Talented child. Unclear path.
Watched them build something in their bedroom and wondered if they could do it for real? Twelve weeks at the Moonlabs Academy turns that talent into a shipped product, a paying customer, and an offer letter — or the start of their own company. Here is the parent-direct explanation, without the buzzwords.
The Moonlabs Academy is a twelve-week, in-person, full-time course in Derby. Twelve students per cohort. Tuition is £6,000 total, paid up front or in monthly instalments. The course is run personally by two working operators — James Freestone and Louis O'Connell-Bristow — who in parallel run home.co.uk, Homemove, and homedata.co.uk.
The curriculum has three pillars: Coding, Commercials, Investment. Your child does not just learn to code (the AI tools have made that the easy part). They learn how to price, sell, contract, raise, and run a small AI-native business end-to-end. By the end of the twelve weeks, every student has shipped a real product, signed at least one paying pilot, and built an active investor pipeline.
We have written this page because parents ask us the same six questions, in the same order, and most of them deserve a clearer answer than the rest of the site provides.
Is this instead of, or alongside, a degree?
Either. We have had students who took a year out from university, students between A-levels and university, students who finished their degree and wanted a different next step, and one student who left a graduate engineering role to do the cohort and a startup. The course is twelve weeks; the rest of the year is theirs.
What does my child actually do for twelve weeks?
They build a real company. From idea to deployed product to first paying customer to investor conversations. Roughly 25-30 contact hours a week, half live with us, half shipping independently with checkpoint reviews. They are not watching pre-recorded lectures — they are doing operator-grade work alongside operators, every day, in person, in Derby.
Is it worth six thousand pounds?
We believe so, otherwise we would not run it. The honest comparison: an undergraduate year costs more in tuition alone (and several years more in lost income). A senior internship at a top firm pays nothing and teaches the wrong skills for an AI-native operator. The Academy graduates we have placed into roles are earning in the £55k-£75k range — comparable to what a top-quartile graduate engineer earns three years after university. The maths works in twelve weeks rather than three years.
How can we fund it if six thousand is a stretch?
Several legitimate routes. Institutional bursaries from universities and colleges (often unadvertised, ask the tutor). Local scholarships and grants (we write the supporting letter). Employer or apprenticeship funding (especially if your child is already in work and the employer can cover it). Self-funding with a monthly payment plan. Talk to us early if money is the obstacle — we have helped students find a route in nine of ten cases where we have been involved early.
What happens after demo day?
A subset are hired into the businesses we operate. A subset go on to be co-founders on the next Moonlabs Incubator companies. A subset are introduced to operators in our wider UK network who are actively hiring at the salary band we have described. Nobody graduates without options. Some students continue their original company; others use the demo as a portfolio piece for the next role.
How do I know this is legitimate, not a scam?
Three honest pointers. First: companieshouse.gov.uk — Moonlab Ventures Ltd is registered. Second: home.co.uk has run since 1995 and was acquired by us in 2025; Homemove and homedata.co.uk are operating businesses with real customers; both are verifiable. Third: come and visit. Derby station is the train. We are six minutes' walk from there. We will sit down with you and your child for an hour and you can decide on the basis of meeting us in person. We do this most weeks; it is normal.
Talk to us directly.
If you want a thirty-minute call with one of us before your child applies, email founders@homemove.com. We answer parents personally, the same way we answer applicants.
Read the thinking.
All essaysYour next chapter starts here.
Tell us about the company you want to build. If we’re a fit, we’ll get back within a week.
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