Our content is reader supported, which means when you buy from links you click on, we may earn a commission.
How Brandon Dennis Grew CourseAI.com to 60K Users in 6 Months
- Who: Brandon Dennis
- Website: courseai.com
- Interesting Stats: 10K users on our email list after 3 months
Tell us about yourself and the business you started …
I started my career in Cyber Security at an early age. Most of my life I have worked in that field. Over the course of time I noticed a lack of course content in the Red Team space. Think Ethical Hacking but with a twist around mimicking real attackers as accurately as possible. I founded a Company called RedTeam Nation that taught students the core fundamentals to understand how to get into this role from scratch. This spanned a few courses and training products.
After years of course creation I thought there must be a better way to help others navigate into course creation without all of the barriers. In early 2023 I founded CourseAI. This company removes the barriers for others on creating their own courses for passive income. One of the largest sections we handle is not requiring the creator to be a subject matter expert right away. They can get rolling and release content quickly as they learn the skill.
Our companies goal is not to have creators create and push raw content from the AI but to learn this field and add their own flare to each course to build a brand for themselves. This is why we have the CourseAI Academy. It walks creators through each step of the process even past when you would be using our platform.
Who is the market for your business?
Anyone wanting to get into course creation & passive income is our market audience. This seems broad but our goal is to give people other options that are more sustainable than other similar business models. Courses do require maintenance and some upkeep but generally once a year or so.
What problem does your solution solve?
We solve 2 major issues. Content/Aspiring creators gaining the edge on rapid release of new content and providing a business model simple enough for anyone to start to begin working on passive income. The latter problem we take specific care to nurture as a lot of similar tools want to do everything for you. We take the time to teach you not just the how but also the why.
Why is it better than other solutions?
We take a unique approach to building online courses. Our AI model is designed with this in mind. The approach is proven with countless courses, multiple having well over 100K students. This is great but having a tool that just does it for you can only go so far. What makes us truly unique is how we teach users to use this business model short term and long term for their financial freedom. Our UI provides a multi teaching process to reinforce what to look for, how to build it and get your personal/company brand out there.
What are the biggest benefits for your customers?
You learn a skillset naturally while making progress on your financial freedom. Money comes and goes but your ability to build a business that you gain with us cannot be removed.
Where did the idea for the business come from?
This idea came about after watching a YouTube video. It was something slightly related but not exactly the same. I took the base of the idea and created a rough idea with my wife. We worked on it together until it was in a proof of concept state then began full development.
Do you have a lead magnet?
We didn’t use a lead magnet exactly. We spent time on company events talking about the product to gather initial sign ups for our beta launch. From there we worked on SEO around our keywords and opened the signups to the world. This kick started our email list so when we launched we were able to gain traction rather quickly.
What’s the traffic strategy that works best for you?
We started with SEO and Google Ads to begin with. During this time we brought on a Social Media Manager, User Content Creator as well as an SEO Engineer. This helped us grow organically while we dialed in ads. A lot of companies try to do as many traffic strategies as they can at once.
Control and master 1 paid channel and 1 social media channel. Once you have that rolling focus on the next. - Brandon Dennis Click To TweetYou can make a profit with one at a time trust me. When its mastered and you add the next revenue, customer base and profit rolls in quickly.
What tools do you use to run your business?
We do not use as many tools as you would think. We handle payments with Stripe. Hosting with GCP and emails with Mailchimp. Our app is entirely custom. We use Final Cut Pro for video editing and document storage such as Box.
What books or training programs have you found useful on your journey to a successful business owner that others might find valuable too?
Honestly there were not any books or training programs that were used. A lot of it was trial and error over time. One thing that did help was seeing multiple business models and trying them out. This learned the skill of failure. It’s OK to fail but you need to begin to even think about failing.
Are there any numbers you would like to share?
In less than 3 months from getting beta sign ups we had about 10K users on our email list. At about 6 months we are at over 60K. We grow on average 5-10K a month.
Do you have a story of a transformation from any of your clients?
We do have a fair few success stories. We don’t advertise them as we let our work speak for itself. Each story we receive I read myself and reply to them. Successful or not. When I receive a success story I feel excited for them. When I hear one that was unsuccessful I try to help them identify what could be done to improve.
What advice do you have for people just starting out in business?
Start. That is the single biggest obstacle to move past. Analyze the idea but keep it medium level. I have spent countless days going over every possible issue with the idea and end up seeing its not worth it. It was but when you see every negative all at once it looks like a failure.
The goal here is to just start and when you run into issues find a solution. If you do these 2 things you won't fail. - Brandon Dennis Click To TweetLearn more about Brandon Dennis of courseai.com:
- Website: courseai.com
- YouTube
