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Venture · Investors Angel investors & VCs

The Venture · Investors curriculum

An investment is a belief about the future priced under uncertainty. This track reduces that uncertainty from first principles: understand the technology well enough to judge the team, the moat and the risk before you commit.

6 units240 guided hoursRolling · cohort-alignedAdvanced · practitioner level
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The course at a glance

6 units · 240 guided hours

The full curriculum, top to bottom. Tap any unit to open its detailed record.

Built from first principles

Reasoning before tools, evidence before opinion

An investment is a belief about the future priced under uncertainty. This track reduces that uncertainty from first principles: understand the technology well enough to judge the team, the moat and the risk before you commit.

  1. Problem
  2. Understanding
  3. Reasoning
  4. Design
  5. Implementation
  6. Testing
  7. Reflection
  8. Improvement

Every unit runs the loop, then goes round again — deeper each time.

Core competencies

Built and assessed in every unit, not taught as an add-on.

Communication & collaborationCritical thinking & problem solvingCreativity & imaginationCitizenshipDigital literacyLearning to learnSelf-efficacy

Ethics & responsible practice

Woven into the real briefs and decisions each unit tackles.

Digital citizenship & online safetyData protection & privacyAI ethics, bias & fairnessEnvironmental sustainability (compute cost)Financial literacy & entrepreneurshipInclusion & accessibilityMental well-being & healthy screen habitsCareer & life skills
The units

6 units · 240 guided learning hours

Open any unit for its full record — learning outcomes, assessment criteria, competencies and grading.

Strand: Technical literacy for investors 40 GLH Module 1 Internal portfolio

Key inquiry: “How do you tell a real AI moat from a thin wrapper around someone else’s model?”

You ship: A technical-literacy brief scoring an AI product’s substance, defensibility and risk.

What’s under the hood

  • Distinguish model, data, product and moat in an AI startup
  • Identify where the real defensibility (or lack of it) sits

Risk lenses

  • Assess data, cost, safety and dependency risks
  • Ask the questions that separate signal from hype
Core competencies
Critical thinking & problem solvingDigital literacyLearning to learn
Ethics & responsible practice
AI ethics, bias & fairnessFinancial literacy & entrepreneurship
Hands-on practice
  • Tear down a real AI product and locate its moat.
  • Draft the ten questions you’d ask its technical founder.
  • Score substance vs hype on a shared rubric.
Proficiency (Emerging · Proficient · Expert)
Emerging

Assesses a product with support.

Proficient

Judges defensibility and risk independently.

Expert

Produces a sharp brief a partner could act on.

What you walk away with

A portfolio of 6 real, shipped artefacts

Not certificates — working things you built. Every unit ends in a real artefact you own, assessed to standard and ready to show a school, an employer, or an investor.

Unit 1

A technical-literacy brief scoring an AI product’s substance, defensibility and risk.

Unit 2

A market map and thesis on where durable value and defensibility sit in AI.

Unit 3

A completed technical due-diligence report on a real (or simulated) deal.

Unit 4

A thesis, sourcing plan and portfolio-construction model with stage allocation.

Unit 5

A valuation and term-sheet analysis for a real or simulated deal.

Unit 6

A value-add and governance plan for a portfolio company, tied to milestones.

Assessment

One proficiency rubric, Emerging → Expert

Every level describes the same evidence — a working artefact and the reasoning behind it.

Proficiency levelWhat the evidence shows
EmergingCompletes the work with guidance; the artefact functions for the core case and the practitioner can explain what it does and why.
ProficientWorks independently, handles real-world edge cases, evaluates the result, and justifies design decisions from first principles.
ExpertDelivers work adopted by real users or partners, reasons explicitly about trade-offs — cost, risk, safety — and extends beyond the brief with original contribution.
Read the full document (print / PDF)

The complete curriculum in one printable, saveable document.

Follow it through with a mentor in your corner

Every unit ends in a real artefact — assessed to standard and added to your portfolio.

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