Wes Kao on Insider Status and the Future of Education (Maven)

Wes Kao is the cofounder of Maven, the world’s first digital platform for cohort-based courses. In just one year, the Maven team launched over 100 cohorts, saw dozens of instructors make $10K, multiple made $250K+, and raised a $20m Series A from Andreesen Horowitz.

Their course creators include Anthony Pompliano, Li Jin, Sahil Lavingia, Shaan Puri, and Sahil Bloom. Prior to starting Maven she was the co-founder of the altMBA, which launched the modern cohort-based education movement with Seth Godin. She’s led over 150 launches for Fortune 500 brands and startups, and is recognized as a leading expert in B2C marketing.

In this episode, Wes and Aaron discuss how to go from being and outside to an insider, why MOOCs fail, and how Wes got a job with Seth Godin.

0:00 Intro
2:15 What is Cohort-based courses?
5:44 Learning in a group setting.
7:20 Inspiration in starting Maven
10:33 Course creator should consider Course market fit before launching a course
15:03 Maven uses modules that is flexible for course creator.
17:38 Unfair Advantage
25:07 Outsider to Insider
27:17 How Wes Started Working w/ Seth Godin
33:22 Evaluate Your Pitch Yellow/Green
43:24 Actionable challenge