For Technical Founders & CTOs

Stop Renting AI.Start Owning It.

Build proprietary AI systems that create defensible competitive moats

Save $200K-$500K in hiring costs and own your model weights — without being held hostage by API rate limits or vendor lock-in.

10x-100x
Reduce AI costs by self-hosting your own models
$200K-$500K
Save in hiring costs — build AI yourself
100%
Own your model weights and technology stack
Zero Vendor Lock-InDefensible Competitive MoatsRaise Funding with Proprietary Tech

Building the future of AI

YC StartupsSeed-StageSeries AGrowthEnterprise
The Founder's Dilemma

Building on Rented Ground

Most AI startups don't own their core technology. They're building on someone else's API — and that's a ticking time bomb.

💸

Burning $5K-$50K/Month on APIs

OpenAI costs are eating 20-40% of your revenue. Every API call chips away at your margins with zero control over pricing.

🔗

Held Hostage by Vendor Lock-In

Your entire product depends on OpenAI's API. One pricing change, rate limit, or TOS update could kill your business overnight.

🚫

No Competitive Differentiation

Everyone uses the same ChatGPT API. Your product is a commodity. Investors see right through your 'ChatGPT wrapper' pitch.

💰

$200K-$300K to Hire Each ML Engineer

Can't afford a full ML team. Can't compete with big tech salaries. Can't build proprietary AI without burning millions in VC money.

The Real Cost of API Dependency

$500K+
Wasted on API costs over 2 years
$0
Equity value if you don't own your tech
100%
Risk of business failure if API changes
The AI Sovereignty Stack™

Own Your Technology.
Control Your Destiny.

The only complete curriculum that teaches technical founders to build proprietary AI — from foundation models to production systems.

Before (API-Dependent)
Renting AI from OpenAI ($5K-$50K/month)
No competitive differentiation
Vulnerable to vendor changes
Can't raise funding without owning tech
Burning runway on API costs
After (AI Sovereignty)
Own your models (10x-100x cost savings)
Proprietary tech = defensible moat
Complete control over your stack
Raise Series A with owned IP
Self-host, scale infinitely
21 Masterclasses Across 2 Categories

Choose Your Path to Mastery

From building LLMs to launching sovereign infrastructure—each course creates lasting competitive advantage.

Extremely Rare

Build Your Own LLM

From Tokenization to Training: Own the Technology Behind ChatGPT

The best way to understand AI is to build it yourself.

45h9 modules

Self-Paced

$1997

Popular

Cohort

$6,997

Founder

$19,997

Learn More
Cutting Edge

Build Your Own Reasoning Model

Create AI That Thinks Before it Answers—Stop Using AI, Start Owning It

The models winning today think before they answer. Learn to build that capability.

45h9 modules

Self-Paced

$1497

Popular

Cohort

$5,997

Founder

$17,997

Learn More
Extremely Rare

Build Your Own Frontier AI

Master Mixture-of-Experts, Advanced Attention, 64x Efficiency—Own Production-Grade AI

The ONLY masterclass teaching you to build production-grade frontier AI systems from scratch—cut API costs 90%, own your stack, stop renting from OpenAI.

55h10 modules

Self-Paced

$1997

Popular

Cohort

$6,997

Founder

$19,997

Learn More
Extremely Rare

Build Your Own Image Generator

Train Vision Models from Scratch—Stop Renting, Start Owning

Create images from words. Own the visual AI your competitors rent.

50h11 modules

Self-Paced

$1997

Popular

Cohort

$6,997

Founder

$19,997

Learn More
Very Rare

Build Your Own Autonomous AI Agent

The Agent Architecture Blueprint™ — Own Your Infrastructure, Not Frameworks

Build agent systems from first principles—ReAct loops, tool orchestration, memory systems, multi-agent coordination. Framework users are commoditized. Infrastructure builders are irreplaceable.

45h9 modules

Self-Paced

$1997

Popular

Cohort

$6,997

Founder

$19,997

Learn More
Frontier AI

Build Your Own Multi-Agent AI Teams

Train Agent Swarms That Collaborate at Scale—Own Your AI Workforce

One agent is powerful. Multiple agents working together are transformative.

45h12 modules

Self-Paced

$1497

Popular

Cohort

$5,997

Founder

$17,997

Learn More
Save Up To 56%

Bundle & Save with Learning Paths

Accelerate your transformation with curated course bundles designed for serious builders.

