Bite-sized Career Development on Your Schedule
Upskill with industry experts. Grow your network. Live lessons in tech, marketing, and design happening now.
Project Description
LessonsUp is like ClassPass for your career. Live lessons from industry experts everyday.
PROBLEM:
- Underrepresented populations don't have equal access to career + business opportunities.
SOLUTION:
Live lessons with industry professionals.
Meet and learn from pros today. LessonsUp is a social network for upskilling and support. Get instant access to industry professionals to learn the skills you need to get ahead, and make the connections you need to land opportunities.
Live lessons everyday + join our Slack community for subscribers and instructors to continue networking and sharing.
Live lessons in tech, marketing, design, career development, mentorship sessions, and more.
PRODUCT
A learning marketplace where qualified professionals can do live lessons, and subscribers can upskill.
Why live lessons? Online learning is overly gamefied. Incumbent learning platforms, like Udemy, have removed human contact from learning. This is a BIG PROBLEM! We need to learn from humans. According to Pew Research, the most important skills for the future of work come from human interaction: negotiation, industry-specific language or the ability to "talk shop," strategic-decision making, collaboration, communication, etc.
FUNDING: We need funds to:
- Achieve product-market-fit.
- Design and build the next iteration of our learning market place. Why? Malinda built the current website using no-code and no-design tools. It functions. It's a proof-of-concept that works, but it's not going to get us to hundreds of users.
- Marketing budget! We've been using 100% non-paid tactics to build out beta community, we know what works and we're ready to run ads. Unfortunately, the little bit of revenue we generate doesn't cover all of our costs, and definitely doesn't cover anything extra.
Sanyukta: Senior engineer, tech founder, @Intel, @Boeing, startups
Eric: Built Learning & Development Tools department for 7 years at VarsityTutors, Harvard
We're in the midst of a major upskill movement, and LessonsUp is creating the next trend. Instant access to real humans. Thank you for supporting our mission!
Updates
The Campaign FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions:
What is your business model?
We launched Sept 20, 2020 with a simple B2C business model, $60/month to attend unlimited lessons. We want everyone to have instant access to top professionals.
How are you going to scale?
We're raising funds to build a robust marketplace platform based on our learnings with our proof of concept. We will launch it to organizations, a B2B model that lets anyone use LessonsUp as a training and upskill platform.
Why do you want to give everyone access to top professionals?
Underrepresented populations, both the workforce and entrepreneurs/biz owners, are at a huge disadvantage because access to opportunities, and the skills and knowledge to be successful, tend to remain in a few exclusive networks. Underrepresented populations are just as talented! We recently worked with Supriya, a recent immigrant who lost her job. We were super impressed with her, and within 3 months of working with us a startup hired her. Unfortunately, the language, the process, the "culture" of job search, interviews, and work life in America (especially in lucrative networks), is very nuanced and needs to be learned. We are teaching everyone how to break into these circles and be successful.
How does LessonsUp work?
Professionals with 8-10+ years experience design and conduct live lessons throughout the week in skill areas that are highest in demand on the job market, or most crucial for building and growing businesses. Subscribers can attend any lesson they like, as many as they like.
What can people learn at LessonsUp?
Topics include growth marketing, social media marketing, web design, graphic design, no-code tools, no-design tools, SEO, SEM, career development, job search tactics, advanced networking tactics to land a job, industry tools, etc.
Why do you do live lessons instead of video?
When you meet people in person they're excited to welcome you to their exclusive, lucrative network! Also: live lessons give you the opportunity to ask questions related to you, pick up industry thinking and terminology, and the latest best practices in the field right now. Incumbent online learning platforms, like Udemy, have removed humans from the picture, but people need people contact.
What happens after a lesson?
Subscribers and instructors can communicate and continue to network in our Slack community. Both our instructor and subscriber community include 10+ year professionals, everyone excited to connect, share, and upskill.
Can LessonsUp help me get a job?
Yes! Our subscribers are getting jobs, more interviews, and more effective networking conversations.
Why is LessonsUp so obsessed with networking?
