Build Weekend · September 26 to 27, 2026 · Sat to Sun
Build Weekend NYC
New York City — venue shared with accepted families30/30 spots left
Build Weekend · Ages 9–16
Build your first real app.
Live on the internet by Sunday
One weekend, a room full of builders your age, and founders coaching every step. Bring an idea, and with AI build in one weekend what used to take adults a year.
What It Is
Last time, an 11-year-old turned his idea into a real product in a single weekend.
His idea? Custom 3D-printed chess sets that transform — designed and built entirely with AI. You bring your own idea. By Sunday it’s live on the internet, with a link anyone can open on their phone.
We provide the tools that are the building blocks for your app.
The same AI stack the pros use, hands-on coaching at every table, and credits that carry your ideas beyond the weekend.
The Mentors
Mentor roster announcing soon.
Every weekend is worked by people from the Founders School network — on the floor the whole time, looking at what you’re building and showing you how to make it better. We’re locking in who’s coming, and the names go up here first.
- Founders
People who started companies you already have on your phone.
- Investors
The people who decide which brand-new ideas get funded.
- Creators
Writers and podcasters who built an audience from nothing.
- Alpha School
The team behind the two-hour school day.
How It Runs
One weekend. One arc.
Every day raises the stakes, from Saturday’s first commit to Sunday’s grand finale, with mentors alongside the entire way.
Find it, build it
Saturday
- 10:00 AM
Doors, kick-off, idea workshop
Food from the start and a room full of builders your age. Show up with an idea — something you actually know or care about — then figure out your angle on it and put it on the wall.
- 11:30
Building starts
Tools go live and mentors start floating. Nobody breaks for lunch without something real on screen.
- 1:00 PM
Workshops that actually help
How to build the smallest version that works, how to make an app feel great to use, and how to fix it when it breaks — then straight back to building.
- All day
Long build blocks
Mentors floating table to table, demos piling up, and the wall of live apps growing all afternoon.
- 6:30
Dinner + Alpha Head of School fireside
Dinner with the whole room, then the Alpha Head of School takes questions in the open — nothing scripted, and nothing off the table.
- 9:00 PM
Hard wrap
The doors close at 9:00 PM sharp. No overnights — go home, sleep on it, come back hungry.
Ship & win
Sunday
- 10:00 AM
Final sprint + go live
Squash the last bugs, put your app live on the internet, and film the 3-minute story of what you built.
- 4:00 PM
Parents arrive
Families show up and open what you built on their own phones.
- 4:30
Showcase
Every builder at their own station with what they made. Parents, mentors, and judges walk the floor and try it live.
- 5:15
Finals on stage
The top five builders pitch live, three minutes each, in front of everyone.
- 6:00
Awards + wrap
The winner gets announced, the ship bell rings one last time, and everyone celebrates.
What You’ll Learn
Skills that outlast the weekend.
Six blocks, in order, whatever you end up building — from what an app is actually made of, all the way to standing up and showing it off. You pick them up by shipping something real, not by sitting through lectures.
Apps 101
What an app is really made of
Pull apart the apps you already use, find the pieces hiding inside, then build one yourself from a blank screen — and put it live at a real address on day one.
Make It Beautiful
Apps people actually love
Anyone can make an app that works. You make one people want to open, with AI doing the typing — and you can point at any part of your screen and say why it looks like that.
The Engine Room
The part nobody sees
Where your app keeps its stuff so it survives a refresh, how to plug in something built by somebody else, and where to hide your secret keys so they never sit in your code.
Bug Hunting
Catching what is broken
Write down the things your app must get right, then try every one and mark it pass or fail. Find the ones that flop, fix them, and run them again until they all go green.
Don’t Get Hacked
Breaking your own app first
People will try to use your app in ways you never planned. Go hunting for the holes in your own build and patch them yourself, before a single real user gets near it.
The Big Demo
Getting a room excited
Four beats, under three minutes, your app loaded and live on the big screen. Say what you made so the whole room wants to pull it up on their own phone.
No coding experience required. The AI writes the code. You decide and direct. Complete beginners ship real apps by Sunday.
Fall 2026Every weekend
Every weekend
we have dates for.
New York goes first in September, free for accepted students and thirty spots. Ten Alpha School campuses follow in October. Applying takes two minutes.
Build Weekend · October 24 to 25, 2026 · Sat to Sun
Build Weekend US
Alpha School locations · 10 cities
Austin
Alpha Austin Campus
Boston
Alpha Boston Campus
Chicago
Alpha Chicago Campus
Dallas
Alpha Highland Park Campus
Los Angeles
Alpha Santa Monica Campus
Miami
Alpha Miami Campus
Nashville
Alpha Nashville Campus
New York
Alpha New York Campus
San Francisco
Alpha San Francisco Campus
Seattle
Alpha Kirkland Campus
Want a weekend we haven’t dated yet?
Tell us which one and where you are — new weekends go where the most families ask for them.
The Bigger PictureLoved the weekend?
Loved the weekend?
Our students do this every day.
Build Weekend is one taste of Founders School, the high school where the same loop runs all year: real businesses, real customers, and a real path to $1 million by graduation.
Younger Students
Explore Alpha