Neural Notes: Build Club’s blueprint for global AI education in 2025
Build Club is scaling in 2025, focusing on corporate upskilling, white-labeled e-learning, and making AI accessible to non-technical users.
Welcome back to Neural Notes, a weekly column where I look at the effect of AI on Australia. In this edition, we catch up with Build Club, a startup that has gone from a Sydney community accelerator to a global AI education platform in just 18 months.
From local accelerator to global education platform
Build Club started in 2023 as a six-week residency program for engineers and enthusiasts to experiment with AI tools and build projects.
Back then, founder and CEO Annie Liao was still working full-time in VC. The program operated out of a Sydney co-working space and attracted a community of early adopters, from side hustlers to professionals at companies like Atlassian and PwC.
Over time, it became clear that the demand for AI knowledge and practical applications extended beyond startups and engineers.
“It wasn’t just people who wanted venture capital funding joining Build Club,” Liao said to SmartCompany.
“It was also software engineers, and even people working at companies like Commonwealth Bank, who wanted to learn AI tools and how to build with AI.”
Build Club wants to make AI accessible to all
This growing interest led to a pivot towards AI education, with Build Club partnering with AI companies to host workshops and create tailored courses.
In 2024, the company expanded globally, raised $1.75 million, and tested three core ideas: a bounty marketplace for small AI projects, an e-learning platform, and community-focused tools.
“A lot of it has just been following the momentum of the community… We started with an accelerator concept and then with time, it kind of evolved,” Liao said.
With this momentum, Build Club established a base in San Francisco. It now operates across over 20 cities in multiple countries, with local community leads supporting its mission in regions ranging from India to Europe and the US.
Build Club’s mission is to democratise AI education
According to Liao, around 70% of the content on the Build Club platform is for non-technical people on an AI no-code journey.
“I think one of the most exciting things about AI is that now non-technical people can actually build full-on authentic workflows,” Liao said.
“They might even be better at it than a typical engineer, because they actually have the expertise and know how the processes work.”
For underrepresented communities, the company has partnered with organisations like BDPA in San Francisco, offering free access to their platform.
Build Club’s multi-tiered approach to AI education
While education is the focus of Build Club, it continues to operate across three tiers. The white-labeled e-learning platform is the centerpiece of their plans for 2025, allowing businesses to train their teams on AI tools and workflows.
It also offers a bounty marketplace allowing businesses to post real-world AI projects — such as automating workflows or creating custom chatbots — that builders tackle for a financial reward.
While this feature isn’t a primary focus for 2025, Liao said it has the potential to become a “whole new way for people to adopt AI”.
Finally, Build Club’s global community roots remain a key part of its identity, with city leads organsing events and supporting local builders.
Monetisation and plans for 2025
While the platform is currently free for individual users, Build Club’s monetisation strategy ensures the company remains sustainable.
Revenue comes from three main sources: the white-label e-learning platform, affiliate income from partner courses, and fees from the bounty marketplace.
“So, we’re white labeling out [the] e-learning platform and selling it business to business. And that’s really taking off. Corporate AI adoption is very, very ripe at the moment. So we’re really doubling down on that,” Liao said.
With corporate AI adoption growing, Liao says the timing is right for companies to invest in upskilling their teams. Beyond this, Build Club plans to expand its marketing efforts through social platforms like TikTok and Instagram and further refine its enterprise tools.
Challenges remain though, particularly in scaling a global community.
“Ironically, probably time zones [are] the biggest one. Like when we have a city lead onboarding call — some people are dialing in at 12am, we take it at 10pm,” Liao said.
“Also the language barrier, but our AI engineer built a little Slack extension for language translation.”
Despite these hurdles, the company’s community-driven model continues to attract participants who want to lead new chapters of Build Club in their cities.
As for the competition, Liao isn’t too concerned with the plethora of other AI courses hitting the market.
“What we’ve done is we’ve identified the top AI companies in the world, most of them in San Francisco, and partnered with their founders to co-create courses and certifications which you can’t find on any other platform,” Liao said.
“To be honest, we haven’t spent too much time even reviewing or fixating on competitors. We’re just heads down focusing on what we want to build and talking to customers.”
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