Your network, or who you know, is one of the most important factors in your work life, whether for maintaining a pipeline of job opportunities, or partnerships and business opportunities if you're an entrepreneur. The founder of LessonsUp was "accidentally" recruited into tech, went from teaching to leading product team literally overnight because she had access to one of the most powerful networks.
I don't have time to go to all of these lessons! What do I do?
We get it. The majority of our lessons are 20 minutes, with lessons running 40 and 60 minutes as needed.
How can I learn something from a 20-minute lesson?
Upskilling organically happens at work, especially in privileged industries, like tech, marketing and design. "On the fly" upskilling usually happens in casual conversations, or those shoulder tap "show me how to do this thing" in 20 minutes. Our 20 minute lesson are powerful, people leave saying things like: "I never would have thought to do that on Slack in a million years;" "You can't Google this" "They don't teach this in university"
Why is LessonsUp so obsessed with live group lessons?
When you have meaningful experience with a group of individuals, say, because you all went to SEO lessons together for a few weeks, you create meaningful relationships that lead to opportunities and career support for years to come.
Is LessonsUp a talent platform?
Yes! Our B2B model, wherein organizations can license LessonsUp for internal training purposes, gives hiring managers and organizations access to both our instructor community and subscriber community. We have extremely talented people in both groups, many of our subscribers are 10+ year marketers, or product managers, who want to supplement skill areas, while others are recent graduates, career pivoters, etc.
How do you have over 800 people in your beta community and only 9 subscribers?
We are super generous! We did a few free webinars on some of the hottest topics in tech and marketing to build our beta community. From a single free event we'll get ~250 RSVPs.
Meet one-on-one with Malinda, founder of LessonsUp. After your session you will have next steps and an end-to-end process to help you move forward in your career, whether you're looking for a job, trying to get a promotion, or pivot to a new industry. Or if you're looking to launch you're own business, or are a new entrepreneur, we can give you next steps and a strategy to move forward.
If you don't need a coaching session, gift one to someone who does. We are also happy to gift on your behalf to someone in need, will let you know who you helped, and recognize you for your awesomeness and generousity.
+ Resume+LinkedIn Guide
+ Join any live lesson: growth marketing, social media marketing, SEO, design, web design, advanced networking tactics to land a job, and more.
Yay! Thank you for giving us whatever you can.
Malinda will reach out to you with a personal thank you and a surprise give away, a guide from one of our popular lesson topics in tech, design, marketing, or career development.
We're here to give you access to jobs & business opportunities. A huge part of that means having an industry standard LinkedIn profile and resume. As a thank you for helping us fulfill our mission, Malinda, a 10+ year hiring manager in tech, has created a guide with templates and examples to help you stand out. LessonsUp subscribers have been getting results.
If you have a website, online store, e-commerce story, company, blog, anything with a wwww. then you need to know about SEO, search-engine-optimization. Does your business show up on Google when people search for relevant terms? The bad news is: there are over 10 factors (growth marketers say there are hundreds!) that influence how you rank in search engines. Good news is: our growth marketers broke down the top 3 priorities for you.
Join any live lesson from our lesson calendar. We'll send you a link to our subscriber-only lesson schedule. We do trainings on the daily in: growth marketing, SEO, SEM, social media marketing including Facebook and Instagram, Web Design, HTML & CSS, no-code tools, no-design tools, project management, advanced networking tactics to land a job, how to ace an interview...and so much more.
If you don't need to upskill in any of our topics, request a topic or gift one to someone who needs it. We are also happy to gift a lesson to someone in need, and will let you know who you helped!
+ Resume+LinkedIn Guide
Choose a topic in any area we cover and you'll get a one-on-one private lesson from one of our instructors.
If you don't need a lesson, gift one to someone who does.
+ Resume+LinkedIn Guide
+ Join any live lesson
This is the reward for you if you want to give back AND you have your own business. This can be any type of business, product, services, e-commerce store, etc.
We love making promo videos! We use the latest no-design tools to create great marketing and promotional videos. See a few examples here:
With the reward level you get:
- 30 minute consultation to learn about your business - we will not look at your website / product before we talk to you. We find that we learn the most when we hear it first hand first.
