Lessons learned from starting Learnemy

An hour presentation on the main lessons I've learned from working on Learnemy. This presentation was given at Raffles Junior College, Mentorpreneur Meetup and WebSprout Academy.

Transcript

1. Online marketplace for in-person classes
2. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com We help learners find instructors easily. We help instructors to focus on teaching by - Getting them learners - Handling payment - Managing reviews Online marketplace for in-person classes
3. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com
4. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com
5. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com elisha@learnemy.com ONE HOUR OF SEARCH
6. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com Find Instructors in 3 Steps Search Book Schedule
7. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com Teach A Class Effortlessly Marketing Flexibility Management Tools
8. Micro-entrepreneurs with full control of how they exchange their time for money. elisha@learnemy.com Redefining Work
9. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com Founder Elisha Tan Founder, CEO Growth hacking, Copywriting, UX, Product Design NUS Class of 2010, Psychology. Social media for Chingay 2011.
10. elisha@learnemy.com Timeline Jul 2011 Learn programming Sep 2011 Prototype Oct 2011 Project development Apr 2012 Launched Jan 2011 Find Co-founder
11. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com What you’re gonna hear • How to meet programmers and find co- founder • Should you learn programming? What and how should you learn? • How to put together a prototype • My $10, 000 mistake
12. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com Jul 2011 Learn programming Sep 2011 Prototype Oct 2011 Project development Apr 2012 Launched Jan 2010 Find Co-founder Things I’ve learned: - Bring something to the table - Understand why you need a co-founder - How to meet programmers
13. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com What can you bring? • Marketing • Sales • Copywriting • Network • Design • Community
14. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com Compensate your co-founder • Money • Equity • Network • Knowledge • Chance to really screw things up
15. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com Bad reasons for recruiting a co-founder • You want free labor • You are not committed • You are insecure
16. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com How to meet programmers • Join events • Join them online • Ask questions
17. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com Jul 2011 Learn programming Sep 2011 Prototype Oct 2011 Project development Apr 2012 Launched Things I’ve learned: - Importance of learning programming - What language to pick Jan 2010 Find Co-founder
18. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com Should you, or should you not? Should Should not • If you outsource, you can tell if you get cheated. • You can’t hire for a job you don’t know. • You should know your product. • Fix non-tech problems • Test ideas quickly • It will take long for you to be proficient in coding. • Too much time spent
19. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com You are going to be very confused over what language to learn. Python is so easy to learn! Look at him, he learned Django in 3 weeks! RoR is easy to learn and the syntax is beautiful! Use PHP. Because Facebook uses PHP. AngularJS is powerful and easy to learn.
20. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com So learn whatever from anyone who’s willing to lend a helping hand.
21. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com Jul 2011 Learn programming Sep 2011 Prototype Oct 2011 Project development Apr 2012 Launched Things I’ve learned: - Test a hypothesis - Fake a product Jan 2010 Find Co-founder
22. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com Before you code... Learn HTML and CSS so that you can fake it till you make it - http://www.w3schools.com/ - http://css-tricks.com/ - http://colorschemedesigner.com/ - Learnemy
23. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com Design is hard You want to be a great artist... “Good artists copy, great artists steal” - Pablo Picasso
24. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com
25. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com
26. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com Inspect Element is your best friend
27. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com Jul 2011 Learn programming Sep 2011 Prototype Oct 2011 Project development Apr 2012 Launched Things I’ve learned: - Prioritise on business value - Know how to control a project Jan 2010 Find Co-founder
28. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com How I wasted $10, 000 • Spent on features that weren’t important • Early optimisation • Spending on front-end developer, mistaking her as a designer
29. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com SCRUM
30. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com How this new knowledge helped • Spent 2 days on the groups feature copying other similar sites • Made $700+ • Spent $400 and 1 week to get it all done by a programmer
33. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com Jul 2010 Worked for free Jul 2011 Learn programming Sep 2011 Prototype Oct 2011 Project development Apr 2012 Launched Things I’ve learned: - Don’t neglect your beta list - Keep earning - Mentorship Jan 2010 Find Co-founder
34. @elishatan elisha.tan@gmail.com www.learnemy.com https://angel.co/learnemy