From Side Project to Successful Exit: Building a Video Education Platform

Some projects you get to shape from day one. This was one of those rare opportunities - a chance to turn a simple idea into a thriving global education platform. And what a ride it was.

This was before online courses were everywhere. Digital filmmaking was exploding, and in-person workshops with pro filmmakers were selling out worldwide. The lightbulb moment was bringing these masterclasses online.

Today, the platform runs like a well-oiled machine. New courses drop regularly, creators get paid fairly through the royalty engine, and subscribers tune in from every corner of the globe. The best part is we kept it lean and efficient, so more revenue goes back to the people making the content.

Some of the custom features include:

• Admin portal to manage sales, subscriptions, SKUs, courses and modules, website content, and more.
• Integration with Braintree for monthly and annual subscriptions.
• Videos hosted by Vimeo with API integration for watch metrics.
• Comprehensive quarterly royalty reports.
• Course resources, captions, completion certificates.
• Trials with limited content access.
• Netflix-like account dashboard with course progress and recommendations.
• Custom views for hosting B2B training on the platform.
• Organization self-management for group and institution licenses.

Third party apps:

On top of the custom-built platform, we relied on some off-the-shelf tools to help us manage development and the business:

• JIRA for development and a Github release pipeline.
• DigitalOcean Spaces for media storage and hosting.
• Frame.io for course development and review.
• Tapfiliate for affiliate marketing.
• Mailchimp for an email newsletter, Mandrill for app emails.
• Freshdesk for support tickets, Freshchat for a chatbot.
• Later for social media content.
• Xero for accounting.
• Basecamp for project planning.
• Whatsapp for chatter.

iOS App for Offline Viewing

One of the most requested features was the ability to download courses for offline viewing. But with licensing and media rights, we had to be careful that course content couldn't easily be downloaded and shared.

So we built an iOS app that allowed users to download courses for offline viewing, but the courses were encrypted and could only be viewed within the app. This was a huge hit with users, and it was a great way to increase the value of the subscription, while also keeping the content secure.

A Succesful Exit

After years of building, tweaking, and growing, the founder got an offer he couldn't refuse. Helping with the transition was bittersweet - like watching your favorite indie film get picked up by a major studio. But hey, isn't that what success stories are all about?