Why Blu Sky Factory Exists

In 2014, our founder Derek Whitaker noticed something most people were too busy to see: they hated their jobs, craved financial freedom, and had no idea how to actually get there. No one had taught them.

He wasn't wrong. A 2016 study by the Australian Institute of Management confirmed it — 80% of Australians were looking for a better working opportunity than the one they were in.

Eighty percent. Hating their jobs. Trading 40–60 hours a week of their life away for money. Settling for “paying the bills” instead of actually living.

Derek set out to change that. He took everything he'd learned inside high-end accounting, legal, and financial planning firms — combined with hard-won knowledge from a private trading group most people never get access to — and turned it into the education we all should have had in school. Not generic theory. Knowledge usually locked away as “trade secrets,” aligned to each student's real purpose for life.

That approach got noticed. Sought out by media, and recognised by a registered training organisation (RTO) in 2016, Blu Sky Factory went on to educate financial planners and accountants sharpening their own skills.

But the heart of it never changed. It was always about people chasing “financial freedom” and real independence.

Today, that mission has grown. Blu Sky Factory delivers results in investing, trading, business — and now AI.

Our teachers don't teach from textbooks. They bring real business and investment experience, the street-smarts to manage real risk, and the scars to prove it.

The world is moving fast, and we make sure our members move faster — equipped with AI skills that give them the edge in business, investing, and trading before everyone else catches up.

We want to see you “Thrive in the Age of AI.”