Real instructors with serious engineering backgrounds. Real internships at NYC startups. Real community in our 7000sqft co-working campus. Real work. Real results. Apply Now.
Our Spring 2026 Cohort:
Fractal Tech is a 3-month AI engineering bootcamp in NYC, built by AI startup founders, designed to turn you into the kind of high-velocity startup engineer we want to hire.
- When: February 2nd, 2026 - May 2nd, 2026
- Location: Fractal Tech Hub, New York City
- Program:
- Full Stack (from data to design), with a focus on building and using AI tools
- Internships with local NYC startups
- Career coaching from NYC startup founders
- Time Commitment: 60 hours per week. 12 weeks. Monday → Friday, 9am → 7pm. Saturdays 10am → 4pm.
- Class Size: 20 students
- Cost: $18000
- Payment plans are available on a first-come, first-serve basis
- If you have a pricing concern, just reach out and ask :)
- Requirements:
- A macOS computer (we need a single, stable environment for students)
- Some previous coding experience: you should be comfortable with all of our pre-course content by the time the bootcamp begins.
FAQs
How good are the outcomes?
What’s the difference between Fractal Bootcamp and [insert bootcamp]?
How do you have such a good curriculum?
Okay, I think I’m getting it. So, is it just a really great school with a co-op program?
Do you use or teach AI in the program?
Can I take the bootcamp if I’m non-technical?
What makes us different?
- You will work harder than you’ve ever worked before.
- You will work on REAL projects at venture-backed, early-stage startups in the NYC tech scene
- You will master AI tools to work 10x faster than other engineers
- You won’t waste time listening to lectures; you will work on real projects every day
Some of the startups our students already work with, starting on week 4 of Bootcamp:
Are there any jobs for me?
You may be wondering,
“If I take this path, will I be okay? Can I trust the universe… can I trust myself to figure it out?”
I’m here to tell you: you can relax.
If we accept you into the program, you will join a hard-working, passionate community. You will be on a path which we and many of our friends have walked already. You will be okay, as long as you do the work. And we will TELL YOU if you aren’t doing the work. You won’t fail silently.
But how can we know? Well, we’ve done it before, and we’ve done it recently:
Case Studies from Our First Cohort
Dorothy
Dorothy worked in tech as an analyst and product manager. She was a strong team leader who understood how projects got built, but wanted to be able to build them herself.
She learned to code at Fractal Bootcamp. She’s now hacker-in-residence at Every.to and works at Ellis, automating American immigration. She has combined her experience as a PM with her coding competency to solve important problems with a small, mission-oriented team :)
Parth
Parth worked on emergency PPE during COVID, was a Venture for America fellow in Cleveland, and was a PM at a health-tech company.
But in his heart, Parth always wanted to work directly with the computer, so he signed up for Fractal. Now he does interface research and engineering for multiple AI startups in NYC, and bills over $125/hr for his services.
But what about AI?
You might worry that AI tools will invalidate software engineering. We think this is like worrying that more powerful wands will invalidate becoming a wizard. Powerful tools are a GOOD thing, if you learn to use them (and we will teach you how!). Jake explains this in depth here. See also this piece from Shesh Babu.
AI is increasingly part of a good developer’s workflow. We incorporate every useful AI tool as a core part of our student workflow — Cursor, v0, Claude Code, Gemini, CodeRabbit, you name it!
Is Coding boring? Will I be bored?
No, that’s a Skill Issue. We don’t work with boring people, and neither should you.
David Bowie said that coders “carry the flag of subversion and rebellion” once held by rockstars. Had he been born in the 90s, he’d be a coder, not a musician (seriously, he said that).
Should I go to bootcamp or self-study?
Questions for those considering self-studying:
How long have you been intending to self study coding?
I’ve been having conversations with friends for years who never get around to it.
Very few people actually self-study. The odds here are really low. I know you think you are disciplined. But are you disciplined enough to put in 60 hours a week, rain or shine, even when it’s hard, for the next 3 months?
In a bootcamp community, you and everyone around you codes for 600+ hours in 3 months, and somehow, everyone has fun! You can relax and put your “self-discipline” away.
Do you have an air-tight course of study which has your full confidence?
Some friends who opt to self-study second guess their approach every few weeks, starting over on a new course, a new language, a new web framework… Cut that shit out!
It’s literally our job to update curriculum with industry best practices, which we know are good enough to get you an entry-level job. When you constantly switch approaches, you continually learn basic coding skills, over and over again. To become a strong software engineer, you need to go deep into a course of study. Once you’ve gone deep, it’ll be much easier to learn lateral skills in other languages and frameworks.
Do you have a community of colleagues and mentors in the software industry who will have your back and introduce you to employers, co-founders and investors?
Our friends who self-study often study alone; internet communities can be a cold comfort on the hard days, when you need care and companionship.
