u/Nsevedge wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
There’s no reason for costs to be that high. Why not have the best of both worlds, price and quality. It seems like trying to do what everyone else is doing isn’t working out for them
u/michaelnovati replied ·
Time and time again people have tried to lower costs and it results in a worse experience.
I mean while we do interview prep now, the fundamental technology we are building could work for other areas.
But it would be turning the entire industry on its head.
The problem is humans.
It costs too much to have humans in the picture to lower costs.
What do the bootcamps do? Replace them with code and AI that is half baked and not as good but costs 1/100th the cost.
I think GOOD product can do it but. But GOOD product isn't built out of desperation to cut costs when things are bad. This is my concern with these changes that happen post layoff at bootcamps.
I would need about $1 to $4B of funding to make our product able to replace college CS degrees and VCs won't give us that money until we can prove that at a smaller scale.
And this is the conundrum. Building product is an art that costs tons of money that you don't have (and need investors) and you need to do it during the success times, not the bad times. But times are good because the offering is good and you need to keep the value proposition equally high while making this investment.
It's absurdly hard to do this and build an amazing product in this space while ensuring each and every person has a fantastic experience.
I don't have all the answers and we make a lot of mistakes and have a lot of things to improve every day to make sure we offer a good experience, while simultaneously investing in a platform that changes the entire narrative of what it means to build skill.
This is where innovation comes from. These intense pressure combined with talent and hustle will eventually forge new ideas that move the industry forward. And even under the right conditions, most will fail and that is the nature of a startup.
Sadly, we haven't seen those conditions with even the best bootcamps. Just keeping the curriculum up to date and ship running takes all their efforts. And if you weren't baking in the above thinking from day 0, it's too late, and trying to keep a small and effective program going is the best outcome you can hope for.
This is why a bunch of bootcamps talk to me, if you aren't doing this you need to work with people who are.
I guess this is why a bunch of bootcamps use Canvas right. And we need wayyyy more products before the right one emerges.