18 to 25 Cohort
Have an idea?
Build it with AI
Learn how to build, market and sell your own software products.
- Turn the idea you keep thinking about into something people can use
- Build alongside other 18 to 25s in Colchester, in person
- Free to start. No card, no catch.
Start for free, then £12 a month for Pro. Cancel anytime.
12 places · Aged 18–25
Apply to join the cohort
About a minute of your time. You're applying, not paying, so there's no card to hand over.
Apply to join the cohort
About a minute of your time. You're applying, not paying, so there's no card to hand over.
What you'll learn
Three things sit between an idea and a product people pay for.
Build it with AI
You don't need a computer science degree. You need to know which tools to reach for and how to get them to do what you want. We start from wherever you are and show you how. The building is yours to do, and that's the point.
Market it
Making the thing is the easy half. Getting anyone to care is where many projects fail. You'll learn how to find the people who want what you've built, and how to talk about it so they listen.
Sell it
Pricing. Payments. The unglamorous business bits nobody teaches you. It's the difference between a side project and something that pays for itself.
How an idea becomes a product
Where you start, and where this goes.
Bring an idea, or come and find one
Meet the group in person in Colchester. Talk through the thing you keep meaning to make and get a straight answer on whether it's worth building.
Build the first version yourself
Monthly meetups and workshops where you learn to drive the AI tools, rather than watch someone else use them. We unblock you, point at the right approach and say when something is a dead end. Your hands stay on the keyboard.
Put it in front of people
Real users, early. What they do with it teaches you more than any plan, and it's how you work out how to describe it so the right people pay attention.
Charge for it
Pricing, payments, and your first customers. On your own this is where most people stall. Here you've got a group who expect to see progress, and that turns out to be what makes people finish.
Who runs this
Colchester.Dev is run by Solve With Software Ltd, a software company based here in Colchester. We've been building software for clients across Essex and London since 2012, and the tools and practices you'll learn in the cohort are the same ones we use on paid client work every day.
To be clear about what this is: we're guides, not your development team. We'll help you across the whole lifecycle, from the first idea and whether it's feasible, through design, building it, and working out how to market and sell it. You do the work. That's what makes it yours, and it's the only way you come out of this able to do it again without us.
Solve With Software Ltd, North Colchester Business Centre, Colchester. solvewithsoftware.com
Free or Pro
Start on Free. Move up when you want more support, and cancel whenever you like.
Free Membership
- Network at monthly founder meetups
- Attend online meetups
- Access to club community portal
- Share your projects and journey
- Curated learning resource list
Pro Membership
Everything in Free, PLUS
- Access to Pro member only meetups
- Planning and accountability support
- 4-1 small group guidance sessions
- Vote on workshop topics and project ideas
- Access to member project collaboration board
- Priority access to collaboration opportunities
- Cancel anytime
What members are building
Real projects in the Colchester.Dev community, and every one of them is looking for people.
Colchester Pets
The friendly pet community for Colchester. Pet and local wildlife social network. Photo sharing, lost pet alerts and a monthly Pawparazzi competition, in final development for iOS and Android.
Community MicroApps
Dedicated mobile apps for individual neighbourhoods across Colchester, part of the Colchester.City project. Heading into beta in Highwoods.
AI Directory
The UK's AI resource directory. Twelve categories and one semantic search across services, jobs, products, education, tools, communities and events.
Questions people ask
Do I need to know how to code?
No. Plenty of our members started with none at all. AI tools have moved the line on what a beginner can build, and learning to use them properly is most of what the cohort is. If you can explain what you want to make, that's enough to start.
Is it really free?
Free membership is genuinely free. You get the monthly founder meetups, the online ones, the club community portal, a curated list of learning resources, and somewhere to share your projects. Pro costs £12 a month and adds Pro-only meetups, planning and accountability support, 4-1 small group guidance sessions, a vote on workshop topics, and the member project collaboration board. Cancel whenever you want.
Will you build it for me?
No, and that's on purpose. We're guides, not your development team. We'll help you shape the idea, work out whether it's feasible, think through the design, get you unstuck while you build it, and work out how to market and sell it. The building is yours. Do it that way and you leave able to build the next one on your own, which would not be true if we did it for you.
Who is the 18 to 25 cohort for?
Anyone aged 18 to 25 with an idea they want to build, or who wants to learn how to build, market and sell software. You don't need a finished idea. No team, no experience, no portfolio. Just be willing to turn up and put the work in.
Is this for everyone?
Honestly, no. You need a real desire to learn and to push yourself. Think full stack, plus business. The technical half is the building, testing and deploying your product. The business half is pricing, talking to customers, explaining your idea clearly, and selling it. That's a lot of hats for one person. Where your experience sits today doesn't matter. Whether you'll see it through does.
How many places are there?
12 on this cohort. We keep it small so everyone gets proper time and attention rather than sitting at the back of a room.
What if I haven't got an idea yet?
Come anyway. Some of the best projects start as someone else's idea that you join, or as something you only work out after talking it through with people who ask good questions.
How much time does it take?
We meet monthly in person in Colchester, with online meetups in between. Beyond that it's your call. The people who finish things tend to be the ones chipping away between meetups rather than the ones who turned up with the best idea.
What happens after I apply?
You'll get an email with details of the next meetup and how to get started. There's nothing to pay, and applying doesn't commit you to anything.
Bring your idea to life
You know the thing you keep meaning to build. Apply to the 18 to 25 cohort and start building it.
Start for free, then £12 a month for Pro. Cancel anytime. There are 12 places on this cohort.
Apply to join the cohort
About a minute of your time. You're applying, not paying, so there's no card to hand over.