The Forge · community
The Forge is in cohort 1. That means there's no Discord with 4,000 lurkers yet. There's a handful of people who joined the same cohort as you, a mentor you'll talk to weekly, and a monthly call that everyone shows up to. This page is how it actually runs while it's that size.
Two short contact points a week, plus async. No daily standups, no Slack guilt.
Fifteen minutes with Kali (for cohort 1) on Zoom. You bring what you shipped, what you're stuck on, and what you want feedback on. That's it. If there's nothing to discuss, the call's three minutes long.
A small private channel (currently email + a shared doc; full chat platform comes when there are enough of us to justify it). Use it to ask questions, share what you're seeing, point at things. No pressure to be online.
One small thing merged or published per week. That's the only target. Some weeks it's a finished feature; some weeks it's "I rewrote my scraper and tests now pass". Both count.
First Tuesday of the month, 7pm Irish time, on Zoom. Whoever's around shows up. Three or four people share what they shipped; the rest ask questions. Recorded for anyone who can't make it.
Not yet. We don't want a chat platform with eight people in it that everyone joins, lurks, and feels guilty about. Discord (or Slack, or whatever the cohort wants) launches when there are at least 30 active members across cohorts. Until then, async lives in email and a small shared doc and that's plenty.
When it does launch, we'll seed it with channels for each cohort, a #help thread, a #shipped channel for celebrating, and probably a #random for whatever. We'd rather start it right than start it early.
If you want to be the one who suggests the platform when we're ready — say so on your application. The first cohort gets to shape it.
A real one written by humans, not legal boilerplate. If you wouldn't do it at someone's kitchen table, don't do it in The Forge.
Everyone here is at some stage of learning, including the mentors. If someone asks a question you find obvious — answer it kindly, or scroll past. Don't make them feel small.
Boring to have to say, necessary to say. One warning, then you're out. Members get to flag privately to Kali; we believe the person flagging.
We're here to build things, not have long arguments about which framework is better. If you've got opinions, show them in shipped work. Otherwise let people build the thing they want to build.
People share half-finished work, doubts, where they're stuck. Don't screenshot it. Don't quote it on LinkedIn without asking. Default to private.
First push to production is a big deal. First time you fixed a bug without help is a big deal. We will be the most obnoxious cheering section. Lean into it.
Most senior people who join The Forge end up mentoring within a cohort or two. Here's how that works.
You can mentor from day one — you don't need to have shipped on one of our projects first. We pair you with Kali for the first cohort so you're not flying solo, and you take primary mentor seat from cohort two onward. Your reference is for mentoring (which reads beautifully on LinkedIn), not for being a member.
"Mentoring a cohort that ships looks better on a CV than another side project. Mentors get the same Built In Ireland reference the members do — just for a different kind of work."
The pattern is: cohort 1 you ship, cohort 2 you co-mentor (light touch — answer questions, do code reviews), cohort 3+ you can lead a cohort of your own. We don't gatekeep based on years of experience; we look at whether the previous cohort would recommend you.
Everything's on Zoom while we're small. Recorded for anyone who can't make it.
7pm Irish time, 60 min, Zoom. Open to everyone in a cohort and anyone who's applied. Three or four people share what they've shipped; everyone asks questions; we wrap by 8pm.
15 minutes with your mentor, scheduled around your week. Cohort members book a slot once they're in.
Once a quarter we'll do an in-person show-and-tell night in Dublin with a livestream for anyone outside. Members from finished cohorts present what they shipped. Free.
Calendar moves to a real tool (Luma or similar) once cohort 1 ships. For now, anyone in a cohort gets the calendar invites by email.