A working dev team teaching how we build.
CiroStack has been shipping software for clients since 2019. In 2024 we launched Academy to share exactly how we work — AI-assisted, no fluff, real briefs.
12k+
Students learning
47
Courses live
94%
Completion rate
5
Countries
4–8 wk
Avg. course length
3,200+
Community builders
The Story
Why we built an academy.
Jessy Onah
Founder · CiroStack
I'm Jessy. Before CiroStack I spent years building software for other agencies — and watching the same pattern repeat. Clients got billed by the hour for work that dragged on, junior developers were swapped in after the pitch, and nobody tracked whether the product actually moved the needle.
I kept thinking: what if an agency just did the obvious right things? Quote a fixed price and stick to it. Put senior engineers on every project. Measure success by the client's metrics, not billable hours. So I built that agency.
Then AI happened. Suddenly we were shipping in days what used to take weeks — but I also kept interviewing developers who couldn't debug their own AI-generated code, because they never learned what it was actually doing.
CiroStack Academy is what I wished existed when I was on the other side of the table — and what I wished existed for the developers we hire today.
Browse the catalogTeaching philosophy
Four principles that guide every course.
Every lesson, capstone and review decision goes through this filter. If it doesn't pass — it doesn't ship.
Learn to build, not copy
We teach you to understand AI output, not blindly accept it. Every AI-generated line of code gets explained.
Real-world projects only
No toy apps. Every capstone is a deployable product with a live URL — using the same briefs CiroStack uses for actual clients.
Community-first
Every course comes with a WhatsApp study group. The Launchpad community is 3,200+ builders strong across Nigeria and the diaspora.
Certificates that mean something
A CiroStack Academy certificate verifies you shipped a real product — not just passed a multiple-choice quiz.
AI manifesto
AI is a power tool. You still need to know how to use a hammer.
We build with AI every day. Claude generates our boilerplate. Copilot suggests completions. GPT-4 writes our test cases. We love these tools.
But we've also hired developers who couldn't debug AI-generated code because they didn't understand what it was doing. That's what we're fixing.
Every AI-assisted lesson here shows the AI output, then breaks down the logic step by step — the way a senior dev would explain it to a junior.
The goal isn't to replace your thinking. It's to make you 10× faster while making you a better engineer.
How we operate
Five things we refuse to compromise.
- Senior practitioners only — no lecture-only academics
- Every lesson uses real, current tools (not 2019 React)
- AI-assisted workflows shown side-by-side with manual
- Capstones reviewed by the same team that ships client work
- Top graduates get flagged for the CiroStack talent pipeline
The team
Working devs. Not lecturers.
Tobi Adeyemi
Lead Frontend
8 yrs React + TypeScript. Previously at two YC-backed startups.
5
Courses
6,200
Students
Kemi Lawal
UI/UX Director
Figma evangelist. Designed for fintechs across West Africa.
3
Courses
3,100
Students
Chidi Okonkwo
Backend Lead
Node.js + Postgres specialist. Built infra for healthcare SaaS.
4
Courses
2,800
Students
Talent pipeline
Graduate. Get noticed.
The best capstone projects get flagged for CiroStack's talent pipeline. When a client project needs a specific skill set, our team pulls from the pipeline first.
Start your first courseComplete a course
Build and deploy your Ship It capstone project.
Get reviewed
Instructors score your project and may flag it for the pipeline.
Get referred
CiroStack connects top graduates to client project opportunities.
Ready to build like we do?
Sign up free, browse the catalog, start with a preview lesson. No card needed.