School

Structured tracks for going deep on one discipline, taught by industry experts. In person and online. Paid or fairly financed. No gatekeeping.

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Anyone can start. Few go deep.

Intelligence is on tap now, and surface knowledge is free to anyone who asks nicely.

Learning stuff matters more than ever. What sets you apart now is learning how to think, solve and make in your domain — as if implementation were never the hard part. Because increasingly, it isn’t.

✳ School aims to take you deep on the discipline you can’t stop thinking about.

First Light starts with a project. School starts with you.

In ✹First Light, the project comes first and chooses the skills you pick up along the way. In School, the discipline comes first — and every project exists to serve it.

Do both, in either order. Many do.

Pick a track. Go deep.

Six disciplines, each taught by people who practice it for a living. One track at a time.

Small Machines

Hardware & sensing.Circuits, sensors and the internet of actually-useful things.

Good Looks

Brand & identity.Making things look like what they mean.

Things People Want

Digital products & marketplaces.Building software people choose twice.

Public Works

Civic & nonprofit tech.Technology in service of the people around you.

True Stories

Research, data & storytelling.Finding what’s real and making it impossible to ignore.

First Customers

Validation & venture craft.Testing ideas cheaply before betting on them expensively.

How a track works.

Choose your discipline.
One track at a time. Depth doesn’t multitask.
Learn from the working.
Sessions led by industry experts who do this for a living, not just for a lectern.
Practice in public.
Structured exercises, real critique, work shown to the cohort every week.
Prove the depth.
Finish with a body of work in your discipline — and a shot at a Beam that says you know it inside out.

What it costs, honestly.

School is the paid part of Sunbeam. Courses cost money — up front, or financed through an income-share agreement via the ✹Accelerator: we cover it now, and you pay it forward when your work pays. No unfair loans. No debt traps.

And here’s the part we say proudly: every fee helps keep ✹First Light free forever. That’s not a catch. It’s the honest economics of the whole ecosystem.

✹Accelerator

What’s included?

Everything a discipline deserves, and nothing it doesn’t.

Experts

Tracks taught by industry experts.

Curriculum

A structured, guided curriculum.

Community

Learn alongside the community.

For people done with dabbling.

For

Self-taught people hitting the ceiling of tutorials. First Light grads who found their discipline mid-project and want the rest of it.

Not for

Certificate collectors. Anyone hoping depth comes in a weekend.

A Beam that says you went deep.

Unlike traditional schooling or tertiary education, Beams are our best-in-class badges of honor. They’re granted when the Sunbeam team feel you’ve reached a level of professional development and moral understanding that we’d feel comfortable with you representing our network.

A School Beam marks depth in a named discipline — and how you carried yourself getting there.

About Beams — coming soon →

Fair questions.

Can I do School and First Light at once?

You can, but we’d rather you didn’t. Depth and finishing both want your full attention. Sequence them.

Do I need to have done First Light first?

No. School has its own front door. Curiosity and commitment are the prerequisites.

What does it cost?

It’s paid — or financed through an income-share agreement, so you pay when your work pays. Write to us and we’ll sort what’s fair. No unfair loans, ever.

Can I switch tracks?

Once you’ve started, finish or step off — no track-hopping mid-stream. You can always take another track after.