777: Will Masterclass Win Online Course Wars?

David Rogier. He’s the CEO of MasterClass where he leads the company’s vision of redefining digital learning by leveraging the expertise of world-class experts with the cutting-edge technology platform. David created MasterClass after seeing how the online education space was offering low-quality content and an unfair advantage of students. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Science of Shopping What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Bezos Favorite online tool? — Doodle How many hours of sleep do you get?— Average 6 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – David would tell himself that entrepreneurship will be the hardest thing he’ll ever do   Time Stamped Show Notes: 02:05 – Nathan introduces David to the show 03:05 – MasterClass offers classes from the absolute best in the world 03:14 – Online classes are offered both pre-recorded and live, both price at $90 03:31 – Students can study anytime they want and they have access forever 04:04 – Prior to MasterClass, David worked for a VC fund in the Bay area 04:21 – David worked for Michael Dearing of Harrison Metal 04:50 – Michael wrote David a check for $500K to start his idea for his business 05:03 – David tried almost everything to get an idea until he remembered his grandmother’s story 05:49 – His grandmother applied for medical school while working in a factory 05:55 – She was rejected by almost 50 medical schools 06:20 – The reason she was rejected was because she was a woman, foreigner and Jewish 06:27 – One school accepted her and she became a doctor 06:53 – She told David that education is the only thing that people can’t take away from him 07:04 – David thought of getting into the education space and studied it 07:53 – MasterClass was launched in May of 2015 08:00 – Total capital raised was around $50M 08:35 – The fund goes to expanding the team as well as production so they can shoot more classes 08:42 – Team size is currently 68 and will be 100 at the end of 2017 09:04 – Year One: number of students 10:13 – When they started, David was expecting a 10X increase in sales daily 10:38 – David cried after their first day of sales 11:18 – Reid Benson who is part of David’s sales team and was formerly with Netflix, wasn’t even scared after the launch 11:58 – Reid told David that their CAC was amazingly low 12:34 – The first 3 classes were led by Dustin Hoffman, James Patterson and Serena Williams 13:06 – The CAC for different subjects was actually close to each other 13:43 – Paid ads spent on Day 1 were less than $100K 14:14 – Paid advertising on different channels works well for MasterClass 14:22 – Instructors are also promoting their classes 15:00 – David can’t disclose the deal they have with the instructors 15:13 – Most instructors teach because they really want to teach and not just to earn from it 15:51 – David shares how they handle instructors who don’t want to teach, but want to share their knowledge 16:10 – Classes are designed by how instructors want to share their own craft 16:14 – Instructors have complete control over their class 16:28 – David shares what a class looks like for Serena Williams 17:24 – MasterClass partners with the instructors in their classes 18:17 – David shares why he won’t share the deal with the instructors 18:38 – James Patterson teaches with MasterClass because of his own reasons 21:00 – David shares why instructors pick MasterClass over LinkedIn, which is more popular 21:50 – There are now 20 classes in MasterClass 22:07 – The number of classes should double, year over year 22:52 – Half to 80% of their first students haven’t taken any online classes before 23:10 – Not all students are fans of the instructors 23:43 – David won’t sell MasterClass for $300M 25:15 – The Famous Five   3 Key Points: Never miss an opportunity being offered to you, it was offered to you for a reason; so trust yourself and go for it. Most successful people in their field want to share their craft through any way possible. Education is one thing that people can’t take away from you.   Resources Mentioned: Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost. The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives