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From coaching marketplace to AI training ground: Leland launches its fastest-growing product ever. Leland (Lehi, UT) has launched its AI Builder Program, a five-level course teaching professionals to build AI automations and agents. Already its fastest-growing product, the program is drawing strong demand from individual learners and enterprise clients alike. The Lehi-based platform best known for one-on-one coaching is making a bold new bet - that every professional needs to become an AI builder, and fast. Lehi, Utah - April 7, 2026 Leland, the Lehi-based coaching and career development marketplace, has launched what Co-founder and Head of Experience Erika Mahterian calls its fastest-growing product ever: the AI Builder Program, a five-level course designed to transform everyday professionals into hands-on AI builders. Mahterian described it as a program designed to help people actually build, not just learn. The program launched on March 25, 2026, and has already drawn an unusually broad mix of customers - venture capital firms, tech companies, boutique consulting firms, and individual professionals from companies like Google and Bain. "I've never felt demand like this. The world knows they need to level up quickly and we're excited to help them do it," said John Koelliker, Leland's CEO. What the AI Builder Program Is Kristen Schumann Hansen, Leland's Head of AI Education and a 2025 Women Tech Council Rising Star Award recipient, is spearheading the program in her role, alongside several other Leland team members and AI experts working full-time on curriculum development, experience management, and growth. Hansen describes the program as a bridge between casually using AI tools and actually building with them. "There are a lot of free AI resources out there that tell you what AI can do," said Hansen, "but they don't bridge the gap of: where do I start? What do I actually build? What are the use cases for my work?" The five-level curriculum is designed to move learners from basic AI fluency to building real automations and AI agents - tools that run independently, handle repetitive tasks, and embed AI into the flow of daily work. It features AI experts from Leland's large coach base. TAs are available for each attendee to get help from on whatever they're building. The goal, Hansen says, is to compress timelines dramatically. "Things that used to take you a whole day should now take you less than an hour. Things that used to take an hour should take less than a minute." AI as Democratizer Hansen's own story is something of a proof of concept. Without a software engineering background, she has used AI to do what once would have required a team. In one early project, she needed to produce a large library of on-demand educational videos covering GRE prep, MBA applications, and other Leland coaching categories. Before AI, a single polished slide deck might have taken a full day to build. "In less than a week, I generated more than 300 slide decks - really high quality, all following a consistent system," she said. Beyond the slides themselves, AI handled file organization, email drafting, and the legal contracts for the video contributors. "I was able to do what would have taken a team of five to ten people, or would have taken me six months to a year." That experience shapes how Hansen thinks about AI's broader significance. "This is something that truly applies to everyone," she added. "In so many ways, it's a great democratizer of skills and access and learning." Real-World Applications Early participants in the program are already putting it to work. Hansen shared several examples across different functions. One team had been manually handling a multi-step email and text workflow - responding to customers, negotiating discounts, and driving purchases one conversation at a time. After going through the AI training, a team member rebuilt the entire process as a network of AI agents running autonomously. "The emails are being sent customized, they sound superhuman, just like the person who was doing it manually before sounded. We're seeing increases in sales, not decreases," said Hansen. In another case, a performance marketing manager at a company that had previously relied on software engineers to build and iterate on landing pages is now managing that process entirely on her own. The engineering bottleneck, and the cost and delay that came with it, is gone. Hansen also described the cumulative power of smaller automations. In her own daily workflow, she runs roughly ten automations: tools that triage her email and Slack messages and draft replies, deliver daily business health reports directly into her messaging apps, manage her calendar, and help her prioritize her tasks each morning. "Tons of small automations that, in aggregate, save a ton of time and help me focus," she said. B2B Demand and a Build Night That Filled the Office While the AI Builder Program is available directly to individual learners, much of the early momentum has been B2B. Companies are reaching out asking how to get their teams enrolled. Leland has also begun hosting Lunch and Learns across the Utah business community, offering a preview of the course material. Spencer Anderson, Leland's VP of Operations, noted, "We're seeing many organizations realize AI adoption isn't just a tooling or information problem, it's a workforce enablement problem - helping employees understand how to actually apply AI in their day-to-day work. This is really the key to finding massive efficiency and impact gains." Last week, Leland hosted an AI Agents Build Night at its new office in Lehi, Utah. The event was promoted with just three LinkedIn posts. Over 130 people showed up. "The office was packed; standing room in no time," recalled Hansen. "People from all different levels, from all different types of work, were there with their computers, trying to troubleshoot, trying to set up things that work for their jobs." Attendees ranged from teachers to seasoned AI practitioners who were themselves sharing tips with first-timers. One attendee told Mahterian he builds ten AI agents a day - and still learned something new that night. Leland plans to host similar events going forward. Those interested in attending future Build Nights or arranging a Lunch and Learn for their organization, or joining a cohort, can reach out to Leland at [email protected] A Natural Next Chapter For Leland, the AI Builder Program isn't a departure from its original mission - it's an intensification of it. When the company closed its Series A in November 2024, CEO John Koelliker described the raise as an opportunity to expand into new coaching categories, build out courses and content experiences, and pursue enterprise opportunities. The AI Builder Program is the most visible expression of all three. Mahterian is direct about why the timing feels urgent. "AI is not going away, and we don't want AI to replace people's jobs. We want them to go through this program and turn themselves into the most powerful users and employees within their organizations. The mission, she added, is unchanged from day one: "We win when we help our customers win." Hansen put it simply: "AI has given me technical power, and I can do almost anything now. That's what we want for everyone." Leland's AI Builder Program is available at ai.joinleland.com. The company's coaching marketplace, which serves customers across school admissions, career development, test prep, and upskilling, can be found at joinleland.com. To learn more reach out to Leland at [email protected]

Today, we are thrilled to announce Leland's $12M Series A led by Forerunner Ventures, with participation from GSV, inVest Ventures, FJ Labs, Contrary, Peterson Ventures, and GSB Backers.