From Blank Folder to Running System

The blank folder is where a lot of this dies. You know your way around Claude Code by now, you have watched the demos, and then one Tuesday evening you open an empty folder for your own build and there is nothing to type, because the demo was solving somebody else's problem and yours does not look anything like that.

Six of the nine people in my founding cohort wrote almost exactly that on their application form, in their own words, none of them knowing anybody else had said it. So you are in fairly normal company here.

There is a real gap between watching something work on a screen and having it run on your own machine, every week, without you sitting next to it. These three sessions exist to close that gap.

Six hours in total, split into three sessions of two hours each, one week apart. The weeks in between do most of the work.

Session one starts on a blank folder and ends with something running. We scope the build on the free call so it fits inside two hours, then we build it. Your build, your files, your machine, and me on the call while it happens rather than sending you away with a recipe. At the end I make you run it once on your own while I watch, because that is the moment you find out what you actually understood.

Then you live with it for a week. You use the thing. It breaks somewhere, or it does something slightly stupid, or you think of the one feature that would make it useful on a Monday.

Session two is that list. We fix what broke, harden the parts that were held together with hope, and add the next layer, which is usually memory, a second agent, or wiring it into a tool you already pay for.

Another week of use. By now it is doing real work, so the problems are better ones.

Session three is about letting go of it. We set it to run on a schedule or a trigger, so it does not wait for you to remember it. Then you add the next small piece yourself while I watch and do not type. You leave knowing how to change it without me, which is the reason you built it yourself in the first place.

I used to offer this as one four hour block and stopped, because hour four is where everybody stops absorbing anything. Two hours at a time, a week apart, is also far easier to schedule when we sit in different time zones.

1. A working system in your own folder, which you built, and can therefore change later without me

2. The files that make it work. The instructions file, a command or two, a skill or two, an agent or two, and whatever context files your build needed

3. The system running on its own, on a schedule or a trigger, not only when you remember to open it

4. All three recordings

5. A short build roadmap from me after session three, saying what to build next and what to leave alone for now

This is a build, not a first lesson in Claude Code. So the one real prerequisite is that you already know your way around it. You have finished my Claude Code Builder cohort, or you have used Claude Code on your own enough to open a project, ask it for a change and read what it did. If you are new to it, start with the cohort. These six hours go much further after it.

The rest of the setup list I am strict about, for a fairly unromantic reason. In my founding cohort we lost live minutes to installs and logins more than once. In a group that is annoying. In a paid 1:1 it is your money going on a progress bar.

1. Claude Code installed and working, on a Claude Pro or Max subscription

2. A laptop you have admin rights on. Mac or Windows, no Linux or tablet-only setups

3. A folder for the thing we are building, even if it is completely empty

4. One build in mind, with a real input and a real output

5. Anything else we agreed on the free call, installed and opened once without an error

We build in Claude Code by default. If your build needs Codex, an open model on your own machine, Kimi, Ollama or n8n alongside it, we agree that on the free call and it goes on your list.

On number 4, "something with AI" is not yet a build. "Take the messy notes I write after every client call and turn them into a follow up email that sounds like me" is a build, and we can start on it immediately.

If number 4 is the bit you are stuck on, buy Your AI Automation or Agentic AI Roadmap instead. That session exists to answer exactly that question, it costs less, and you will get much more out of these six hours afterwards.

If you are not yet sure what to build, start with Your AI Automation or Agentic AI Roadmap. Two hours, and you leave with a ranked plan rather than a half-built thing you are not sure about.

If you are new to Claude Code, the Claude Code Builder cohort is the place to start. Six weeks with other people in the room, and it covers far more ground than six hours can.

If you are already in the cohort, bring your capstone. We pick it up where Demo Day left it and take it to the full version, on your machine, with me on the call.

$1,997 is founding pricing and it goes up once there are reviews sitting on this page. I run 2 of these a month, which is all the calendar has room for alongside the cohort.

Every build includes a free 30 minute call with me before session one. You do not pay anything extra for it.

We use it to agree two things: what we are building, and how big. I would rather we cut the build down on that call than run out of session halfway through it. We also agree whether anything besides Claude Code goes into it, so your setup list comes out of that call and you install one thing rather than guessing at five.

Once we have had it I set up all three sessions and send you the invites, roughly a week apart.

If you would rather talk before you spend anything at all, the same 30 minutes is listed separately on my profile as a free AI discovery call.