Trades away individual fit
Traditional group learning
One lesson. Many starting points.
The social setting is valuable, but one lesson can be too easy for some young people and too hard for others.
Pilot begins October 1, 2026 · 15 Builders · San Kamphaeng
Personalized Learning. Shared Challenges. Real Growth.
01 · Foundry Atlas
Two hours of individualized, game-like learning at exactly the right level. Less repetition, less confusion and progress we can measure.
02 · Shared challenges
After lunch, screens close. Friends build, compete, lead and overcome something real together. This is the day they will look forward to all week.
8 Saturdays · 10am–3pm · ฿10,000 for the full pilot
The Foundry day
Right level. Real friends. One challenge worth conquering.
1 Oct 2026
pilot begins
15
Builders in the pilot
10am–3pm
every Saturday
฿10k
fully refundable reservation
The Foundry founding pilot
One day a week. Two kinds of growth.
Foundry's first cohort begins October 1. It is intentionally small: 15 Builders, eight Saturday sessions from 10am to 3pm, and a clear finish line.
We call Foundry's young people Builders because they are here to make, test, improve and discover what they can become.
Why a pilot?
Foundry takes a research-backed approach to making learning more enjoyable and wasting less time. Adaptive-learning schools and platforms in the United States, India and China report dramatically faster academic progress under different conditions. Those results give us serious expectations, not proof. The pilot exists to find out what Foundry can actually reproduce in San Kamphaeng.
A mixed indoor and outdoor pilot space
The main pilot site, just under one rai, combines a garden, open yard and duck area with a two-storey Lanna-style building. Its white rendered-cement ground floor contains three indoor learning rooms, while the teak upper floor carries the warmth and character of Northern Thai architecture. A separate two-rai sports area one minute away adds a usable soccer field, outdoor basketball court and badminton space.
10am to 12pm
Two hours that feel like play. Progress we can measure.
Each Builder gets math, reading and core-skill challenges at precisely the right level through Foundry Atlas. The experience is game-like, but the outcome is not points or screen time. It is independently checked mastery and an extraordinary gain in real learning per focused hour. The pilot will test whether we can deliver it.
Right levelImmediate feedbackVerified masteryNo homework
12pm to 1pm
Lunch, movement and a full reset
Builders eat together, get outside and return ready to work as a team. The break is part of the design, not time squeezed between lessons.
1pm to 3pm
A challenge chosen by the Builders
On day one, the cohort votes. After lunch, the winning challenge becomes an eight-week team studio with a public goal, not a worksheet dressed up as a project.
Week eight
A final challenge families will remember
Builders present what they made and explain what they learned. Depending on the studio, the capstone may then put them directly against a parent team. Few things raise the energy like the chance to beat your parents at something you have trained for all term.
Learning inside Northern Thai history
An environment with a story of its own.
Beside the main Lanna-style house is a traditional raised rice granary of about 400 square feet. These wooden buildings were used to keep rice dry and protected after the harvest. The teak, masonry, garden and working landscape give Builders a daily connection to the architecture and agricultural history of Northern Thailand.
The pilot vote
Ten possible studios. The Builders choose the challenge they want to conquer.
Every option ends in a visible test. The final brief will be adjusted to the ages, interests and facilities of the founding cohort.
01
Public speaking & media
Write, perform and persuade a real audience.
Explore studio02
Coding, AI & robotics
Build a working machine or digital product.
Explore studio03
Science & invention
Test a bold idea and defend the result.
Explore studio04
Cooking & hospitality
Plan, cook and serve a complete experience.
Explore studio05
Strength & endurance
Train together for a demanding physical goal.
Explore studio06
Outdoor adventure
Navigate, solve problems and finish as a team.
Explore studio07
Entrepreneurship
Create, price, pitch and sell something useful.
Explore studio08
Money missions
Make real choices about earning, saving and spending.
Explore studio09
Community impact
Work with a local cause and deliver something useful.