- 30-45s promotional video: we'll do the story telling, choose images, video footage, music, etc. We may ask you for product images, logos, or other assets.
- One round of feedback where you get to tell us what's working, what's not, or any specific changes you'd like us to make
- Final video! Use your video in social media posts, your website, email campaigns, or anywhere you'd like.
- We promote you! We'll share your video widely with our audience.
3 months of private mentorship with Malinda, lesson recommendations, unlimited access to lessons. Develop a strategy for the next steps in your career or business and follow it. 1-hour meetings twice a month, email + Slack access. Impromptu meetings may be available.
Give back to get back! Network your way to job opportunities or business opportunities.
OR gift to someone in need - you can tell us who or we'll work with our community to give to someone in need and give you recognition however you'd like!
- 6-month subscription to LessonsUp, attend unlimited lessons to upskill and build your network
- 1-hour coaching sessions to identify goals for networking: where do you want to go next and why?
- Create a custom script with Malinda so that you can conduct a 15-20 minute networking call that leads to opportunities (based on proven tactics)
- List of networking communities to join, where and how to post your networking blurb so that you can land networking calls that lead to opportunities
- Recommendations on skills to build to get to the next step in your career or business
- 3 warm introductions
Do you have a team, community, or organization that could benefit from a customized workshop with industry experts in growth marketing, seo, sem, social media marketing, career development, job search tactics, launching a business, or other areas we cover?
We'll design a 6-hour workshop for your community, or you can gift one to a community you care about. We're also happy to gift to a community in need on your behalf, recognize you for your awesomeness and generosity, and give you opportunities to speak or get involved however you like. We recently did:
- Innovation and problem solving workshop with Height Business Incubator, business accelerator for high schoolers
- Advanced networking tactics workshop with IIBA-Orange County
- Social media training workshop with Rebound Asia to train out of work Malaysian women in skill areas to help them break into tech.
- Various trainings with SF Tech Council, Felton Institute, and Senior Self Help Center.
Do you have a team, community, or organization that could benefit from a customized workshop with industry experts in growth marketing, seo, sem, social media marketing, career development, job search tactics, launching a business, or other areas we cover?
We'll design a 3-day bootcamp for your community. We'll work with you to define learning goals and results, and design the best curriculum in collaboration with top professionals to meet goals.
Or you can gift one to a community you care about. We're also happy to gift to a community in need on your behalf, recognize you for your awesomeness and generosity, and give you opportunities to speak or get involved however you like. We recently did:
- Innovation and problem solving workshop with Height Business Incubator, business accelerator for high schoolers
- Advanced networking tactics workshop with IIBA-Orange County
- Social media training workshop with Rebound Asia to train out of work Malaysian women in skill areas to help them break into tech.
- Various trainings with SF Tech Council, Felton Institute, and Senior Self Help Center.
Rewards
Meet one-on-one with Malinda, founder of LessonsUp. After your session you will have next steps and an end-to-end process to help you move forward in your career, whether you're looking for a job, trying to get a promotion, or pivot to a new industry. Or if you're looking to launch you're own business, or are a new entrepreneur, we can give you next steps and a strategy to move forward.
If you don't need a coaching session, gift one to someone who does. We are also happy to gift on your behalf to someone in need, will let you know who you helped, and recognize you for your awesomeness and generousity.
+ Resume+LinkedIn Guide
+ Join any live lesson: growth marketing, social media marketing, SEO, design, web design, advanced networking tactics to land a job, and more.
Yay! Thank you for giving us whatever you can.
Malinda will reach out to you with a personal thank you and a surprise give away, a guide from one of our popular lesson topics in tech, design, marketing, or career development.
We're here to give you access to jobs & business opportunities. A huge part of that means having an industry standard LinkedIn profile and resume. As a thank you for helping us fulfill our mission, Malinda, a 10+ year hiring manager in tech, has created a guide with templates and examples to help you stand out. LessonsUp subscribers have been getting results.
