SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders 777: Will Masterclass Win Online Course Wars?
Sep 9, 2017
27:18
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