Cohort-based courses – and online courses in general – are really hot right now. Many succeed, but so many wither out silently.

So – what are some good reasons to launch an online course?

Here are my top recommendations, based on 100s of conversations and two years of research:

1. There's a talent pipeline problem in your industry.

Eg: @LambdaSchool, @10kdesigners & @NewtonSchoolHQ are directly preparing motivated folks for near-guaranteed jobs, fixing upskilling and the hiring process in one swoop.

If your industry needs talent, a CBC can create it.

2. Your potential customers don't know how to best use a product that they are convinced can be valuable.

Eg: @RoamResearch is a top-notch product with a fairly steep learning curve. @nateliason developed Effortless Output with Roam, enabling more to join the #roamcult.

3. You provide simple improvements over incumbents who teach essential and usually unsexy content.

Eg: Spoken English. Countless folks run large & well-priced classes from home with flexible timings and more fun material than tuitions, school, or a British Council course.

4. You've shown expertise for motivated self-learners to pick up decent skills from your existing assets (books, blogs, videos), but they & you can be convinced there's room to learn better!

Eg: @fortelabs' body of work on productivity will just convince you to take the course.

5. There's static knowledge waiting to be brought alive for an insanely curious niche, & you're the best person to facilitate.

Eg: @jasoncrawford teaches Progress Studies for Young Scholars, "a guided self-study in the history of industrial civilization for high school students.

6. There's an offline experience waiting to be brought online.

Eg: My Bharatanatyam dance teacher brought a 2000-year old art form online over years of trial.

Everyone thought it was wasted effort. Today, the school serves students from 10 countries. https://aditip.substack.com/p/dancing-to-a-new-rhythm

7. There's an archaic experience waiting for innovation and energy.

Eg: The management training industry. L&D, HR, career pathways, I don't even know all the old-fashioned names and ways they do it. Ripe for improvement!

Alberto has a great thread https://twitter.com/albertoarenaza/status/1289229967016878090?s=20

8. Courses are or can be a great addition to your business flywheel.

Eg: David Perell's reading and writing feeds his teaching, which feeds his investing, and they all reinforce each other.

The alignment is a thing of beauty. https://twitter.com/david_perell/status/1318605879361634304?s=20

9. Your institution can provide credibility to a new person taking a leap of faith with your online course, by acting as a signal of their skill/knowledge down the line.

Eg: I'd trust a new course by @HKSExecEd, @TakshashilaInst or @ashoka_x, partly because they teach it.

10. You're a celebrity/influencer who knows how they made it to the top, and are willing to genuinely share that.

(Take help of actual educators & experts, though. We help make the implicit explicit, and know a bit about behaviour change.)

Eg: @GetFrontRow & @MasterClass

11. [BONUS] You do it because you really fucking care.

What @anthilemoon built with @ness_labs and @TheAnnaGat does with @interintellect_ – it's just a phenomenal labour of love. Their offerings are WAY underrated (& underpriced) but they give people meaning through learning...

...even when it wasn't the hot thing or the "highest growth" thing they could do.

Massive respect to these bomb women and so many others who fiercely create what they believe in.

For more wisdom on online courses, highly recommend

– @ryangum's screenshot essays
– @BillyBroas's newsletter (and course? next cohort maybe :))
– @will_mannon's writing and podcast interviews
– talking to @patel0phone

– watch out for @beondeck's Course Creator cohort sharing some incredible insights over the next few weeks!

This is an emerging field & we're figuring out what works. I've floundered quite a bit tho & want to help more first-timers figure out the course-content-community magic