Explore studio10
Theatre & creative production
Create a live performance from idea to stage.
Explore studioA new category of learning
The old choice is a bad trade.
Group learning usually sacrifices individual fit. One-to-one learning usually sacrifices peers, energy and belonging. Foundry is designed to stop making families choose which half their child loses.
Trades away peers and community
One-to-one tutoring
Tailored, but alone.
The lesson can fit the child, but they lose the energy, friendship and shared challenge of learning with a group.
The best of both
The Foundry category
Personal academics. Shared adventure.
Foundry Atlas gives each Builder a precise path. Then Builders come together to build, lead and conquer something real.
How Foundry combines both
The academic path is individual. The challenge is shared.
Individual
Foundry Atlas. One path per Builder.
Atlas maps secure skills, finds missing prerequisites, adjusts sequence and difficulty, detects low-quality activity and requires real mastery before moving on.
Together
The hard part happens together.
Builders develop confidence, judgment and friendships when they tackle something difficult with other young people and an adult who knows when to coach and when to step back.
Foundry Atlas
See strengths, gaps and the exact next step, not just one grade.
A Builder can be ready to accelerate in one skill and still need a prerequisite in another. Atlas responds to every verified answer so the next session starts with a more precise path.
- Skill-level diagnostic
- Prerequisite mapping
- Adaptive sequence
- Mastery before progression
- Focus quality checks
- Parent-visible progress
Foundry Atlas
Mathematics knowledge map
18/24
skills mapped
6
secure
23m
verified focus
Prerequisite path
updates after every check
Number sense
96%
Secure
Fraction meaning
62%
Priority
Equivalent fractions
78%
Building
Ratios
Next
Locked
Next mission
12 minRebuild fraction meaning
A short game targets the missing prerequisite before ratios unlock. Hints support practice; a separate check verifies mastery.
Mission progress3 / 5
Continue mission
Foundry Momentum
One progress system. Two ways to grow.
Academic progress and shared-challenge progress stay visible on separate scoreboards. Neither can hide the other. When both move, a Builder's overall Momentum rises.
Individual track
Foundry Bucks
One verified minute. One Foundry Buck.
Every minute of focused study in Foundry Atlas earns one Foundry Buck. Atlas checks accuracy, mastery and attention as the work happens. Random guessing, rapid clicking, distraction and repeating easy work do not count, so Builders cannot game the clock.
120
two-hour Bucks target
1 Buck
per verified minute
Team track
Challenge XP
Reward the behaviors that move a team forward.
Challenge XP comes from visible evidence: trying before certainty, using feedback, improving after failure, keeping a promise and helping the team finish. Each studio has its own milestones, while the underlying behaviors stay consistent.
Brave attemptUseful feedbackSmart iterationReliable contributionTeam finish
Balanced progress unlocks more
Earn Bucks individually. Unlock more together.
Atlas creates Foundry Bucks minute by minute. Challenge milestones can unlock bonus Bucks, but a strong morning cannot excuse poor teamwork and enthusiasm cannot substitute for mastery. Builders can save or spend their Bucks in the Foundry Store on supplies, selected items, team privileges and future experiences. Both scoreboards remain visible, and together they drive Foundry Momentum.
The scoring model is informed by published XP and motivation systems used in adaptive-learning schools, then redesigned around Foundry's once-weekly pilot and shared studios. Sources [2] [14]
2
visible scoreboards
1
shared currency
Make difficulty worth it
Remove pointless frustration. Keep the struggle that builds someone.
Not every difficult feeling is valuable. Foundry uses precise, game-like learning to reduce the boredom, confusion and wasted time caused by the wrong academic level. That leaves more energy for the kind of difficulty Builders can be proud to overcome.
Unproductive frustration
Nothing useful to push against.
- Repeating work they already know
- Feeling lost because a prerequisite was missed
- Associating study with boredom, shame or conflict
- Spending time without knowing what changed
Productive struggle
A real challenge worth overcoming.
