An Adelaide-built entrepreneurship program for senior-school students

FROM ZERO TO PITCH.
IN TEN MODULES.

The Foundry is a structured ten-module program that takes Year 10 and 11 students from a problem worth solving to a polished pitch. Schools run it as a standalone subject, a one-term plug-in to an existing business or economics course, or extracurricular.

Book a 20-minute school briefing → See the 10 modules

Read: From classroom to company → ▶ Watch the trailer

10 Modules

Structured program

Year 10 / 11

Built for senior school

One Term

Or one semester

// The pilot

Not a concept. A cohort.

The Foundry runs its first cohort at Wilderness School across Terms 3 and 4, 2026: delivered by Wilderness teachers, supported by industry mentors, on the same ten-module arc described on this site. Students build real ventures, submit real work on the platform each module, and pitch at Demo Day in November. Everything the pilot teaches us feeds straight back into the program the next school runs.

The school

Wilderness School

Host of the first cohort: a leading Adelaide school running The Foundry inside its senior-school program.

The format

Terms 3–4, 2026

All ten modules, teacher-delivered and mentor-supported, with weekly deliverables tracked on the Foundry platform.

The finish line

Demo Day, November

The cohort pitches its ventures to a panel. What the cohort teaches us shapes the experience for every school that follows.

// The trailer

Sixty seconds on The Foundry.

A short trailer on what The Foundry is, and why a venture students build themselves becomes a skill they keep for life.

// What it is

Three things, in one program.

01 — The program

A real curriculum, not a project

Ten modules that move students from problem discovery to a financial model, from a prototype to a polished pitch. Teacher-delivered, mentor-supported, designed to slot into a senior-school timetable without rewiring it.

See the modules →

02 — The mentors

Your community, in the classroom

The program's mentors come first from your own old scholars and parents, brought back to share what they've built with the students. The Foundry gives you a structured reason to draw them in, supports the outreach, and augments with its network across schools.

How mentoring works →

03 — The pathway

A real pitch at the end of the road

The Foundry is building toward The Founder's Cup, an inter-school startup championship for South Australia. As more schools come on board, the strongest ventures will pitch on one stage. A reason for students to take the work seriously.

Where it's heading →

// Integrity

Real work, verified.

In an AI world, every school asks the same question: did the student actually do this? The Foundry answers it. Not by banning AI, but by making authentic thinking visible through multiple signals, with the teacher always the final judge.

Signal 1 · How the work was made

Typed, not pasted

Every submission records how it was composed: time on task, and typing versus large pastes. Work that arrives in a single paste is flagged for a quick human check. It's a prompt for a conversation, never an automated accusation.

Signal 2 · Can they defend it?

Own every line

Students reflect on how they used AI in each module and defend their venture live at Demo Day. If they can walk a teacher through how they reached a number or a quote, in their own words, it's theirs.

Signal 3 · The teacher decides

Signals inform, humans judge

The data points surface what's worth a closer look. The teacher's assessment is what counts toward the grade. AI is treated as a tool students learn to use well, and to be honest about.

// Where it fits in your school

Three ways to run it.

The Foundry is curriculum, not a one-off enrichment day. It's designed to fit a real timetable in three configurations, and we work with you to pick the one that matches your school's structure and ambition.

Option A

A standalone subject

Run The Foundry as a full Year 10 or Year 11 elective. One semester, full ten modules. Suits schools that want to build entrepreneurship into the senior pathway as a discipline of its own.

Option B

A term plug-in

Run The Foundry across one term inside an existing business, economics, or commerce course. Compresses the ten modules into a focused term. The lowest-friction way to add entrepreneurship without redrawing the timetable.

Option C

Extracurricular

Run The Foundry outside the timetable as an opt-in program for students who want to build something real. Lower cohort numbers, higher self-selection, often the strongest student ventures.

// Who it's for

Built for the school that wants to mean it.

Headmasters, principals, heads of senior school who want a defensible entrepreneurship offering rather than another enrichment one-off.

Heads of business, economics, commerce departments looking for a credible, structured program that aligns with senior-school assessment expectations.

Curriculum leads and innovation directors building a senior-school pathway that competes with the best independent schools nationally.

For schools →

Where it's heading

The Founder's Cup.
The championship we're building toward.

The goal: an inter-school startup championship for South Australia, where the strongest ventures from each Foundry school pitch on one stage to a panel of founders and investors, the way schools compete in rowing or debating. It starts with a founding group of schools and grows from there. The Foundry is the program. The Cup is where it leads.

Where it's heading →

// Who's behind it

Built by operators,
not a textbook.

The Foundry is led by founder Luke Lombe, an operator across financial services, venture studios, and fintech who launched the South Australian chapter of the Founder Institute and founded The Founder's Cup.

It's advised by Jim Whalley, co-founder and chairman of Nova Systems and South Australia's inaugural Chief Entrepreneur. Students learn entrepreneurship from people who have built companies, not described them.

Meet the team →

// Read more