Cohort 12 enrolling now · 92% placement rate · Live mentorship · zero filler · Build a real portfolio in 14 weeks · Cohort 12 enrolling now · 92% placement rate · Live mentorship · zero filler · Build a real portfolio in 14 weeks ·
COHORT 12 · OPENS MAY 26 · 41 SEATS LEFT

Skills that actually
get you hired.

BENDS is a project-led skill development studio. No 200-hour video graveyards. You build a portfolio with working mentors, ship real work to real users, and walk out with a network that opens doors — not a certificate that closes them.

Explore tracks See how it works
14wk
Avg. cohort length
92%
Placement rate
1:6
Mentor : student
3.4k
Alumni network
BUILD · SHIP · GET HIRED · BUILD · SHIP · GET HIRED ·
JOIN
COHORT 12
Alumni shipping at → VECTOR stride/labs FORGE/9 monolith.dev
01 · CHOOSE YOUR TRACK

Six tracks. One outcome. Real work, shipped.

Each track is a 14-week, project-led intensive. You ship four portfolio pieces, get weekly 1:1 mentorship, and finish with a demo day in front of hiring partners.

// TRACK 01

Full-Stack Engineering

React, TypeScript, Node, Postgres. Ship a deployed product. Pass real code review. Learn the parts they don't put in tutorials.

14 weeks·4 projects
// TRACK 02 · POPULAR

Applied AI & ML

From notebooks to production. Build real LLM apps, RAG pipelines, and evaluation systems. With actual tradeoffs, not toy demos.

16 weeks·5 projects
// TRACK 03

Product Design

Figma fluency, UX research, design systems, prototyping. Critique that improves you. Portfolio that interviews well.

12 weeks·4 projects
// TRACK 04

Data Analytics

SQL, Python, dashboards that decision-makers trust. Tell stories with data. Influence without authority.

12 weeks·4 projects
// TRACK 05

Digital Marketing

Content, paid acquisition, lifecycle, analytics. Run real campaigns with real budgets. Measure what matters.

10 weeks·3 projects
// TRACK 06

Product Management

Discovery, prioritization, specs that ship. Work alongside engineers and designers on a real cross-functional project.

14 weeks·4 projects
02 · HOW IT WORKS

A method built for retention & leverage.

Forget passive lectures. The BENDS method is built around four loops that compound: learn-by-building, mentor pressure, peer review, and shipping in public.

01

Diagnose

A skill audit places you on the right rung. We don't waste your weeks on what you already know.

02

Build

Weekly briefs, not lectures. Every module ends with a shipped artifact — not a multiple-choice quiz.

03

Critique

1:1 mentorship plus group critique. The kind of honest feedback that's rare and expensive elsewhere.

04

Ship

Demo day with hiring partners, alumni intros, and a portfolio review that actually closes interviews.

03 · OUTCOMES

Six months in, 78% of grads report a salary lift, role change, or first offer in tech.

P
Priya Ramaswamy
Cohort 08 · ML Engineer @ Vector

I spent two years cobbling together courses and getting nowhere. Fourteen weeks at BENDS, three real shipped projects, and I had three offers within a month of demo day. The mentor critique was brutal in the best possible way.

2.4×
Median salary lift
11wk
Avg. time-to-offer
96%
Would recommend
WHERE THEY LANDED
  • → Senior IC roles at product companies
  • → Founding-engineer offers at funded startups
  • → Cross-functional pivots into product & design
  • → Freelance practices clearing $8k–$15k/mo
  • → Returns to school with a clearer thesis
04 · MENTORS

People who do the work.

Every BENDS mentor is currently practicing — shipping code, leading design, running campaigns. Not lecture-circuit lifers. The advice you get is the advice they'd give a junior on their team next Tuesday.

A

Aarav Mehta

Staff Eng. · ex-Stripe
Full-Stack
N

Nadia Okafor

ML Lead · Halcyon AI
Applied AI
R

Ren Tanaka

Design Director · Vector
Product Design
M

Mira Sandhu

Sr. PM · Forge/9
PM
05 · INVESTMENT

Pay for outcomes,
not hours of video.

Three ways in. Scholarships available for every cohort — about 18% of seats go to applicants on financial aid.

Self-Paced

For the disciplined autodidact.

₹14kone-time
  • Full curriculum access
  • Async community + Discord
  • Project briefs & rubrics
  • One mentor review at end
Start self-paced
Most chosen

Cohort

The full BENDS experience.

₹68k14 weeks
  • Everything in Self-Paced
  • Weekly 1:1 mentor sessions
  • Live group critique & demo day
  • Hiring-partner intros
  • Lifetime alumni access
Apply for Cohort 12

Career Switch

Pay after you're placed.

ISAincome share
  • Everything in Cohort
  • Pay nothing upfront
  • Dedicated career coach
  • Capped at 12% × 24 mo. post-placement
Check eligibility
06 · FAQ

Things people actually ask.

Video courses are linear and passive. BENDS is a small cohort, briefs-not-lectures, and weekly mentor pressure. You build a portfolio you'd actually send to a hiring manager — and you have someone reviewing your code, design, or strategy every single week.
Each track has a placement audit. Beginners and career-switchers go through a 2-week ramp; folks with experience skip ahead. Nobody sits through material they already know.
Plan for 12–15 hours per week — roughly 3 evenings plus a Saturday. That includes one live mentor session, one group critique, and project work. We'll show you exactly how to fit it around a full-time job.
You can defer to the next cohort once at no additional cost. We'd rather you finish strong than finish on time.
Yes — and audited. Our Cohort 08–11 placement report (available on request) breaks down the numerator and denominator. We don't count people who left the job market or self-employed alumni unless they explicitly opted in.

Stop collecting certificates. Start shipping work.

Apply for Cohort 12 Talk to admissions
Cohort 12 begins May 26. Applications close when the seats fill — historically around 9 days before the start date. Rolling admissions, decisions in 72 hours.