- Recovering when the first build fails
- Speaking when the room is watching
- Handling disagreement without leaving the team
- Finding the grit to finish something difficult
The Foundry failure loop
Failure is information, not a verdict.
The wrong response to failure can hold a young person back for years. At Foundry, every failed attempt produces something useful: evidence about what did not work and a better question for the next attempt.
01
Try fearlessly
Act before certainty has a chance to become avoidance.
02
Read the result
If it worked, understand why. If it did not, stay curious.
03
Find what went wrong
Look at the decision, method and assumptions without blame.
04
Choose a smarter change
Use the evidence to decide what could create a better outcome.
05
Try again
Return with new insight and see what the next result teaches.
Textbook knowledge still matters, but the world is changing too quickly for recall alone to be enough. Efficient academics create room to practise the durable human advantages: relationships, judgment, grit, public speaking, leadership and the determination to keep going when the answer is not obvious.
Read the deeper argumentOur pilot expectation
2×
more academic growth per focused hour
This is the result we expect Foundry Atlas to reach and the founding pilot is designed to challenge. It is not a current Foundry result, a guarantee or a promise about an individual child.
A body of evidence, not one borrowed headline
Adaptive-learning programs in the United States, India and China have reported unusually strong gains in schools, after-school centres and short controlled studies. Their methods differ too much to average honestly. Together, they make a two-times target serious enough to test.
The pilot turns expectations into a test
We will measure growth per verified academic hour so the rate can be examined independently of Foundry's once-weekly schedule. We will still report attendance, cohort size, assessment design and every limitation that affects the comparison.
01
Baseline
Week-one skill check
02
Track
Time, accuracy & mastery
03
Retest
Same measures at week eight
These figures use different assessments, durations and comparison groups. They are presented as a benchmark set, not a statistical average and not a Foundry result. Read every source and limitation
The longer-term vision
A place built for every kind of growth.
Our plan is to develop Foundry into a larger Chiang Mai learning community, with room for age-specific studios, outdoor challenges, making, performance, entrepreneurship and families coming together.
Designed to grow with the child.
The pilot is the first proof point, not an eight-week dead end. Our plan is for Builders to return for years, keep advancing through the academic levels, go beyond Thailand's M6 curriculum when they choose and take on increasingly ambitious real-world challenges.
Age-specific studios
Different ages need different frontiers.
Each age group will have its own three or four signature workshops, with shared challenges that bring the whole community together.
Foundation years
Elementary
- Maker play & simple machines
- Kitchen science
- Garden & rice discovery
- Storytelling & theatre
Exploration years
Middle
- Public speaking & media
- Outdoor expeditions
- Robotics & AI
- Money missions
Launch years
High
- Venture studio
- AI product lab
- Leadership under pressure
- Financial independence
Team competitionsPhysical challengesSocial skillsBuilders vs parents finals
A leadership path inside Foundry
Grow from Builder to Lead Builder.
As older Builders demonstrate judgment and reliability, they can take on responsibilities similar to a college teaching assistant: guiding younger teams, modelling the failure loop, helping explain a process and supporting a Foundry Coach. Leadership is earned through service, and an adult remains responsible.
BuilderSenior BuilderLead Builder
Made in Chiang Mai
International learning, rooted where we are.
Foundry is for Chiang Mai's international community, but it should never feel copy-pasted from another country. Northern Thailand gives us an extraordinary classroom beyond the screen.
From rice plot to kitchen
Grow, harvest, budget and cook, connecting food, science, culture and responsibility.
Market-day ventures
Test a product, price it in baht and learn from real customers in a local context.
Northern craft & design
Learn from local materials and makers, then reinterpret what Builders observe rather than imitate it.
Mountain challenges
Plan, navigate and finish a demanding route as a team in Chiang Mai's outdoor classroom.
The Foundry Parent Guide
Understand the problem before choosing the solution.
Short, evidence-aware articles for parents thinking through adaptive learning, AI, motivation, screen time and what children will need next.