Bootcamp is an intense adventure with ambitious friends. It’s not just an economic tradeoff, it’s a whole era of your life!
How much do you enjoy self-studying?
Realistically, most people just don’t enjoy learning alone, and that’s okay!
We’ve designed this bootcamp to make us happy; we think it will make you happy too.
Will self-study actually save you money?
To answer this, we recommend checking out Priya’s 2021 piece, “Should I go to bootcamp?”
An excerpt -
“For me, my main goal was to get a job in tech. After researching bootcamps, I was very confident that if I went to a good bootcamp, I’d come out with a six figure job (in San Francisco). Bootcamp was going to cost me $15k, which meant that if bootcamp enabled me to get a job two and a half months earlier than I would otherwise, it’d be worth the cost.
$100k after taxes in California is $69,540
$15k / $69,540k * 100 = 21% of a year’s salary
.21 * 12 months = 2.6 months“Another way a bootcamp would be worth the cost is if a bootcamp could help me get a job that paid $15k more than if I had tried to self-study. Many bootcamps help you negotiate offers, so this seemed plausible.”
How hard will it be?
Well, in short, your work matters.
We can launch your career in software, but this bootcamp will be the hardest you’ve ever worked.
So let’s set expectations:
- Tell your friends and family you’ll see them in 3 months, because you’re in monk mode.
- You can’t work on side projects, write your book, or work a part-time job.
- You won’t have much social life, aside from the 10-15 people you are struggling with every day.
- You must attend every meeting and every lecture on time; just like you would at work.
- No social media at school!
On the other hand, if you commit to this, you’ll speak a new language, have several public portfolio projects under your belt, earn several life-long colleagues, and land a job working with people as ambitious as you.
Don’t worry, we’ll be working as hard as you; we can all relax once you’ve landed your job.
What if I’m still feeling uncertain?
That’s okay! You can still book an intake call or a tour to learn more about the program. You can meet with one of our staff, ask your questions, and let us know about your background & goals. We’ll let you know if the bootcamp seems like a fit for your level of ability.
Our Curriculum
Because our students intern directly with 40+ partner startups in NYC, we have a direct line into the latest tools and skills needed to build rocketship startups, which informs our always-updating curriculum.
Our grads consistently outpace existing engineers on the market because we teach them what AI is good at and what humans still need to do.
Our instructors are all staff-level engineers who have hired engineers before; they will teach you how to break down the hardest problems and run through walls, with no bullshit.
By the end of the bootcamp, you’ll be a capable and competitive startup engineer- ready to be an asset to a high-velocity startup team or to build your own startup end-to-end.
Projects you will ship:
- Personal portfolio site
- Social media site
- Generative art
- Admin dashboards
- Online / multiplayer game development
- An AI Companion
- AI PDF/document parsing
- An AI call and texting bot
- Your own AI chatbot app that can chat with any AI in the world
Technologies you will learn:
- Fullstack Typescript
- React, NextJS, tailwindcss, ShadCN
- AI Systems
- RAG, MCP, Streaming, Generative UI
- OpenAI, Anthropic, Deepseek
- MORE AI systems
- Vercel AI SDK, Chatbots, Agents
- AI coding tools:
- Cursor, Claude Code, etc…
- Postgres, AWS/SST, S3, Redis
- Exposure to Python & Go
A Community
You shouldn’t have to go through massive career change alone; we certainly didn’t.
In our free time, we build communities with an exceptional density of playfulness, curiosity, and ambition — including Fractal and Fractal University. This bootcamp will be another extension (though more intense) of that playful, ambitious culture. You can read more below:
Who Are We?Fractal Bootcamp is an intentionally intense three months; the benefit of this intensity is that it creates lifelong friends, collaborators, and dense, high-trust networks. You will share a bond with the others who complete this program, because it won’t be easy.
Immersion in a joyful coding culture will focus and empower your progress.
More FAQs
How much does it cost?
What does a typical day look like?
What If I’m Bad at Math?
Why Did You Create Fractal Bootcamp?
How can I help Fractal succeed?
The Team
Founder, Fractal + Fractal University
Previously: Founder of Qrono, founding engineer at Culdesac, and Interim Head of School at Guidepost Montessori at Museum Mile
Founder, Medspa Receptionist
Previously: Director of Engineering at Tenet
Priya Rose (twitter)
Founder, Fractal + Fractal University
Paris Mitton (linkedin)
Instructor, Fractal Bootcamp
Previously: Senior Software Engineer @ Netflix; Senior Software Engineer @ Google
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David Shimel (linkedin)
Instructor, Fractal Bootcamp
Previously: Staff Software Engineer @ Atmosfy; Senior Software Engineer @ Stripe; Senior Software Engineer @ Google
