What bootcamps WON’T be shutting down soon?

Bootcamps closing up shop entirely should be pretty rare even if they don't do well. First off - unit economics. Anyone can do the math. Let's take Codesmith, because I know their structure super well, their salaries, and they have a very consistent experience. THIS IS AN ESTIMATE FOR ILLUSTRATIVE PURPOSES BASED ON MY OPINIONS AND PUBLIC JOB POSTINGS AND REPORTED SALARIES, DO NOT QUOTE THIS AS FACT ONE COHORT: 13 weeks (cohorts overlap for 6 weeks) 1x Lead Instructor - $170K -> $20K for 6 weeks 1x Instructor - $130K -> $15K 1x Mentor - $100K -> $11.5K 3X Fellows -3X 40 hours @ $25/hour -> $18K Admissions person - $60K -> $7K Operations person - $70K -> $8K Outcomes person - $70K -> $8K Career support at $25/hour, 2 per week \* 6 weeks \* 35 students = $11K Management (COGS only) (spread across 4 timezones, lead intstructors, director of program management, etc...): $2M -> $58K **So the total human cost is $160K -> $320K accounting for bonuses/taxes/fees/company overhead/HR stuff/software/computers/etc... - the rule of thumb is to 2X base salary.** Revenue: 35 students \* $21.8K = $765K So in this example, you can see a theoretical break even of about 18 - 20 students and the program is profitable with more. So as long as you can fill one class every 6 weeks with 18 students, you might have to fire most of the staff, but the unit economic work. Because of the market downturn, if you had two time zones and each has 18 people -> fire half the staff and combine to one cohort with 36 people and it's very profitable again. (Codesmith indefinitely paused the CTRI time slot for example, possibly related to this \^\^\^) \----------------- **When would a program shut down completely?** So let's say those 35 people all paid with loans and the loans were special. To help students defer payments until later (more coming one sec...)

Nice, this is a short version of what I just wrote a novel on hahah

Yeah good points. So IT/HR I'm factoring into the 2X multiple. Curriculum dev is R&D. If a bootcamp was failing it could fire the entirely team and keep functioning because of the unit economics of a cohort. Marketing and CAC for Codesmith is different than others, but they basically just have an Admissions person and they run about 10 to 20 public sessions a week (often with leaders or instructors running them, so the cost is mostly salaries accounting for in the unit economics above).

Depends on the bootcamp and the payment method and there isnt a pattern. The loan providers and banks will definitely pursue you because they are more traditional financial institutions. The bootcamps have more flexibility and depends on the refund policy, when you ghost, the terms of the loan, etc...