Evan Leong. He’s the VP of Product at Devslopes, a learn-to-code platform focused on taking beginners to paid professionals to curated project-based videos. He’s always been involved with startups since 2015, when he took the leap from a corporate job to join the startup world full-time.
Famous Five:
Favorite Book? – Good to Great What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Bezos Favorite online tool? — Trello How many hours of sleep do you get?— 5 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Follow your instincts, follow your gut, and don’t let age stop you from what you want to do
Time Stamped Show Notes:
02:05 – Nathan introduces Evan to the show 02:31 – Devslopes is a learn-to-code platform for iOs, MacOS and TvOs 02:39 – A version for Windows will be available soon too 02:48 – Devslopes is similar to Treehouse 03:00 – Devslopes has been around for a year and a half 03:10 – Devslopes has just converted to SaaS 03:22 – They garnered 130 subscriptions just after the launch 03:33 – Average pay per customer is a little over $20 a month 04:05 – Devslopes was funded through Kickstarter and an investor 04:15 – They raised $190K in Kickstarter 04:35 – Devslopes’ CEO is a good salesperson and they had a strong community even before Kickstarter 05:04 – The Kickstarter campaign was blasted around 05:11 – The community size is around 10K 05:22 – Devslopes has raised an additional of $300K from Redfoo of LMFAO 05:42 – Devslopes was launched in March 2016 05:53 – First year revenue was $600K 06:04 – 2017 goal is to reach a million 06:39 – Devslopes has large courses that will take people more time to stick with them 06:48 – Devslopes is pumping out target topics which are 2-3 hour courses 07:13 – Team size is 8 07:48 – The CEO started in e-learning marketplaces 08:05 – By the time Devslopes started, the CEO already had 40K students on Udemy 08:33 – Devslopes gets students from affiliates too 09:12 – Devslopes want to fully dive into the learning experience 09:32 – They liked the idea of having everything in one program so they created the SaaS model 10:17 – Devslopes publishes to affiliates the content that the affiliates want to promote 10:26 – Udemy likes to promote 30-60 hour courses 10:43 – Devslopes is also on Skillshare, Learnability and Inkydeals 10:58 – 90% of the content goes to Udemy and the rest are spread out to the rest 11:08 – 90% of the revenue is from Udemy, too 11:30 – Devslopes is just starting to use Facebook ads which is their only paid marketing 12:05 – CAC 12:11 – Most of what Devslopes gets from Facebook ads is social presence but no paid leads yet 12:44 – The charge of Udemy fluctuates depending on how they promote their content 13:21 – Evan focuses on the product and handles the team 13:37 – Devslopes currently have 5K iOs downloads and a couple of thousand from Mac 15:30 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
With the advancement in technology, more people are opting to learn from the comfort of their own home. Target your market so it will be easier for the company to adapt a new business model. Customers will stick with your product if it is of value to them.
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 booksShow Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