Most Popular

Founder's AI Stack

Everything you need to build competitive AI

Build LLM + Reasoning Models + MoE + Agentic Systems + Multi-Agent + AI Product Factory

6
Courses
220+
Hours

What's Included:

  • Build Your Own LLM
  • Reasoning Models
  • Mixture of Experts (MoE)
  • Agentic Systems
  • Multi-Agent Systems
  • AI Product Factory
Self-PacedSave 46%
$4,997$9,279
Cohort-BasedSave 43%
$19,997$34,982
Founder's EditionSave 50%
$49,997$99,982
Get This Bundle

AI Engineer Complete

The complete curriculum to become elite

All 14 Hardcore Developer courses—from ML fundamentals to frontier AI systems

14
Courses
420+
Hours

What's Included:

  • All 14 Hardcore Developer courses
  • ML & Deep Learning Intuition
  • LLMs, Reasoning, MoE, Diffusion
  • Agentic & Multi-Agent Systems
  • GraphRAG, SLMs, Fine-tuning
  • Production & Analytics tools
Self-PacedSave 46%
$8,997$16,759
Cohort-BasedSave 44%
$34,997$62,958
Founder's EditionSave 49%
$89,997$176,958
Get This Bundle

Full Catalog Access

Master everything we teach

All 21 masterclasses—complete access to the entire DrLee.ai curriculum

21
Courses
560+
Hours

What's Included:

  • All 21 masterclasses
  • Hardcore Developer (14 courses)
  • Citizen Developer (7 courses)
  • Token Economy & Web3 included
  • Vibe Marketing included
  • Lifetime access to all content
Self-PacedSave 48%
$11,997$23,138
Cohort-BasedSave 43%
$49,997$87,937
Founder's EditionSave 51%
$119,997$243,937
Get This Bundle

Not sure which path is right for you?

Take the assessment

Investment in Your Future

Choose Your Path to Mastery

Whether you're advancing your career or building a startup, these masterclasses deliver ROI that compounds for years. The knowledge to build AI from scratch is worth far more than API credits.

Self-Paced

Learn at your own pace with lifetime access

$2997

$1997

USD

  • 15-20 hours of video content
  • Complete source code & notebooks
  • Lifetime access to materials
  • Community Discord access
  • Certificate of completion

30-day money-back guarantee

MOST POPULAR

Cohort-Based

Live instruction with accountability

$11997

$6997

USD

  • Everything in Self-Paced
  • 12 weeks of live sessions
  • Weekly office hours with instructor
  • Private cohort community
  • Code reviews & feedback
  • Direct access to Dr. Lee

30-day money-back guarantee

Founder's Edition

For serious founders building AI companies

$29997

$19997

USD

  • Everything in Cohort-Based
  • 6x 1:1 architecture sessions
  • Custom project code reviews
  • Implementation consulting
  • Lifetime alumni network access
  • Priority support & updates

30-day money-back guarantee

Stop Renting from OpenAI. Start Owning Your Technology.

Bootcamps

$11K-$17K for API tutorials

ML Engineer

$200K-$300K/year to hire

DrLee.ai

Build frontier AI yourself

10x-100x ROI in Year 1
0% interest payment plans
Team licenses (20-50% off)

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

  • No. This is the opposite. We don't teach you to call APIs—we teach you to build the systems behind them. In "Build Your Own LLM," you'll start with a blank Python file and build every component of a transformer: tokenization, embeddings, attention mechanisms, the decoder. By the end, you'll have built something that actually generates coherent text.

    This is first-principles learning. It's hard. It's demanding. But it's the only way to truly understand AI.

  • These masterclasses are specifically designed for technical founders and senior engineers who need to make architectural decisions—not become full-time ML researchers. We start every concept with a TED Talk-style explanation of the "why" before diving into implementation.

    The goal is to give you enough depth to architect AI systems, evaluate technical hires, and make defensible technology decisions for your startup. You'll understand trade-offs that API-only founders never grasp.

  • Search for "Build your own LLM from scratch" or "Reasoning models course"— you won't find much. Sebastian Raschka's book exists, but there's no live course teaching this systematically. Reasoning models (like OpenAI's o1) are cutting-edge—the technology was just released. Mixture of Experts architecture? That's how Mistral competes with OpenAI at 1/10th the cost.

    We're teaching frontier AI that most courses won't cover for years.

  • You have lifetime access to all materials regardless of your tier. The cohort provides live instruction and accountability, but you can always revisit content at your own pace. Many students go through materials twice—first with the cohort for structure, then again independently for deeper understanding.

    We also offer office hours specifically for students who want extra help on challenging concepts.

  • If you're building an AI startup, the 1:1 architecture sessions alone are worth the premium. You get direct access to review your specific system design, discuss trade-offs for your use case, and get guidance on technical decisions that could cost you months of wrong turns.

    Compare to hiring an ML consultant at $300-500/hour or making expensive architecture mistakes. For serious founders, it's a fraction of the alternative cost.

  • Yes. Most tech companies have professional development budgets of $2,000-$5,000 that rarely get used. Our pricing is designed to fit within these thresholds. We provide invoices and certificates of completion that satisfy most L&D requirements.

    We've had students from Google, Meta, Stripe, and numerous startups get full reimbursement.