About SydeDoor

The front door is often closed. So we built a side one.

SydeDoor is part AI academy, part careers fair of the future: a membership for 16 to 25 year olds exploring the future of work in the AI economy, with real practitioners, judged on merit.

✱Our principles

How to thrive
in the age of AI.

A note from our founder.

What we stand for.

  1. Proof, not papers.Give the world irrefutable proof of who you say you are and what you can do. Let the work speak first.
  2. Adaptability quotient is what matters.In the AI age, how fast you adapt matters more than what you already know, your IQ or even your EQ. Learn to learn, unlearn and relearn.
  3. Human first, tech second.Humanism is how we win in the AI age: knowing when to use AI, and when not to. Technology is a tool, not a solution, so we keep human what is better kept human.
  4. Safe and responsible AI use, always.We use AI with care, check the facts and protect people.
  5. Cultivate child-like curiosity.Not childish. Child-like. The part of us that gets back up when we fall, stops fearing failure, keeps pushing us to grow, and dares to dream big, whatever the world says.
Why now

The rules
just changed.

AI is changing what entry-level work looks like faster than schools, universities or careers services can keep up with.

Entry-level work is being resetJunior tasks are being automated. What you can show starts to matter more than what you studied.
Education can't keep upWhat you need to learn now changes faster than any curriculum can. The most useful skills are being learned outside the classroom, from the people doing the work.
The future belongs to AI nativesThe builders, operators and creators who work with AI from day one. With today's tools, a team of teenagers can ship a real prototype in a week.
Europe is underservedProgrammes like this are common in the US and rare here. We're starting in the UK and Europe.
✱The PROOF Methodology

Five moves. One learning loop.

P
Problem-first mindset. Start with a meaningful problem, question or decision.
R
Reason from first principles. Research deeply, challenge assumptions and form an independent view.
O
Operate AI-natively. Use AI, people, data and professional tools to do the work.
O
Own the work and results. Take responsibility and iterate relentlessly to improve.
F
Feedback under stakes. Present to practitioners, users or peers, reflect and improve.
✱Learning science

Five principles behind
the experience.

Deliberate practiceEricsson, 1993 · Peak, 2016

Effortful reps, directly corrected.

Students repeat meaningful tasks and receive timely feedback. Capability grows through doing, adjusting and trying again.

Cognitive apprenticeshipCollins, Brown & Newman, 1989

Model, coach, fade.

Practitioners reveal how they reason, coach students through decisions and gradually step back as independence grows.

Spaced retrievalRoediger & Karpicke, 2006

Recall beats re-reading.

Students return to prior decisions, tools and mistakes across experiences, turning exposure into durable capability.

Authentic stakesDeci & Ryan, 2000 · SDT

Real audiences change effort.

Presenting to practitioners, users or peers makes the work matter beyond a score and creates a reason to improve it.

MetacognitionFlavell, 1979 · Zimmerman, 2002

Reflection compounds learning.

Students identify what worked, what failed and what to try next, building agency and self-knowledge over time.

Who's behind it

A zigzag career.
Built on proof.

Joao Alves

Founder

Joao was building with AI in 2020, before it was cool. Since then the path has zigzagged through financial services, frontier tech, AI and clean tech, and today Joao works as an AI strategist and implementation specialist at a $7.5B big tech company doing over $700M in annual recurring revenue.

None of it came from following the standard route. Joao is a generalist and a self-taught learner, and every next role was won with proof of what could be done, not papers.

No one was going to hand over a map of the future, so Joao went looking for one. That became Business Athletes, a newsletter that goes inside startups to learn from the founders building what's next. Every conversation was a lesson in where work is heading, a clue to which skills to build, and a new person in the network. Tech and business are the chosen sports.

SydeDoor is the evolution of that idea. Instead of reading about the founders, you get in the room with them, do the work and build your own network, years earlier than Joao could.

  • AI since 2020Building and working with AI before the hype.
  • Big tech, todayAI strategist and implementation specialist at a $7.5B company with $700M+ ARR.
  • Across sectorsFinancial services, frontier tech, AI and clean tech.
  • Business AthletesSelf-directed learning in public: inside startups, one founder at a time.
Work with us

Partners
and people.

SydeDoor runs on partnerships with startups, schools and sponsors, and a small team that's growing.

Partnerships

Startups, schools and sponsors.

If you'd like to host a brief, bring SydeDoor to your school, or support the livestream, we'd love to talk.

joao@sydedoor.com

We're hiring

Co-host and city leads.

We're looking for a co-host for our live sessions and city leads to launch new editions.

joao@sydedoor.com

Founding members

Come through
the side door.

Join the waitlist to become a founding member. You'll hear first about dates, hosts and places, and help shape what we build.

Join the waitlist →

Takes two minutes. Under 18? We'll ask a parent or guardian to confirm before you take part.