Hidden gaps
Why capable children can still get stuck
A child can look fine on paper while one missing prerequisite quietly makes every new topic harder.
Read articleAI and education
If answers are free, what are parents actually paying for?
Information is abundant. A well-sequenced path, honest practice and the motivation to persist are not.
Read articleLearning efficiency
Can two focused hours beat more tutoring?
The question is not how little time a child can study. It is how much real learning happens inside each focused hour.
Read articleFounding team
Built by people who never stop learning.
Foundry combines a love of learning with entrepreneurial resilience, technology experience, investment discipline and local knowledge. Families meet the adults responsible for guiding their young person.
A
Andrew
Founder · lifelong learner · serial entrepreneur
“If there is one thing I have loved throughout my life, it is learning.”
A lifelong learner and autodidact, Andrew is a serial entrepreneur and former technology operator turned investment banker. Building companies taught him to meet failure with emotional control, curiosity and another attempt. He is applying that mindset to a new category of education in Thailand.
B
Bam
Founding team
Bam helps shape a program grounded in the realities of families, learning and community life in Chiang Mai.
+
Foundry Coaches
Motivation · challenge · care
Every family meets the coach responsible for helping their Builder focus, persist and grow.
The founding offer
Help us prove the model in Thailand.
Founding families receive the pilot rate, transparent before-and-after reporting and a direct voice in what Foundry becomes. We receive the evidence and feedback needed to build the next version responsibly.
Pilot begins October 1. Only 15 Builders.
Founding pilot: 50% off
฿10,000per Builder for all 8 weeks
฿20,000 normal two-month price
Family and group rate
฿8,000 per Builder when 2 or more register together
The ฿10,000 payment reserves enrolment and covers the complete eight-week pilot. If your family does not take the place, the payment provider automatically returns it to the original payment method. No email, form or separate refund request is required.
Apply for the founding pilotStraight answers
Before your family commits
The pilot is a test with real goals, not a finished school pretending to have all the answers.
Is Foundry replacing school?
No. The pilot is one five-hour Saturday, including lunch, with four focused program hours. It is designed to complement a Builder's school. Foundry is not an accredited school and the pilot does not replace enrolment.
What does the ฿10,000 cover?
It is the full founding-pilot price for one Builder across all eight Saturdays, reduced by 50% from the normal ฿20,000 two-month price. The same payment reserves enrolment and is fully refundable through the payment provider if your family does not take the place. Two or more siblings or group members registering together pay ฿8,000 per Builder.
Is the academic block just ChatGPT?
No. Builders use Foundry Atlas, our structured adaptive-learning system, not an open-ended chatbot. Atlas maps knowledge by skill, identifies prerequisites, adapts level and sequence, monitors focus and checks mastery while a human coach supports confidence and persistence.
What about the age differences?
Academic work is individually levelled, so age does not decide the lesson. Shared challenges are designed with roles at different levels. Older Builders practise leadership by helping guide younger teammates, while younger Builders contribute meaningful work of their own.
How will you know whether the pilot worked?
Builders complete a baseline and final assessment. We will compare verified skill growth, learning time and engagement across the eight weeks, then share the method and results, including results that fall short of our targets.
Does Foundry stop after the pilot?
The pilot is our first proof of concept, not a one-off event. We are confident in the approach and hope Builders return for years. The academic path can keep progressing beyond Thailand's M6 level for those who want to go further, while future programs add more age-specific challenges and studios.
Founding pilot application
Could Foundry be their kind of challenge?
Tell us about your child and what you hope will change over eight weeks. Applying does not commit you to paying or enrolling.
- Pilot begins October 1
- 15 Builders in the pilot
- Saturdays, 10am–3pm
- Two hours learning, lunch, two hours of challenge
- ฿10,000 for 8 weeks, 50% off
- ฿8,000 each when 2 or more register together
- Capstone may include a Builders-versus-parents challenge
San Kamphaeng, Chiang Mai, Thailand