The easiest place to start. One session, just you and me -- we start building a real project of yours together, and you leave with a working prototype in hand. Not a class, not a demo you watch. We see how it feels, then talk about what's next.
I was an extremely early adopter of Claude Code -- a solo founder building an AI-native startup, in it every single day. It honestly felt like a secret I was in on: I could see what it did to what one person could make, and I couldn't not show people. So I started sitting down with friends who felt behind and building something real with them, right there.
Before each one, I'd put together a highly personalized playbook -- what I knew about them, why they'd reached out, the thing they wanted to build -- so we could skip the setup and get straight to building. That's where the name comes from: every activation starts from a playbook made for you.
Every session starts the same way. I ask, "how are you feeling about AI?" And almost everyone says some version of the same thing... overwhelmed, behind, like the train left and they're on the platform. Here's what I tell them, and it's true: even the best engineers I know feel that way right now. This isn't a gap you fell into. It's a moment you get to leapfrog.
That's the first thing we do, before we touch a single tool. We get the weight off.
Here's what makes this moment different. Most people are still only using AI's brain -- they chat with it, ask a question, close the tab. The leap is using its hands too. That's what Claude Code is: not a smarter AI, the same intelligence with hands. The simpler tools get you in the door, but this is where the ceiling actually is -- the fullest expression of what one person can do, at least for now. One person can now do what used to take a team. That's not a threat. It's liberation.
And here's the part that matters most to me. These tools can make people feel smaller, more replaceable, more behind. This work is the opposite of that. Done right, it's a deeply human thing... it gives you back a sense of agency, the feeling that what you want to build is actually yours to build. That's not a skill I'm teaching you. It's a change in what you believe is possible for you. That's the activation.
A lot of people finish an activation session and immediately want to keep going. The prototype is real, but now they want to make it really real... wire up the backend, get it live, or just learn how to apply this to the next ten things on their list.
That's an Expansion Session. Same setup, you and me, picking up right where we left off. We take the thing you built and push it toward something you actually use. Most people don't book this in advance. They book it after the first session, once they've felt what's possible and want more of it.
It started one-on-one, and that's still where the magic is most concentrated. But the same thing works in a few shapes, depending on what you need.
This is for you if you've felt that quiet "I'm falling behind on AI" thing and you're tired of it. You don't need any technical background. You don't need a perfect idea. You just need one real thing you've been wanting to make, and a willingness to be a beginner for a session.
Founders, operators, creatives, academics, people mid-career-change, people who are great at their craft and brand-new to this... that's exactly who walks in. The common thread isn't a resume. It's the feeling that your reach should be bigger than your tools currently allow. We fix that.
I'm Colton. I just finished my MBA at Berkeley Haas and am now finishing my MPH at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. I was in the inaugural cohort of Berkeley's AI for Business certificate, one of the first AI-focused MBA programs in the country. I have experience as a founder myself, and a deep respect for what it takes to lead an organization in a rapidly changing world.
Bring one real project, and we'll start with how you're feeling about all this, find the thing only you know, and get something built before you leave. That's the whole promise.
Not sure if it's a fit? Send me a note and we'll figure it out together.