Z CombinatorAIS-R, RiyadhNow recruiting

Transform your ideas into businesses

Z Combinator is the student-run startup and tech club at American International School Riyadh. Build your own business in a semester, learn AI and the math behind it, build projects with other students, and hear from guest speakers, with Claude Pro paid for.

DM us to joinSee the program
months, idea to shipped
3months, idea to shipped
meetings a week
2meetings a week
builders in Cohort 1
25builders in Cohort 1
experience required
0experience required

Guest speakers from

Where the speakers we bring in have worked and studied. Zaid Farekh from Propeller and Sitech and Imaan Sultan from LlamaIndex are confirmed for this term.

AmazonGoogleGoogle DeepMindSpaceXTeslaMicrosoftIntelMastercardReplitCursorClaudeOpenAILlamaIndexPersona11xMercorY CombinatorAndreessen HorowitzPropellerSitech
Harvard UniversityMITStanford UniversityUniversity of OxfordUC BerkeleyUCLAUniversity of MichiganUniversity of IllinoisUniversity of Waterloo
The offer

Six things the club actually gives you

The things you can hold the club to by the end of the term.

01

Your idea to a business in 3 months

Two weeks to lock the idea, the rest of the term to build it, and a Demo Day at the end where you show the working product.

02

Funding to help grow and scale your own business

Finish the term with real traction and you can ask the school to fund the next stretch. Domains and servers for software, capital for a physical business. Written pitch, itemised budget, reviewed case by case.

03

Free Claude Pro for new members

Every new member who shows they intend to build gets Claude Pro paid for by the club, for a month. Use it in Claude Code, for design, or to write your pitch.

04

Get technical, build with AI

Learn how AI actually works, including the math underneath it, then put it to use. Pair up with other members on technical projects, or use AI to push your own business further.

05

Entrepreneurship workshops

Hands-on Thursday sessions on shipping to production, talking to your first users, pricing, design, and pitching in three minutes.

06

Guest speakers from the real thing

Founders, investors and operators in the room, taking questions. A managing partner of a $30M fund. A growth lead from LlamaIndex, Amazon and Mastercard.

What you learn

Six things you leave knowing

You learn these on your own project, not in a lecture.

  1. 01

    How to become an entrepreneur

    Picking an idea, cutting it until it fits three months, and getting the first version in front of someone.

  2. 02

    Real, successful networking

    How to ask a founder or investor for something and get a reply, practised on the speakers we bring in.

  3. 03

    Artificial intelligence literacy

    Coding agents and model APIs as daily tools: how to augment your business with them, where they fail, and how to check their work.

  4. 04

    The math behind AI

    What is actually happening inside a model, from vectors to training, and how to use that to build things that are more than a wrapper.

  5. 05

    How to grow and scale

    Finding the first ten users, keeping them, and reading what the numbers tell you.

  6. 06

    Collaboration and dedication

    Building projects with other members, and saying every Sunday what you built that week, in front of people who are building too.

The three months

Week one to Demo Day

  1. 01Weeks 1 to 2

    Ideation

    Lock in what you are building and how far you intend to get.

    • Pick the idea and set the scope
    • Cut it until it fits three months
  2. 02Weeks 3 to 14

    Build

    Visible progress every week.

    • Sundays you build in the room together
    • Thursdays you learn from people who have done it
    • Weekly updates keep the pace honest
  3. 03Final week

    Demo Day

    The whole school shows up: students, teachers, parents.

    • Three minutes to demo the live product
    • Two minutes of questions
  4. 04After

    Growth funding

    Finish with traction and the school can fund the next stretch.

    • Traction means real users, revenue, or clear momentum
    • Written pitch and an itemised budget
    • Reviewed case by case
The week

Two lunches a week

Build dayLunch

Sunday

The whole lunch is build time.

  • A one-minute update from everyone: what did you build this week?
  • Then heads down, building in the same room
  • Build solo, or on a project with other members
  • Bring whatever you are stuck on

Updates are one minute each, then the rest of the lunch is build time.

Workshops and speakersLunch

Thursday

Learning from people who have already done it.

  • Founders and investors in person
  • Entrepreneurship workshops run by the club
  • AI, the math behind it, and hands-on technical sessions
  • Deploying, design, pricing, and first users

Past and upcoming sessions are announced on our Instagram first.

