Meet AI Builder Club: The free short residency program for Australian AI startups

In the US the much-lauded Cerebral Valley has quickly become a forefront for technological innovation. In the months since it launched, it has become a hub for engineers-turned-entrepreneurs to learn and build as a community. It’s also served as an inspiration for an AI-focused group nestled in the heart of the Sydney CBD.

Introducing the AI Builder Club

So much of the conversation dominating AI, particularly in the startup and SME space is about how it’s early days. Sure, AI isn’t new but its rapid expansion is, particularly in regards to generative AI.

And with that comes challenges and questions around regulation, bias, implementation, and ethics.

On top of all of that is the basic fact that it can be difficult to find mentors, education, and guidance when the space is still in its infancy.

This is where the AI Builder Club is attempting to fill that space.

Run out of Aura Ventures — an early-stage VC firm in Sydney — this six-week residency program is designed to provide a platform for engineers, hackers, and enthusiasts to build AI-focused ideas, products and startups.

The program was launched in early August, with the inaugural residents coming from firms like Canva, Atlassian, Eucalyptus, and PwC. 

“Our aim is to eliminate barriers and expedite the market entry for Aussie Generative AI startups. We observed a burgeoning market, yet noticed the significant hurdles for newcomers,” Annie Liao, an investor at Aura Ventures and one of the program founders, said to SmartCompany.

“Observing global tech hubs and the success stories from places like BuildSpace and ‘Cerebral Valley’ persuaded us to usher in this wave of innovation for Australia.”

While the program is currently being run out of Sydney, Liao did say there has been a great deal of interest across the country and even overseas. The community also has an active Slack channel with over 150 participants.

Liao also confirmed there are plans to take four official accelerator cohorts per year, but that the co-working space will available year-round.

The inaugural AI Builder Club cohort. Image: AI Builder Club

During the program, the participants will be guided by mentors such as Danny Ma (AI engineer and technical instructor), Greg Willis (head of technology for startups at AWS in ANZ), David McKeague (CSO at Curious Things AI), Dr Michael Kollo (CEO of Adoption AI).

The program itself is supported by the likes of Microsoft for Startups, AWS, Google for Startups, Stripe, NVIDIA, Github and more.

According to Liao, the calibre of applicants was so strong that they widened the cohort from 25 to 40.

This contains a mixture of people who are already running early-stage startups to those at the embryonic stage of idea generation. They include projects such as a Generative AI platform for gaming and a no-code LLM-driven applet platform.

“It’s a bit of a mix. We have people who are working full time in their startup from a WeWork and just come in on weekends,” Liao said.

“And we also have people who are side hustling from places like Atlassian and PwC who will hopefully go into it full time once they have experimented with it a bit more and join a community where some people have made the leap.”

Participants co-work during evenings and weekends from a dedicated space as well as participate in mixer events and workshops.

The cohort is also strongly encouraged to be committed to their idea and the program through weekly build updates. If a team misses two weeks they’re removed from the club.

Importantly, there are no fees for participants and there are no equity claims made on any ideas or businesses built during the residency.

The program concludes with a technical demo day where these startups present their ideas to leading VCs, potential clients, and industry experts.

Liao and the entire team behind AI Builder Club hope that alumni will be able to use the resources, mentorship, and contacts made through their residency to be able to secure funding for their AI startups and ideas.

“There’s a unique alchemy when you gather a community of intelligent, ambitious, entrepreneurial individuals. The U.S. has long embraced this ‘building’ culture. Australia deserves its slice of this innovative pie,” Aleks Brogan, a LinkedIn influencer and program mentor, said.