# MakerSquare — School of Artificial Intelligence

> MakerSquare is a 2-week, in-person AI intensive in Austin, TX for non-technical professionals: operators, founders, career builders, and domain experts. No coding required. Students build and deploy a live website, an AI agent, and an automated workflow and present at Demo Day in front of Austin's tech, investor, and operator community.

## What MakerSquare Is

MakerSquare is the only multi-week in-person AI product-building intensive in Austin, Texas designed specifically for professionals without a technical background. Unlike online courses or certifications that teach AI literacy, MakerSquare graduates ship working AI products. The program is 2 weeks long, meets Monday through Friday from 9am to 3pm, and is intentionally kept to small cohorts. Optional Saturday office hours are offered for extra build time.

The program is open to anyone nationwide (and internationally), not just Austin locals. Housing assistance is available for builders who relocate temporarily.

## Who It's For

- Business operators who want to automate their workflows
- Career professionals who want to future-proof their skills with real AI building experience
- Domain experts with industry knowledge and a specific problem to solve
- First-time founders who want to build a product without hiring a developer

## What Students Build

Over 2 weeks (10 teaching days), students build and deploy three things: a live website, an automated workflow, and a capstone AI agent:
1. Product 1 (Day 5, Friday of Week 1): Website + Supabase + Claude Skill, wired together and deployed to a live URL.
2. Product 2 (Day 9, Thursday of Week 2): A workflow or automation combining Composio, Playwright, or voice AI with the builder's real data.
3. Capstone (Day 10, Demo Day Friday): Most ambitious product combining Claude Code, agentic APIs, and the full stack. Presented at public Demo Day.

## Curriculum Overview

- Pre-work: 3 self-paced steps (set up accounts, run your first expert-level conversation with Claude, define your capstone problem)
- Week 1: Build. How models work, talking to Claude like an expert, Warp + GitHub + Obsidian, PRD writing, build and deploy a website with Claude Code + Vercel, Supabase and Claude Skills. Product 1 ships Friday.
- Week 2: Automate + Ship. Sales automation with Composio, Playwright browser control, voice AI with Whisper + ElevenLabs, Claude Code + CodeRabbit agentic workflows, advanced tools. Demo Day Friday.

No visual automation tools (Zapier, Make, n8n). Production-level skills: expert prompting, Claude Skills, agentic workflows, browser control, voice AI, real deployment.

## Tools & Tech Stack

Claude, Claude Code, ChatGPT, Warp Terminal, GitHub, Vercel, Supabase, Composio, Playwright, CodeRabbit, Obsidian, Splashtop, ElevenLabs, Whisper

## Part-Time Format (Coming Soon)

A 4-week part-time format (Fridays plus weekends) is planned as a separate track for professionals who can't take two full weeks away from work. Same curriculum, same three shipped products, same public Demo Day. Waitlist open on the curriculum page.

## Key Facts

- Duration: 2 weeks (10 teaching days, Mon through Fri)
- Format: In-person, Austin TX (Mon-Fri, 9am to 3pm), optional Saturday office hours
- Prerequisites: No coding required. Basic computer fluency plus real-world domain expertise.
- Cohort size: small cohorts
- Tuition: $3,999 (flat fee, no ISA)
- Payment: full payment at enrollment, one charge via Stripe. No deposit, no split payments, no ISA.
- Scholarship: $500 off for military, first responders, and educators ($3,499 total)
- Housing: Partner Airbnb discounts from $1,600/month
- Corporate / team training (primary offer): private 3-day team AI workshops (custom quote, proposal within 24 hours), custom company programs for teams of 3 to 15, and individual seats in public cohorts ($3,999). Austin-based, on-site or at MakerSquare. Book an intro call at makersquare.ai/corporate to scope. Reference build: RoverPass (Austin campground-reservation company, CEO is MakerSquare co-founder Ravi Parikh) runs a live AI ops command center tracking hundreds of campgrounds in real time, built on the same stack MakerSquare teaches — case study at makersquare.ai/case-study-roverpass.
- [Case Study (Cameron Dowd — sales AE built an AI prospecting tool)](https://www.makersquare.ai/case-study-cameron-dowd)
- [Case Study (Ted Kilgore — job seeker built an AI company-matcher)](https://www.makersquare.ai/case-study-ted-kilgore)
- Alumni subscription: $199/month (optional, first month free)

## 2026 Cohort Calendar (2-Week Intensive)

- Cohort 1: July 6 to July 17, 2026 — completed. Graduates: see testimonials on the site.
- Cohort 2: August 3 to August 14, 2026 (Demo Day Fri August 14 evening) — enrollment closed July 27.
- Cohort 3: January 11 to January 22, 2027 (Demo Day Fri January 22 evening) — small cohort. Enrolling now. Start the year building.

