A YC alternative. Without the visa application.
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. We have raised £5m+ from UK angels and funds without ever doing a YC batch. The path on this page is the one we have walked ourselves.
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. YC is a serious product. If you are willing and able to relocate to the Bay Area, take their cheque, raise dollars, hire dollars and operate inside the YC network for ten years, you should do YC. Most UK founders cannot or should not do that — visas, partners and families, NHS, school terms, mortgages, GBP revenue. You leave the Academy with the artefacts YC would have asked you to ship in the first three months — without needing a US visa to start. Deeper essay here.
Coding · build first, raise second
YC invests at the start; the Academy gets you to a deployed product and a paying pilot first, then raises. Cursor, Claude Code, Codex on real frameworks; production retrieval, agents, evals, deploy pipelines. A deployed AI product by week twelve — a different sequence, materially better terms for many founders than a $125k/7% SAFE.
Commercials · UK GBP, NHS, school terms intact
Twelve weeks in Derby, an hour up from London. UK life continues around the cohort. Pricing in GBP, invoicing through a UK Ltd, SEIS Advance Assurance filed in week two. A paid pilot by week six — the same kind of traction YC would have been pushing you toward, on UK ground.
Investment · three real paths after demo day
Apply to YC W26 with deployed product and paying pilot already in hand (graduates have, and got further than they would have cold). Join the Moonlabs Incubator as the equity-shaped step. Raise locally with UK angels and funds (Plural, Local Globe, Concrete VC, Pi Labs, EF, Forward Partners, Notion Capital, Octopus, Backed VC). A live investor pipeline by demo day — on whichever side of the Atlantic you choose.
Common questions.
Is the Academy a substitute for YC?
Not for the cohort of UK founders for whom relocating to SF is realistic and right. For most UK founders, YC is harder to justify than it looks — most never make the round of Demo Day investors UK founders need anyway, and the visa pathway is meaningful overhead. The Academy is built for the larger pool.
I applied to YC and was rejected. Is the Academy a sensible next step?
Often yes — rejection from YC is usually about fit and timing rather than ability. The Academy is a different programme shape and a meaningful proportion of past Academy applicants have included strong YC-rejections.
Can I do the Academy and still apply to YC afterwards?
Yes — several past graduates have. Going into a YC application with a deployed product, paying pilots and a financial model from the Academy improves the odds materially.
Do you invest like YC does?
Not as the Academy itself — we charge tuition rather than take equity. The Moonlabs Incubator is the equity-shaped step in our ecosystem and operates more like a UK accelerator.
How does this compare to UK YC alternatives like EF, Antler, Founders Factory?
Each has a specific shape. The EF alternative page walks through that comparison directly. The Academy is product-first, tuition-based, in Derby, and explicitly does not take equity at this stage.
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 with your idea and your timeline. James and Louis read every application personally and reply inside the week.
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