Everyone can now talk to AI. Almost no one can direct it to build something real — and that, not prompting, is the skill the economy is short of. Kaern closes the gap: we turn learning into a funded venture and graduates into founders. Walk in with an idea; walk out running a company. That's how a new industrial revolution actually starts — one operator, a fleet of AI, a real business.
One storefront does the whole job: it teaches, it sells, it delivers, and it keeps people coming back — all on Shopify, all automated.
Click Buy → Shopify checkout (German VAT handled) → done. No course is a downloadable file — ownership is checked server-side against the buyer's order history, so content is rendered only for them.
Logged in, the buy box becomes a full learning environment: chaptered player, progress tracking, an AI tutor in every lesson, quizzes, graded assignments — and My Courses as the student's single hub.
Thinkific and LearnWorlds sell shovels to course creators. Kaern deleted the creator: one sentence becomes a complete business school course — written, tutored, graded and certified by AI, sold through Shopify checkout — in about five minutes, at near-zero marginal cost.
Type a title, audience and outcomes. The AI drafts the full multi-module course, generates the quiz, the build assignment and the cover — one click publishes it as a purchasable product. A no-code editor rewrites any lesson on demand.
Named tutors answer Socratically inside the exact lesson, read it aloud, explain with diagrams — and a Claude-powered Workbook lives in the browser. Maven-style personal teaching at zero instructor payroll.
AI-written quizzes graded server-side, AI rubric-graded build assignments, then a server-verified certificate anyone can check publicly. Lessons → quiz → assignment → credential.
Drip scheduling, prerequisites, reviews, gamification, per-lesson discussion, instructor analytics, AI cohorts with weekly faculty check-ins, B2B team seats, memberships, installable app — the LearnWorlds/Thinkific feature set rebuilt on one Cloudflare Worker + a Shopify theme. Infra cost: ~€0.
One brief → a whole school (name, palette, three complete courses, published to checkout). And one click localizes any course into any EU language — the moat, live: one curriculum, every market, no re-authoring.
Thinkific and LearnWorlds are course-hosting SaaS. Maven sells cohorts, Disco sells community. None are AI-native — the human still writes, teaches, and grades. Kaern does all three with AI, on native commerce.
| Capability | Thinkific | LearnWorlds | Maven | Disco | Kaern |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI writes the whole course from a brief | — | assist only | — | — | ✓ full course ~5 min |
| 1:1 AI tutor inside every lesson | — | add-on | — | — | ✓ named faculty |
| AI-graded assignments → verified certificate | — | — | manual | — | ✓ closed loop |
| Learn by building a real, funded venture | — | — | partial | — | ✓ Cobuild |
| One-click localization to any EU language | — | — | — | — | ✓ live |
| Native commerce, ~€0 infra, ~100% margin | add-on | add-on | % of revenue | per-seat SaaS | ✓ Shopify-native |
The moat isn't a feature — it's the cost structure. AI faculty means marginal cost falls as enrolment rises. They can't match our margins without rebuilding as AI-native, and they're not.
Today, only the courses and Build Your Venture are on sale. The full Founder's Year — a one-year academy where you build and launch a real, funded company — is about to open, and we're inviting free applications for the first cohort.
Why wait on the sidelines? Try a course first — keep the skill, and arrive already moving.
Governments don't fund lectures — they fund labour-market outcomes. That's precisely what practical application produces: people who can direct AI to build, ship and employ. Every EU state now subsidises re-skilling, with AI the stated priority, and the money flows to approved training providers. Kaern's roadmap is to become that provider, country by country, and route public funding into free, outcome-first AI education.
2026 "Advanced Digital Skills" calls fund AI-training delivery across the Union — rounds in the tens of millions, AI adoption the stated priority.
€4.4B committed to retrain 3 million people — 300,000 specifically in digital skills.
Most EU states give individuals or employers a training voucher (Bildungsgutschein, CPF, KFS…). The catch: it's only redeemable at a nationally-approved provider. Kaern earns that accreditation → the government pays the fee → the student pays €0.
The EU and enterprises also fund providers directly to build and deliver at scale (Digital Europe, ESF+, employer levies). Kaern is eligible to bid as a provider/consortium — a large non-dilutive pool we're targeting, not assuming. None awarded yet.
The moat: one localized AI curriculum, stacked national accreditations no competitor has bothered to collect.
The Agentur für Arbeit covers 100% of approved training for people who are unemployed or at risk. Our first milestone is AZAV accreditation — the credential that makes the voucher redeemable at Kaern.
100% of fees, paid by the Agentur. Needs AZAV provider + per-course certification.
Employer + state co-fund upskilling as roles change with AI.
Start-up subsidy — pairs with Kaern's build-your-venture track.
Figures are public programme budgets — the addressable pool we can access once accredited, not secured Kaern funding.
100% for unemployed / at-risk. Unlocks with: AZAV provider certification.
Up to €5,000 per learner; jobseekers top up via France Travail. Unlocks with: Qualiopi + RNCP/RS listing.
PLN 419M for 2026. Unlocks with: listing in the BUR provider database.
Employer training-levy credits + SEPE digital programmes (€200M / 80k professionals). Unlocks with: registered provider.
€71.9M/yr; up to €25k per SME, ~60% of cost; ICT a priority sector. Unlocks with: registered training.
€4.4B PNRR; 300k in digital skills. Unlocks with: regional accreditation.
20–30% subsidy, up to €7,500/yr; digital eligible. Unlocks with: registered service provider.
National AMS funding (AT) and subsidised tech upskilling (IE) — same provider-accreditation model.
Kaern is seeking investment and partners to fund the accreditation, localization and delivery that turn government training budgets into free AI education for our students. Every euro of accreditation we secure is matched many times over by public funding that flows to learners — not to us.
Revenue ladder €30 → €20,000. Equity 60 / 30 / 10 (founder / investor / Kaern). Because the faculty are AI, cost-to-serve falls as enrolment rises. With a voucher the learner pays €0 — the state pays Kaern’s fee, so funded seats are full-price revenue.
The platform is already built — verifiable certificates and instructor analytics are live. The raise buys access, not software:
Indicative allocation; detailed projections shared on request.
Kaern runs on the same model it teaches — a single founder directing AI. That’s the cost structure, and the proof.
Shipped five live products (cyclewash, cyclecnc, cyclecad, explodeview, cyclepanel) solo-with-AI. Builds and directs the whole platform.
Ada, Mara, Fin, Sol & co. teach, read aloud and answer Socratically — teaching capacity that scales without headcount.
One founder, a fleet of agents, a company that owns what it learns.