Stop waiting to know everything first.
AI can explain the next thing when you need it. You do not have to understand every layer before you begin; you can learn in context while you are actually building something that matters to you.
AI education for people who want to build
Learn AI by building with it.
I built AI Coffee Shop for the question I keep getting: “How do I actually get started with AI?” This is the path I wish I had when I started — practical, beginner-friendly, and focused on learning by doing.
Why I built AI Coffee Shop
I didn’t start this journey as a developer. I started as a regular computer user who got curious.
My turning point was learning to use ChatGPT as more than a place to ask a question. I started treating AI like a teacher and a co-builder: ask what I do not know, try something, break it, fix it, and keep moving. The more I built, the more I realized the gap between “I use software” and “I can build software” had become much smaller than I thought.
Then people started asking me the same things over and over: “How do I get started with AI?” “What should I learn?” “What tools or resources do you recommend?” AI Coffee Shop is my answer to those questions — my AI journey, the lessons I learned, and the mental models that helped me, condensed into one class so you can travel the same path faster.
“Can you build this app for me?”
Erik Nelson approached me at a coffee shop with an app idea related to investing. I told him I could build it — but asked if it would be more valuable if I taught him how to build it with AI instead.
At first he did not really believe me. He pulled out his phone and recorded our conversation anyway. Within one week, he had already built the MVP himself. That interaction captured exactly what I wanted AI Coffee Shop to be: not “let me build it for you,” but “let me show you that you can build it too.”
From “can someone build this?” to “I can direct AI and build it.”
This course is not about memorizing every tool. It is about building the confidence and working method to use AI as a teacher, collaborator, and builder — then continuing your own journey from there.
How each lesson works
More than a video playlist.
The video gives you the idea quickly. The written lesson lets you slow down. The exercise turns the concept into something you have actually done.
Start with the mental model
Short lessons explain the concept and show how the pieces fit together before you touch the tools.
Keep the full context
Every module includes the lesson in text so you can reread examples, commands, definitions, and explanations without scrubbing through video.
Do the thing yourself
Step-by-step exercises turn the lesson into reps. Screenshots and visual callouts can sit directly beside the steps as the course grows.
The complete path
Fourteen modules. One progression.
Start with the conversation, build the technical foundation, connect AI to the real world, then ship something useful.
Foundations4 modules
00
5:02The Method
01Learn the core loop: ask, do, save, automate, and ask again. Start with conversation before worrying about code.
5:46What Is AI & How Does It Actually Work
02Build a useful mental model for LLMs, tokens, context windows, hallucinations, models, chatbots, and agents.
6:10Set Up Your Toolkit
03Get the small set of tools you need to learn by building instead of collecting random AI courses.
6:44Talking to Claude
Give AI better context, ask better questions, iterate in conversation, and turn errors into part of the curriculum.
Superpowers2 modules
Connect to the Real World4 modules
06
4:26Git & GitHub
07Learn the minimum Git mental model needed to build safely with AI: repos, branches, commits, diffs, and pull requests.
4:10Connecting to Your Data
08Connect AI-assisted projects to databases and real information without losing sight of permissions and safety.
4:45Talking to Your Data
09Turn schemas and data into useful questions, explanations, summaries, and decisions instead of raw queries.
4:49APIs, Tokens, OAuth & JWT
Understand how applications talk, how identity moves between systems, and what API keys, OAuth, tokens, and JWTs actually do.
Build4 modules
10
4:09MCP: Giving Claude Hands
11Move from an AI that can explain work to one that can safely use governed tools and connected systems.
5:16Building Bots & Agents
12Learn when a chatbot is enough, when you need tools, and when a goal-directed agent is the right abstraction.
5:30Build & Ship a Web App
13Put the pieces together in a real web application and learn the path from local idea to something other people can use.
5:46Your Path Forward
Choose what to build next, keep the learning loop alive, and turn AI from a novelty into a durable capability.
Start at Module 00.
Start learning The course is ordered so each module gives the next one more context.