The case on this page is the one we put our names to.
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 on it. 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.
Why this page exists. Most AI bootcamps in the UK are now online — lower overheads, larger cohorts, broader geography. For some students that is the right answer (you are abroad, in a job you cannot leave, caring for someone). For most, it is not. Pricing intuitions come from watching another operator’s face react in real time. Sales tone is learned by doing five calls live with someone reviewing in the room. Investor calls are rehearsed in person, immediately after the real one. If you can be in Derby for twelve weeks, you should be — the artefact at the end is materially different.
Coding · code reviewed at your shoulder
Cursor, Claude Code, Codex on real frameworks, with James or Louis leaning over the screen and asking the question you have not asked yourself yet. The agentic-coding workflow only reaches its ceiling when someone senior reviews the decisions, not just the diffs. A deployed AI product by week twelve — reviewed in the room, not async on Slack.
Commercials · sales tone reviewed in real time
No Zoom tile has yet replicated the signal density of a real room. Pricing pushed against a real buyer’s face. The discovery call replayed with us correcting the second sentence. The pilot agreement signed in person, with the operator in the next chair watching. A paid pilot by week six — learned the way sales is actually learned.
Investment · the cohort network that compounds
Twelve students in a room for twelve weeks form a network that lasts a career. Past Academy cohorts are still introducing each other to investors, customers and co-founders. The in-person cohort produces the warm-intro graph an online programme structurally cannot. Cap table, ten-slide deck, financial model. A live investor pipeline by demo day — built on the network the room produces.
Common questions.
Are there any good online AI bootcamps in the UK?
Yes. jointakeoff is genuinely strong at the online format and we say so on our comparison page. fast.ai and the Anthropic and OpenAI documentation are excellent starting points. None of them replaces twelve weeks of in-person operator-led work, but for the situations they fit they are real options.
Why do you not just offer an online version of the Academy?
Because we have run online cohorts before, watched the commercials and investment work in particular degrade, and decided we would rather not run the diluted version. The Academy as it exists is what we are willing to put our names to.
I live too far from Derby. What should I do?
If by “too far” you mean “abroad or in the Highlands”, an online programme elsewhere is probably right. If by “too far” you mean “a couple of hours”, we have past students who have done exactly that — sometimes commuting, sometimes taking short-term accommodation in central Derby. Look at the geography.
What about hybrid?
We do not do hybrid as a default. Some past students have negotiated a small number of remote days for specific personal reasons; the core of the cohort is in person.
Is in-person really worth £6,000 instead of an online course at £200?
Depends what you want at the end of it. If you want a certificate and curiosity, no. If you want a deployed product, paying pilots, a live investor pipeline and a network that pulls you into the next decade of AI work, yes — and we have honest graduate outcomes to back the claim.
AI bootcamp Midlands
The case for the Academy specifically being in the Midlands and not London. If “in-person” sounds right but London does not, start here.
Best AI course UK
The honest comparison page with the alternatives, including online options we will recommend if they fit your situation better.
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 where you are based and whether being in Derby for twelve weeks is realistic. James and Louis read every application personally and reply inside the week — sometimes pointing you at an online option if your situation needs it.
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