The finish school for AI builders
Everybody starts. Almost nobody finishes.
Last20 Academy is a finish school for AI builders. Not another video library — a system that drags you across the last 20%: three real projects, a public ship date, and a portfolio page that proves you did it.
Free track included · Pro is $15/mo when you're ready
Track 01 · Project 2
Ship date · FridayBuild a landing page that sells
- Idea picked
- First version live
- Feedback round
- 4Payments connectedCurrent step
- 5Launch postLocked
Ship Board
Public — the date is the date
Portfolio site
ShippedProject 1 · turned in 2 days early
AI chat widget
At riskProject 2 · ship date Friday
Booking page
On trackProject 3 · unlocks at the next ship
Streak · 7 days shipping
- 0
- Tracks
- 0
- Shippable projects
- 0
- Gated steps
- $15/mo
- Pro — after free works
Why Last20 exists
Online courses don't have a content problem. They have a finishing problem.
Six years of Harvard and MIT course data say the videos were never the bottleneck. Here is what actually happens to people who sign up to learn online:
For every 100 people who register…
Every HarvardX and MITx course, 2017–18. Each square is one person who meant to finish.
- 52 never start at all
- 45 start, then quietly stop
- 3 finish
Commitment changes everything
Same courses, same videos. The learners who put something at stake finished at fifteen times the rate.
Everyone who registered (Harvard / MIT)
3.13%
Median across 221 online courses
12.6%
Learners who paid for a credential
46%
Last20 is built out of commitment devices: a public ship date with your name on it, lessons that stay locked until you ship, and a portfolio that only fills up when the work is real.
Sources: Reich & Ruipérez-Valiente, “The MOOC Pivot,” Science (2019) — 5.63 million learners across all HarvardX and MITx courses, 2012–2018; completion shares rounded to whole people. Jordan (2015), median completion across 221 MOOCs.
How it works
A course gives you content. This gives you a finish line.
Lessons unlock when you ship
The next lesson stays locked until your build artifact is in. No binge-watching your way to nowhere.
The Prompt Starter Kit
Five patterns that cover 80% of what you'll ever ask an AI — taught in Lesson 1 of every track.
A debug clinic, not a dead end
Stuck on an error? The clinic diagnoses it in plain English and hands you the exact prompt to fix it.
A ship date you can't quietly move
Your deadline goes on the public Ship Board next to your name. Miss it and your card turns red.
Curriculum
Three tracks. Every step ships something real.
Vibe Coding Basics
From blank chat window to live mini-apps — no CS background assumed.
3 projects · 9 gated steps
View track →
AI Agents 101
Build software that does the work while you are not watching.
3 projects · 9 gated steps
View track →
Ship Your First AI App
Your own idea, taken all the way to real users and a launch checklist.
3 projects · 9 gated steps
View track →
Pricing
Free until you finish something. Then cheap.
$0 → $15/mo
Free: 1 full track, prompt starter kit, unlimited Debug Clinic pattern diagnoses. Pro: $15/month — all tracks, AI clinic triage with your own API key.
See pricing →Free kit
Get the Prompt Starter Kit — free
Five patterns that cover 80% of what you'll ever ask an AI. This is Lesson 1 of every Last20 Academy track — the whole kit is right here, because a cheat sheet you have to unlock isn't a cheat sheet.
Read the kit →Everybody starts. Almost nobody finishes.
Be the exception. Start free, ship something real, and let the portfolio prove it.
Start free