Our journey
The journey so far.
March 2025 to November 2026.
March to August 2025
An idea
We started by asking what AI could do beyond a chat box added to old software.
March 2025
The first AI experiments
We explored how generative AI could power interactive digital products, rather than add chat to existing software. This is where New Schools started.
April to May 2025
New kinds of experiences
We built early AI-native social and coworking prototypes.
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They tried conversational interfaces, personalisation and different approaches to interaction.
June to July 2025
The technical foundations
We went from single experiments to a product architecture we could reuse.
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The reusable AI infrastructure: semantic search, knowledge retrieval, persistent memory and contextual conversations.
August 2025
Conversational prototypes go live
A conversational personal website and the “Hold Shift to Run” experience went live.
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Both explored how AI could represent a person's knowledge, personality and ideas.
August to December 2025
A real product
A photography teacher gave the experiments a real teaching problem to solve.
August to September 2025
The first real-world application
With a photography educator, now our photography customer, we built AI-powered photography feedback. It took us from prototype work to a genuine teaching problem.
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Photo uploads, image analysis, feedback, and a digital representation of a real photography educator.
When our photography customer became our first paying client, I kept ownership of the platform and the intellectual property. That was the foundation for a business beyond a single customer.
September to December 2025
New Schools v1 takes shape
The photography concept grew into a broader interactive learning system.
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Courses, students, conversational teachers, knowledge grounding, learning activities and administration.
October 2025
First demonstration at A'DAM Toren
We presented New Schools at A'DAM Toren in Amsterdam, to people outside the photography project. They were interested in applying it across industries.
October to December 2025
A cybersecurity education pilot
A training company in The Hague used conversational AI to support an eight-week cybersecurity programme. It showed the technology was not limited to creative education.
December 2025
An events company joins
An events company joined as an early pilot: another kind of organisation and another learning use case. New Schools was becoming a general-purpose platform.
December 2025
The architecture rebuild
We met the limits of the first architecture and rebuilt it around a more scalable, configurable system.
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Multiple organisations, customised AI teachers, independent knowledge bases and reusable learning experiences.
January to March 2026
A reusable platform
What worked for one teacher was rebuilt so that any teacher could use it.
January 2026
Teachers become characters
Courses and teachers became customisable, and AI teachers became characters with their own teaching styles, personalities and knowledge.
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The role-playing-game elements come from our founder's love of games.
February 2026
The AI teaching platform takes shape
We positioned it for academies, coaching organisations and professional educators.
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The workflow: upload expertise, create structured learning experiences, configure AI teachers, publish to students.
February 2026
Feedback from an angel investor network
An angel investor network gave encouraging feedback through its analysis and investor-readiness discussions. Two experienced founders from established EdTech businesses became involved in support.
February to March 2026
Early pilots and user testing
We onboarded content, educators and test users as the rebuilt platform neared market readiness.
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Feedback from photography, coaching and professional training shaped the direction.
March 2026
From software to a commercial proposition
The business model became clearer: subscriptions, AI usage and enrolments, focused first on smaller academies and specialist teaching organisations.
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A defined market, an emerging model and a validation strategy.
April to June 2026
The first commercial platform
Payments, onboarding and the first monthly recurring revenue.
Early April 2026
Payments and onboarding
We added authentication, usage-cost tracking and Mollie payments: the infrastructure for paid pilots and course transactions.
April 2026
AI photography assessment works
Custom evaluation criteria and AI personas came together. The original photography use case met the newer platform.
April 2026
Five pilot programmes
Five pilot programmes started with academies and coaches: validation beyond one paying customer and one industry.
23 April 2026
The Dutch-language launch
A Dutch version went live with a course marketplace, Mollie payments and learning guided by AI personas.
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Educators could now offer interactive courses through a more complete commercial product.
April to May 2026
Beyond conventional education
Conversations with entrepreneurs and innovators revealed further uses: organisational knowledge, onboarding, coaching and storytelling.
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New Schools as a system that turns knowledge into interactive experiences, not another learning management system.
May to June 2026
Refining the proposition
We refined the positioning, the pricing and the pitch. The story centres on reusable technology, owned intellectual property and measurable learning outcomes.
July to August 2026
Verticals
One platform became separate schools, and the first went live at newschools.photo.
July 2026
A shift to independent verticals
We separated the underlying technology from its specialist products. New Schools owns the platform; New Photo Schools and New Coaching Schools reach their own markets.
23 July 2026
A corporate-training demonstration
We demonstrated New Schools to a global staffing and training company. It was encouraging and led to talks about a paid pilot.
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Shown: conversational teaching, Socratic assessments, layered knowledge bases, persistent memory and learner reporting.
July to August 2026
One codebase, several verticals
Distinct experiences now ran from one shared codebase and reusable AI infrastructure: photography, coaching, museums and corporate learning.
August 2026
Accessible pilot pricing
A low-cost Pilot tier arrived beside the Growth tier: the groundwork for seat-based pricing and metered AI usage.
August 2026
Independent educators weigh in
We had substantial conversations with independent photographers.
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About course ownership, premium teaching, student support, personal feedback and scaling a creative business.
Late August 2026
A second photographer joins
A second photographer joined the pilot programme.
August 2026
New Coaching Schools enters the market
Beside photography came longer-term guided personal and professional development.
August 2026
Real students, early revenue
Early product revenue, real learners, voucher activity, five early pilots and design partners. Modest, but practical evidence.
September to November 2026
A team and a new direction
A commercial team came together, and New Schools became Learn & Explore.
Milestone 7 September 2026
ElevenLabs Startup Grants
We were accepted into the ElevenLabs Startup Grants Program: resources for spoken, conversational AI teachers.
September 2026
A coaching design partnership
With an independent coach we explored how AI can support coaches and clients between sessions.
September 2026
Building the creative identity
Professional storytelling, brand content and video. From a founder-built product to a recognisable brand.
Until October I did the development and the selling myself. Then a senior commercial team joined, and we became a team with shared planning and a pipeline.
October 2026
Structured outreach begins
Outreach and a CRM across photography, coaching, museums, cultural organisations and partners.
October 2026
Museum and cultural conversations open
We started talking with a print studio, a street-art museum, a war museum in Belgium and a Dutch resistance museum. A new direction: real places, collections and stories.
Milestone 29 October 2026
On stage at BASE
Our founder gave the talk “The Entrepreneurial Journey, While You're Still In It” at BASE. It brought new connections and promising conversations.
Early November 2026
A first museum opportunity in the Caribbean
A small museum in the Caribbean, with a possible wider network. This is an active opportunity, not a completed pilot.
November 2026
The personal cultural companion
An ongoing companion that learns what people are interested in and helps them discover culture across cities and countries.
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From single lessons to a continuing relationship between people, places and knowledge.
10 November 2026
The move to Google Cloud Run
We migrated to Google Cloud Run, preparing for larger scale.
10 November 2026
The team aligns
After a face-to-face discussion, the senior commercial team reaffirmed its commitment. A meeting with a museum in Amsterdam is confirmed.
11 November 2026
This website
We are preparing the next New Schools website: the commercial team, the shared platform, the cultural strategy and the next phase.
This is where we are today. The next room is still being built.