The global e-learning market is massive, but for a bootstrapped edtech founder, standing out among heavily funded platforms and endless free YouTube tutorials is an uphill battle. The secret to launching a successful online course platform or cohort-based learning tool in 2025 isn't just having the best curriculum; it's building trust before you ever ask for tuition. Building your edtech startup in public is the ultimate trust-building mechanism. Education is an inherently intimate process. Students need to know that the creator behind the curriculum genuinely understands their pain points. By documenting your journey on BuildInProcess, you shift from being a faceless instructor to a relatable mentor. You transparently share your struggle to design an effective syllabus, the technical challenges of integrating AI tutoring features, and the real-world feedback from your first beta cohort. This vulnerability does more than just market your product; it validates your pedagogy. When you build an edtech product in public, your early audience transitions naturally into your first class of students because they have literally watched you build the classroom. They aren't just buying a course; they are investing in your shared journey of continuous learning.
Don't spend six months recording video lessons in a vacuum. By sharing your course outlines and module drafts publicly, you allow your target audience to tell you exactly what they are willing to pay to learn, ensuring you achieve product-market fit before hitting record.
If you are building an edtech marketplace rather than a single course, building in public acts as a beacon for talent. When industry experts see your transparent, creator-friendly approach and the community you are cultivating, they are far more likely to host their content on your platform.
Education products require high intent. By documenting the painstaking research and effort you are putting into your edtech platform, you naturally accumulate a waitlist of highly motivated learners who are eager to enroll the moment your cart opens.
Pricing education is incredibly difficult. Should you charge a $99 one-time fee or a $20/month community subscription? By discussing your pricing models in public, you can gauge audience sentiment and find the sweet spot that maximizes both revenue and accessibility.
We built the exact tools you need to share your journey without wasting hours on marketing.
Specific, concrete updates that actually drive engagement in this niche.
Share your Notion document or mind map outlining the course structure. Ask your audience: 'What crucial topic am I missing here?' This makes them co-creators of the curriculum.
Document exactly how you found your first 10 paying students. Did they come from a LinkedIn post, a cold email outreach, or an SEO-optimized blog? Share the conversion rates and the exact copy you used.
The tech stack debate is massive in edtech. Write a deep dive on why you chose to use a hosted platform like Podia or Thinkific, or why you took the painful route of building a custom LMS using Next.js and Stripe.
Share how you are using AI to grade assignments, provide personalized tutoring feedback, or automate student onboarding. This positions your edtech startup at the cutting edge of 2025 learning trends.
With permission, share the exact transformations your early students achieved. A screenshot of a student landing a job after taking your coding bootcamp is the highest-converting content you can post.
Share a negative review or a refund request, and explain exactly how you updated the curriculum to address the student's concerns. This radical transparency builds immense trust with future buyers.
The platform to document your pedagogical journey, host your long-form essays on the state of education, and seamlessly distribute your updates to your professional network on LinkedIn.
The titans of the creator economy. Discussing your workflows, limitations, and pricing hacks for these platforms will attract other solopreneurs.
The backbone of cohort-based learning. Sharing how you structure your community channels and keep student engagement high is top-tier content.
Excellent communities to cross-post your BuildInProcess updates to gather feedback from both educators and software developers.
Arvid is a master of building in public. He built his course on audience building entirely in the open, sharing early drafts, soliciting feedback on pricing, and eventually launching to a massive, eager audience that resulted in a highly lucrative six-figure launch.
Steph wrote and launched her comprehensive guide to content creation in public. By sharing snippets of her chapters and her presale numbers, she created immense FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and established herself as a leading voice in the creator economy.
Many solo founders run highly specialized 4-week bootcamps (e.g., 'Figma for Developers'). By sharing their daily Zoom setups, curriculum tweaks, and student wins on social media, they ensure their next cohort sells out weeks in advance.
On your BuildInProcess profile, explicitly state the 'Point A to Point B' journey your startup facilitates. What exactly will the student be able to do after using your product?
Before recording hours of high-production video, share a screenshot of your bare-bones Teachable or custom LMS setup. Show the structure, not the polish.
Post an update offering free access to your first module in exchange for a brutally honest, 15-minute feedback call. Document the insights you gather from these calls.
If you are doing live teaching, post a screenshot of your first Zoom session (blurring faces if necessary). It proves that real people are trusting you with their education.
When your first cohort finishes, publish the aggregated survey results. Highlight the Net Promoter Score (NPS) and openly discuss the areas you need to improve for the next batch.
Execution and community are the real products in edtech, not just the information. A list of bullet points can be stolen; your unique teaching style, the community you curate, and the direct feedback you provide cannot.
Absolutely. Modern online courses are highly scalable digital products that require marketing, customer support, platform engineering, and community management. It is a highly profitable solo business model.
By 'learning in public.' You don't have to be the world's leading expert; you just have to be a few steps ahead of your students and radically honest about how you acquired your knowledge.
Marketplaces own your audience; building your own platform allows you to own the relationship. Building in public is the strategy that gives you the distribution power to succeed on your own platform without relying on Udemy's algorithms.
BuildInProcess acts as your central teaching log. It allows you to format long-form updates about your curriculum development and auto-post them to LinkedIn, where professionals actively seeking upskilling spend their time.