No 2-week cohorts run in fall 2026 — September through November is workshop season (3-day intensives) plus private team training.

## Fall 2026 Workshops (3-Day Intensives)

MakerSquare runs weekend AI workshops in Austin, TX (3 days, Friday to Sunday, 9am-4pm), led by a MakerSquare co-founder. No time off work needed. No coding required. Pricing: $999 early bird (until 3 weeks before) / $1,199 regular. Workshop attendees get $200 off the January 2-week program.

- Build Your First AI Agent: September 11-13, 2026 (early bird ends August 26) — build a working AI agent with Claude Code, the Claude API, and Composio, deployed on a schedule
- Automate Your Ops with AI: October 16-18, 2026 (early bird ends September 25) — automate recurring ops work: reports, document extraction, inbox and meeting notes, on your real accounts
- Build Your First App with AI: November 6-8, 2026 (early bird ends October 16) — from idea to a live, deployed app with a real database, using Claude Code, Supabase, and Vercel (vibe coding with production tools)

Workshops page: https://www.makersquare.ai/workshops

Enrollment for each cohort closes one week before its start date: Cohort 3 enrollment closes January 4, 2027.

Cohorts run Monday through Friday, 9am to 3pm, with optional Saturday office hours (10am to 1pm).

## Demo Day

Every cohort ends with a public Demo Day at Capital Factory (701 Brazos St, Austin). Each builder presents their capstone AI product to an audience of seed-stage investors, Austin tech hub leaders, and operators. 5-minute live demos with real feedback from people who build and invest.

## Why AI Skills Matter Now

88% of organizations use AI in at least one business function, but only 1% have achieved real AI maturity (McKinsey, 2025). Jobs requiring AI fluency have grown 7x in two years (Gloat, 2026). 59% of enterprise leaders report an AI skills gap (DataCamp, 2026). The gap between people who prompt AI and people who build with AI is widening every month.

## Differentiators

- The only multi-week in-person AI product-building intensive for non-technical professionals in Austin
- Builds real, deployed products, not coursework or certificates
- Graduates ship a live website, an AI agent, and an automated workflow and present at Demo Day to Austin investors and operators
- The 2-week intensive skips visual builders (Zapier/Make/n8n) in favor of production-level building with Claude Code, Claude Skills, Composio, Playwright, APIs, and agentic workflows
- 2-week intensive format: fully immersive, Mon-Fri, 9am to 3pm, with optional Saturday office hours
- 4.41/5 alumni rating on Course Report (legacy MakerSquare program)

## How MakerSquare Compares

MakerSquare is $3,999 for a 10-day in-person program where students ship a live website, an AI agent, and an automated workflow. Wharton's AI program costs $13,500 for 4 days. General Assembly's AI courses run ~$4,000 for 12 weeks online with no shipped product. UT Austin offers online AI certificates. MakerSquare is the only multi-week in-person AI builder program currently available.

## Founder

Marliis Schneider, Founder & CEO. Background in operations, business development, and startup ecosystems. Built MakerSquare after seeing the gap between professionals who know what AI is and those who know how to make it work. Based in Austin, TX.

## Advisory Board

Ravi Parikh — Co-founder, MakerSquare. Austin-based serial entrepreneur; co-founded the original MakerSquare (acquired by Hack Reactor) and is CEO of RoverPass. Additional advisors from Austin's operator, investor, and AI community being assembled.

## Contact & Links

- [Website](https://www.makersquare.ai/)
- [Enroll](https://www.makersquare.ai/enroll)
- [Curriculum](https://www.makersquare.ai/curriculum)
- [Tuition](https://www.makersquare.ai/pricing)
- [Comparison](https://www.makersquare.ai/comparison)
- [Corporate Training](https://www.makersquare.ai/corporate)
- [Workshops (fall 2026 lineup)](https://www.makersquare.ai/workshops)
- [Case Study (RoverPass AI ops command center)](https://www.makersquare.ai/case-study-roverpass)
- [Case Study (Cameron Dowd — sales AE built an AI prospecting tool)](https://www.makersquare.ai/case-study-cameron-dowd)
- [Case Study (Ted Kilgore — job seeker built an AI company-matcher)](https://www.makersquare.ai/case-study-ted-kilgore)
- [AI Training in Austin (individuals + teams)](https://www.makersquare.ai/ai-training-austin)
- [Train Your Team vs. Hire an AI Consultant](https://www.makersquare.ai/ai-training-vs-consultants)
- [Scholarship](https://www.makersquare.ai/scholarship)
- [Housing](https://www.makersquare.ai/housing)
- [Team](https://www.makersquare.ai/team)
- [Use Cases by Industry](https://www.makersquare.ai/use-cases)
- [Email](mailto:hello@makersquare.ai)
- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/makersquare-ai)