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Ali Nemati tried to get his nine-year-old nephew to give up. He handed him material he thought was far too complex, fully expecting the boy to get frustrated and walk away. Instead, the nephew nailed it. So did his eight-year-old sister. That moment quietly ended Ali's plan to build a training business for adults and started something he never intended: Software Academy, now one of the UK's most unusual academies for children.

Dominik sat down with Ali to talk through the whole story. How a university lecturer ended up teaching kids game design, animation, and coding using the same professional tools used in actual studios. Why a parent asking for a simple letter pushed Ali to pursue formal accreditation through the UK's oldest awarding body, making Software Academy the only one of its kind in the country. And what it actually means for a student when a qualification is something a college will accept, not just a certificate you printed yourself.

They also got into the business side: why Ali targets parents rather than children, why he thinks free PDFs have lost their power as lead magnets, how he structures his product ladder, and what he believes most course creators get badly wrong when they upsell. His take on hidden upsell tactics and what honest retention actually looks like is worth the listen on its own.

If you sell courses and you've been thinking about what makes your offer genuinely different, I think this one will give you a lot to chew on.

Check out Ali's work:
🌐 https://www.softwareacademy.co.uk/ 
📸 https://www.instagram.com/alicodemakers/ 
▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@SoftwareAcademy