If you have a website, online store, e-commerce story, company, blog, anything with a wwww. then you need to know about SEO, search-engine-optimization. Does your business show up on Google when people search for relevant terms? The bad news is: there are over 10 factors (growth marketers say there are hundreds!) that influence how you rank in search engines. Good news is: our growth marketers broke down the top 3 priorities for you.
Join any live lesson from our lesson calendar. We'll send you a link to our subscriber-only lesson schedule. We do trainings on the daily in: growth marketing, SEO, SEM, social media marketing including Facebook and Instagram, Web Design, HTML & CSS, no-code tools, no-design tools, project management, advanced networking tactics to land a job, how to ace an interview...and so much more.
If you don't need to upskill in any of our topics, request a topic or gift one to someone who needs it. We are also happy to gift a lesson to someone in need, and will let you know who you helped!
+ Resume+LinkedIn Guide
Choose a topic in any area we cover and you'll get a one-on-one private lesson from one of our instructors.
If you don't need a lesson, gift one to someone who does.
+ Resume+LinkedIn Guide
+ Join any live lesson
This is the reward for you if you want to give back AND you have your own business. This can be any type of business, product, services, e-commerce store, etc.
We love making promo videos! We use the latest no-design tools to create great marketing and promotional videos. See a few examples here:
With the reward level you get:
- 30 minute consultation to learn about your business - we will not look at your website / product before we talk to you. We find that we learn the most when we hear it first hand first.
- 30-45s promotional video: we'll do the story telling, choose images, video footage, music, etc. We may ask you for product images, logos, or other assets.
- One round of feedback where you get to tell us what's working, what's not, or any specific changes you'd like us to make
- Final video! Use your video in social media posts, your website, email campaigns, or anywhere you'd like.
- We promote you! We'll share your video widely with our audience.
3 months of private mentorship with Malinda, lesson recommendations, unlimited access to lessons. Develop a strategy for the next steps in your career or business and follow it. 1-hour meetings twice a month, email + Slack access. Impromptu meetings may be available.
Give back to get back! Network your way to job opportunities or business opportunities.
OR gift to someone in need - you can tell us who or we'll work with our community to give to someone in need and give you recognition however you'd like!
- 6-month subscription to LessonsUp, attend unlimited lessons to upskill and build your network
- 1-hour coaching sessions to identify goals for networking: where do you want to go next and why?
- Create a custom script with Malinda so that you can conduct a 15-20 minute networking call that leads to opportunities (based on proven tactics)
- List of networking communities to join, where and how to post your networking blurb so that you can land networking calls that lead to opportunities
- Recommendations on skills to build to get to the next step in your career or business
- 3 warm introductions
Do you have a team, community, or organization that could benefit from a customized workshop with industry experts in growth marketing, seo, sem, social media marketing, career development, job search tactics, launching a business, or other areas we cover?
We'll design a 6-hour workshop for your community, or you can gift one to a community you care about. We're also happy to gift to a community in need on your behalf, recognize you for your awesomeness and generosity, and give you opportunities to speak or get involved however you like. We recently did:
- Innovation and problem solving workshop with Height Business Incubator, business accelerator for high schoolers
- Advanced networking tactics workshop with IIBA-Orange County
- Social media training workshop with Rebound Asia to train out of work Malaysian women in skill areas to help them break into tech.
- Various trainings with SF Tech Council, Felton Institute, and Senior Self Help Center.
Do you have a team, community, or organization that could benefit from a customized workshop with industry experts in growth marketing, seo, sem, social media marketing, career development, job search tactics, launching a business, or other areas we cover?
We'll design a 3-day bootcamp for your community. We'll work with you to define learning goals and results, and design the best curriculum in collaboration with top professionals to meet goals.
Or you can gift one to a community you care about. We're also happy to gift to a community in need on your behalf, recognize you for your awesomeness and generosity, and give you opportunities to speak or get involved however you like. We recently did:
- Innovation and problem solving workshop with Height Business Incubator, business accelerator for high schoolers
- Advanced networking tactics workshop with IIBA-Orange County
- Social media training workshop with Rebound Asia to train out of work Malaysian women in skill areas to help them break into tech.
- Various trainings with SF Tech Council, Felton Institute, and Senior Self Help Center.