RFP – AI Bootcamp Facilitation - Consultant

Project Overview

AlphaLab, the startup accelerator of Innovation Works, is seeking experienced external facilitators to lead the 2027 AI Bootcamp. This in-person, Pittsburgh-based program brings together founders across Software, Health, and Hardware tracks. We have defined the skills every founder must leave with and a baseline curriculum to get them there. Facilitators may propose to deliver the full curriculum or specific modules, and AlphaLab may select more than one facilitator.

Company Background

Innovation Works is one of the most active seed-stage investors in the country and the lead innovation and startup engine for Southwestern Pennsylvania. Through AlphaLab, its startup accelerator, Innovation Works runs intensive, milestone-driven programming for early-stage founders. The 2027 AI Bootcamp is designed to help founders across the portfolio put AI to work running their companies, from operating agents to AI-informed product and fundraising decisions.

Audience

This call is for facilitators from diverse professional backgrounds who can lead a high-energy, hands-on, two-day bootcamp. Experience with startup accelerators is valued but not required.

Founders span three tracks (Software, Health, and Hardware) and range from pre-seed through seed stage. Their technical fluency varies widely, from deeply technical builders to people who have never automated anything. We assume every founder has used Claude or ChatGPT to answer questions. Most have not used AI coding tools, built an agent, or chosen between models and effort levels.

Baseline Curriculum

This is a baseline, not a script. Strong candidates may modify, reorder, or replace modules if they show how founders still reach these skills. Every module should end with a concrete, verifiable artifact or decision, not just a feeling of increased confidence. Content should reflect the models, tools, and features that work at the time of delivery.

1. Frontier AI today: Current capabilities and limitations of frontier models.
2. Models and effort: Which model and effort level to use and when, with live examples of different models and efforts solving the same problem.
3. Core tooling: Projects, scheduled tasks, etc.
4. Data privacy: Training and privacy policies for commercial versus enterprise accounts, and how to choose the right account for your data.
5. Plugins, skills, and connectors: What each is for, what MCP is, and how to install an existing plugin, skill, and connector.
6. Build a skill: Use the “write a skill” skill to write and install a custom skill.
7. Agents: What an agent is, how to decide whether a workflow needs one, and how to scope or build it. Where other platforms are ahead, facilitators may show those.
8. Generating artifacts: For example, a brand package, slides that don’t look AI-generated, text and reports, and deep research.
9. Research connectors: Useful external tools such as Tavily and Firecrawl.

Desired Facilitator Requirements

• Demonstrated, recent (within the last 3-6 months) hands-on experience building an AI agent, automation, or workflow, with a link to show for it.
• Current, hands-on fluency with the baseline curriculum: models and effort levels, Projects, skills, plugins, connectors, MCP, etc.
• Ability to confirm each target skill in the room through a working artifact every founder builds.
• Ability to manage group dynamics and adapt content on the fly across all three tracks, for both non-technical founders and deeply technical teams.
• Experience or a clear plan for working with sensitive data. That includes never using real patient information in Health demos and addressing supply chain and test data concerns for Hardware teams.
• Willingness to collaborate with the AlphaLab team, incorporate pre-program cohort survey results, and contribute reusable session materials (slides, templates, prompts, workflows) to AlphaLab’s AI Resource Library for future cohorts.
• Participation in a virtual dry run the week of February 1, 2027.
• Availability for full-day, in-person engagement in Pittsburgh for AI Bootcamp, February 9-10, 2027.
• Willingness to disclose any product affiliation. The module must work fully without that product (no sales pitches).

Team Roles and Collaboration

Sara Longo (Senior Program Manager, AlphaLab) will serve as the project lead and primary point of contact for facilitators. The AlphaLab team will share incoming cohort survey results with selected facilitators ahead of the program so content can be tuned to the audience, and will host a virtual dry run the week of February 1, 2027. Facilitators retain ownership of their pre-existing work; Innovation Works receives a license to reuse session materials, including slides, templates, prompts, and workflows, with its portfolio through the AI Resource Library.

Submission Instructions

Send your application as a PDF or Google Doc link to Sara Longo at [email protected], with the subject line AI Bootcamp Facilitator Application.

Please include the following in your response:

1. Your name, organization, and a website or LinkedIn profile.
2. Your module title and a two-sentence summary (up to two modules; teams may propose more if they can staff them).
3. What each founder walks out with, and how you will confirm it in the room.
4. Your session plan: agenda blocks with times, any prework, and the tools founders need, noting which are required versus interchangeable.
5. A link to an AI-native agent, automation, or workflow you built in the last six months, and what it does.
6. Your teaching record: your last three sessions for founders or operators, with audience size and any feedback scores.
7. How you will adapt for non-technical founders and for Health founders working with sensitive data.
8. Your itemized fee for prep, delivery, office hours, and travel.
9. Confirmation of your availability for Feb 9-10, 2027, and the dry run the week of Feb 1.
10. Two references, ideally founders or program leads you've taught.

Questions about fit or scope can go to Sara Longo at the address above.