If you want something you've never had, you must be willing to do something you've never done. That's what it takes to take your business and life to the NXT level, and that's exactly what NXT Retreats accomplished.
Kristin H.
Founder
NXT One-Off No. 002 · The AI Garage
Small room · filling now
You've seen what AI can do.
Now build the thing.
A 48-hour vibe-coding hackathon for founders who are done watching from the sidelines. Show up with a real business problem. Fly home with a working tool you built yourself. No code required.
Chicago · Nov 1-4, 2026 · A small room of builders
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The stakes
While your competitors spend the next year figuring out AI on their own, you fly home with the solution in 48 hours.
No lecture schedule. No "here's what you could do." A build sprint with real facilitators in the room and a ship freeze on the clock. You either ship it, or you don't. Most people ship it.
Who it's for
For the curious operator who keeps almost getting started.
Small-business owners, founders, and operators who see vibe coding everywhere but don't know how to start - or tried, got tangled up, and put it down. If you've watched three YouTube tutorials on Cursor this month and still haven't shipped, this is for you.
Bring your builder or your person
Bring your VA, your ops lead, your EA, or your partner/spouse. The +1 Guest Pass is a full seat - same room, same build, same demo night. Two brains from the same company go home with something real.
Before
Curious. Overwhelmed. Dabbling. Twenty tabs open, nothing shipped.
After
Arrived with a plan. Built with support. Left with a working demo or shipped project - plus the workflows and confidence to keep going.
The experience
Startup garage meets founder sleepover.
This is the shape of it - not an hour-by-hour agenda. We're leaving room for the room. The forcing function is 48 hours, and the people in it won't let you get stuck.
Sunday
Arrive & kickoff
Fly in, hotel check-in, set up your workspace at the loft. Name your build target out loud, then a welcome reception to meet the room.
Monday
Build day one
Hands-on vibe coding with facilitators in the room. Sprints, unstuck sessions, unlimited coffee, workspaces everywhere. Surprise contests and prizes drop throughout the day.
Tuesday
Build, ship freeze, demo night
More building, more unstuck sessions, sprint to the finish line. 4pm the tools go quiet. Proper dinner, then demo night: everyone pitches what they built, awards handed out.
Wednesday
Wheels up
Say your goodbyes, peace out. You leave with a working project (or damn close to it).
What's included
Everything around the build is handled. You bring the problem and your tools.
Options are available with and without accommodations. If you opt to stay at our host hotel, all ground transport is on us. Meals, workspace, facilitators, capture - on us. You bring your problem, your laptop, and your AI subscriptions.
Included · Build Pass
- ◆Seat + workspace in the AI Garage at Loft 21 (Sunday reception → Demo Night)
- ◆3 nights at a hand-picked hotel near the Loft - assigned for you, no booking on your end
- ◆All ground transport - airport shuttle + hotel ⇄ Loft 21, handled
- ◆All food & drink - welcome reception, daily lunches, group dinners, coffee/snacks/energy drinks
- ◆Hands-on build support - vibe-coding crash course, project scoping, facilitators in the room
- ◆The Incubator Uniform - premium hoodie + swag
- ◆Demo Night - pitch, compete, awards
Not included
AI credits are not included.
- ×Your flight to Chicago
- ×Your AI subscriptions (ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Lovable, n8n - bring your own accounts). No AI credits, ever.
The offer
Seats coming online - pricing loads in a moment.
Three ways in. Pick the one that fits how you want to show up.
Core seat
Build Pass
-
with hotel
- ◆Seat + workspace in the AI Garage at Loft 21 (Sunday reception → Demo Night)
- ◆3 nights at a hand-picked hotel near the Loft - assigned for you, no booking on your end
- ◆All ground transport - airport shuttle + hotel ⇄ Loft 21, handled
- ◆All food & drink - welcome reception, daily lunches, group dinners, coffee/snacks/energy drinks
- ◆Hands-on build support - vibe-coding crash course, project scoping, facilitators in the room
- ◆The Incubator Uniform - premium hoodie + swag
- ◆Demo Night - pitch, compete, awards
+1
Guest Pass
Bring your builder or your person - a full seat, not a second-class ticket
-
with hotel · shared room
- ◆Everything a Build Pass attendee gets - full participant, shared room with their Build Pass holder
White-Glove
VIP Build Pass
-
Build Pass + VIP extras
A strictly limited White-Glove tier
- ◆Everything in the Build Pass
- ◆Pre-event 1:1 architecture audit with Matt
- ◆A custom starter repo built for you
- ◆30-day post-event hotline
From the first NXT
The room, in their words.
NXT Retreats brought together the right people at the right time. The conversations, the curated pace, and the genuine focus on progress gave me a clearer path forward. I left energized, focused, and already planning what's next.
Gerry S.
CEO
NXT Retreat isn't about theories or buzzwords, it's about progress. I walked away with clarity, strategy, and a real sense of direction. Every detail was thoughtfully handled, and the conversations kept moving me forward long after I returned home. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
Jennifer R.
Owner
Inside the loft
31,000 square feet, wired for the work.
Click any photo to expand. Loft 21 - our home for The AI Garage.
Note: These are AI-generated concepts of the retreat - a one-off we've never run before, and won't run again.
Your hosts
Real operators. Not gurus.
Founder, Mentor Pods · NXT Retreats
Matt Radicelli
Matt has spent two decades building, buying, and scaling small businesses - and the last three years teaching founders to put AI to work inside them. He'll be in the room, at your table, helping you scope down and ship.
Co-host & Retreat Producer
Amy Williams
Amy runs the human side of every NXT - the food, the flow, the small details that make a room click. If the loft feels like a home for four days, it's because Amy built it that way.
Questions
Everything you're wondering, up front.
No. Not one line. The whole retreat is built around vibe coding - you describe what you want, AI writes it, you iterate. Facilitators sit next to you when you get stuck. If you can send an email, you can build here.
Last thing
Twelve months from now you'll either have AI working inside your business - or you'll still be reading about it. One of those people booked a seat.
Chicago · Nov 1-4, 2026 · A small room of builders
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