Confirmed this term

People who have already done it

Live sessions with time for your questions, and feedback on what you are building.

Imaan Sultan, Growth Marketing Lead, LlamaIndex
  • LlamaIndex
  • UC Berkeley
  • Amazon
  • Mastercard
  • Persona
  • 11x
Thursday, October 1Robotics Lab, 1:45, live from San Francisco

Imaan Sultan

Growth Marketing Lead, LlamaIndex

Our first guest speaker. Imaan went from the American School Dhahran to Berkeley Haas to growth roles at some of the fastest-moving companies in AI. She will talk about driving growth at startups, her path from Dhahran to San Francisco, and what she would tell AIS-R high schoolers today.

  • Growth Marketing Lead at LlamaIndex
  • Growth and marketing roles at Amazon, Mastercard, 11x and Persona, companies with a combined $2.4 billion in valuations
  • UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business graduate
  • Founded the first high school UNICEF chapter in Saudi Arabia: $10,000+ raised, 100+ members
  • President of Dosti, San Francisco's largest Muslim social community, with 1,600+ members
Zaid Farekh, Managing Partner, Propeller. CEO, Sitech.
  • Propeller
  • Sitech
OctoberAmman and San Francisco

Zaid Farekh

Managing Partner, Propeller. CEO, Sitech.

Zaid runs a $30 million venture fund that has backed more than 30 startups, and a global UI/UX studio. He decides which companies get funded, so the feedback you get is the feedback a founder gets.

  • Managing Partner at Propeller, a $30M venture firm behind 30+ startups
  • CEO of Sitech, a global UI/UX studio serving 50 million interactions a week across 100+ completed deliveries
  • Angel investor alongside Replit CEO Amjad Masad
  • Works across venture capital, private equity, tech and entrepreneurship
  • 10,000+ followers on LinkedIn

propellerinc.me

More speakers are being brought in across the term. Members get the schedule first, in the dashboard.

Who runs it

The people behind the club

Abdullah Sultan, Founder and President

Abdullah Sultan

Founder and President

Grade 11, AIS-R

Ships AI products at early-stage startups.

  • Software and product intern at FschoolAI, where he built a course-aware AI video tutor and drove a marketing push past 350,000 views
  • Built Crosscode, an open-source CLI with 1,400+ users
  • Volunteer Sensei at CodeNinjas, where he helped 60+ elementary schoolers build foundational computer science skills

Mrs. Ouazzani

Club Advisor

  • Manages the entrepreneurial workshops at AIS-R
  • Faculty advisor for the club

Mr. Godbout

Club Advisor

  • Faculty advisor for the club
At the end

What you walk away with

  • A live product with your name on it and a link you can send anyone
  • A Demo Day recording and a real audience that watched you present
  • A reference from people who watched you build the whole way
  • A shot at school funding to keep the project running after the term
Questions

Before you join

Do I need to know how to code?

No. We do not ask for your GPA or your technical background, and plenty of good projects are not software. If you want to get technical, that is part of the club too: AI, the math behind it, and projects with other members, with Claude Pro to close some of the gap.

Is it only for people starting a business?

No. Building a business in a semester is still the core, but you can also use Z Combinator to get more technical, learn how AI works, and build projects with other students.

What if I do not have an idea yet?

The first two weeks are for exactly that. You arrive with an interest and leave ideation with a scoped project.

Is the Claude Pro really free?

Yes. New members who show they intend to actually build get a month of Claude Pro paid for by the club. You can use it inside Claude Code or on its own.

How much time does this actually take?

Two lunch meetings a week, plus whatever you put into your project outside of them.

Can I build with a partner?

Yes. Teams are allowed and often a good idea. Each person is still accountable for their own weekly update.

Who can join?

Any AIS-R high school student. DM us on Instagram at @zcombinator_aisr and we will get you in.

Is the funding guaranteed?

It is earned, not automatic. Growth funding is a school-backed ask for projects that finish the term with real traction, and every request comes with a written pitch and an itemised budget.

What happens to the club when the founders graduate?

Student leadership gets identified from Cohort 1 onward and handed the club before graduation.

Cohort 1

Bring the idea. We will do the rest

No application, no essays, no GPA, no code required. Send us a DM on Instagram. Cohort 1 caps at 25 builders.

DM us to join

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