If you’re interested in the cohort and think your company might pay for it (they should, honestly), here’s a template you can use for you and your team.
The Short Version
Hi [Manager's name],
Asking for approval on a $995 seat in The AI Pro Cohort (https://ai.bigmachine.io), a live, two-week working program for senior engineers on orchestrating fleets of AI agents with Claude Code. It's run by Rob Conery (The Imposter's Handbook, ex-Microsoft VS Code team), and it's built around shipping production-quality code, not slop.
It's hands-on, not a video dump. The $995 also includes a full year of the ongoing community and a new video every other week, so the value doesn't end when the cohort does. I'll bring back the patterns and workflows to the team.
Can I expense it?
Thanks, [Your name]
The Slack Version
"Hey, quick ask. There's a live cohort called The AI Pro, $995, run by Rob Conery who wrote The Imposter's Handbook. Two weeks of working sessions on running fleets of AI agents with Claude Code, aimed at senior devs, all about shipping good code instead of vibe-coded slop. The price includes a full year of the community and new video every two weeks, so it keeps paying off after the live part ends. I'd write up what I learn for the team. Can I expense it?"
The Full Version
Hi [Manager's name],
I want to request approval to expense a seat in The AI Pro Cohort (https://ai.bigmachine.io), a live, two-week program for senior developers on running AI agents at scale. It's $995, and that includes a full year of The AI Pro membership (a $399 value on its own).
Here's why this is worth it:
We're past "can AI write code." The real skill now is orchestration: running multiple agents in parallel, designing a codebase they can navigate without breaking it, and building the feedback loops (CI gates, tests at the right boundaries) that let agents work without burning the repo down. That's a different muscle than prompting, and it's exactly what this cohort drills.
It's live and hands-on, not another course that rots. Most AI cohorts hand you two weeks of recorded lessons and a Discord invite, then end. This one runs as working sessions, gives you the recordings, transcripts, and the actual working repo, then rolls into an ongoing community with a new video every other week. The space moves too fast for a one-shot course to stay current. A live cohort plus an active community keeps up with what's actually working.
It's run by someone with real mileage. Rob Conery wrote The Imposter's Handbook (30,000+ copies sold), spent years at Microsoft building curriculum and workshops for the VS Code team, and has 25 years of shipping software behind him. He runs Claude Code fleets daily as how he actually works, not as a demo. He's explicitly anti-hype and anti-slop. The focus is craftsmanship: maintainable, reviewable code with AI as a tool, not a slot machine.
It's built for senior engineers. No intro material, no "what is a function." The room is people who already architect systems and ship production code and now want to integrate agents into that practice without losing rigor.
What I'll bring back to the team:
A repeatable workflow for orchestrating parallel agents on real codebases
How to structure a repo for delegation (AGENTS.md, skills, scoped permissions) so agents don't break things
Concrete patterns for code review when AI is in the loop
Pre-commit and CI gates that make AFK agent runs safe
Specific techniques I can document and share in our [team channel / standup / wiki]
Cost comparison: $995 is less than two days of consulting, roughly a third to half of a single conference ticket once you add travel, and unlike a conference it doesn't fade after the hallway buzz wears off. It's a live program plus a year of continuously updated material, not a one-time training event.
I'm happy to write up a short summary of what I'm learning each [month / quarter] so the team gets compounding value out of this, not just me.
Can you approve this for [this quarter / the 2026 training budget]?
Thanks, [Your name]
P.S. If you'd rather get a few of us on this, it's worth asking about team seats. Building shared vocabulary and shared agent workflows across the team is a lot more valuable than one person learning in isolation. I can put together a short list of who'd benefit most if you want to go that route.
Anticipated objections and how to answer them
"We already pay for Claude Code / Cursor / Copilot."
Right, and that's the point. We're paying for the tool. This is training on how to run it at a level that scales past single-chat prompting. They're complementary, not redundant.
"Can't you learn this from free content?"
Some of it, and I've been trying. The signal-to-noise on AI content is brutal. I'd rather spend two focused weeks working alongside someone with 25 years in dev education than burn 25 hours of company time sorting through YouTube.
"Why a cohort instead of a one-time course?"
The space is moving too fast. A course recorded six months ago is already stale. A live cohort plus an ongoing community keeps up with what's actually working, and I keep getting new material every two weeks for a year.
"$995 is a lot. Can you start smaller?"
The cohort is the live, hands-on part, and that's where the real learning is. But the seat includes a full year of the community ($399 value), so a chunk of the cost is ongoing access, not just the two weeks. If the team wants to test the waters first, the membership-only option exists too.
"What about the rest of the team?"
Honestly, anyone using AI tools daily would benefit. The bigger win is shared workflows and a shared vocabulary around agent-assisted code, which is hard to build when one person reads blogs and another watches videos. Ask about team seats and I'll put together a short list of who'd get the most out of it.