What is Quodo?
Quodo is an online marketplace for creative after-work classes. Whether you want
to take up Spanish guitar, try out life drawing or learn to cook the perfect pasta dish,
Quodo is the place to find creative classes near you, pay online in just a few clicks,
and meet new people who make learning fun.
Quodo finds teachers new students for their creative classes, so they make more
money. We provide teachers with a beautiful online profile to best promote their
skills, tools to manage their class listings, and handle all the payments online, so
they can focus on what they love doing most, teaching great classes.
Anyone can teach on Quodo, from full-time guitar teachers to design professionals
with skills to share after work. We verify the identity of all our teachers and let users
rate their classes, so everyone can trust they’ve booked the right class for them.
What’s the problem we’re trying to solve?
For students
For teachers
• Time poor, but want to pursue creative
hobbies, or discover new ones
• Want to find more students and make
more money
• Hard to find good teachers and classes
• Balancing teaching with other sources
of income
• Class listing sites, and classified ads
offer a poor online experience
• Often can’t book and pay online – don’t
like handling cash
• Have to book a whole course before
they know they’ll like it
• Can’t find reviews from previous
students
• Feel uncomfortable not knowing who a
teacher is – is it safe?
• Classes are for ‘learning’, not for fun
• Want new ways to hang out with friends
• Want to meet new people with similar
interests
• Don’t have their own website – costly,
too technical
• Rely on WOM, notice board and
classified ads to find new students
Initial GoToMarket Strategy
We are giving ourselves 100 days to validate Quodo’s business model. We have BIG ambitions, but need to
start small to test our assumptions. Below is an initial GoToMarket strategy which we will try to validate/disprove.
Who are our target customers?
• Students: Young Professionals, 21-40, 60% women, urban, (some) disposable income, time poor, social
media savvy, want new experiences, want to spend time with friends, “creative” interests.
• Teachers: Self-employed teachers (A), Professionals with skills to share? (A-A)
What is our product portfolio?
• We will initially focus on “creative classes” in the following categories: Art & Design, Craft, Cooking, Music,
Life & Wellbeing.
• Most classes will be for groups, some one-to-one lessons.
• Most classes will be one-off/testers, some will be longer courses.
• Most classes will be after-work, or on the weekends.
How much will we charge?
• 15% commission on payments – zero for trial teachers?
• Class prices will range from £10 - £50 per student for a single class
How will we promote our products to target customers? (See slides 9-11)
• Students: owned and earned acquisition channels
• Teachers: direct sales to initial trialists
• Both: test viral mechanics
Where will we promote our products?
• London (Central, N, E, S, W) + Brighton?
• Online platform (mobile optimised?) to list, discover and book classes (see MVP slide)
Minimum Viable Product
Discovery
• Homepage – brand (beta), consumer positioning, “curated picks” tiles, search?, browse by category, browse
by location (areas, not map)
• Search/browse results – order results by price and category, list results as tiles and on map?
Join
• Student landing page – Why use Quodo, How it works?, CTA join/browse. (‘Find out more’ CTA on HP)
• Teacher landing page – Why use Quodo, How it works?, CTA application. (‘Teach on Quodo’ CTA on HP)
• Teacher onboarding process
• Login – student and teacher, with email, with Facebook. Auto-login with IP address?
Inventory (initially Quodo team will edit/curate to ensure quality)
• Teacher profiles – profile photo, bio, class listings, user comments/ratings, social proof/trust?
• Class listings – hero image, teacher profile photo, description, details, user comments, book/request CTA.
Booking
• Book class – payment process, autoemail confirmation to teacher and students
• Request class – for class type without teacher/class inventory
• Share to social built into user journey (FB, Tw?, Whatsapp??). Group discounts?
Management tools
• Teacher dashboard – manage profile, manage listings/schedule, change details? (bank acc, contact),
Bookings dashboard?, CRM to students?
Other:
• Ts & Cs, About us + team, Contact us, Privacy? (in footer)
• Social – blog (onsite), Fb, Tw, Insta, Lin (on hero image)
• Tech: Analytics, Mobile responsive?
Positioning - consumer
Brand: Quodo
Tagline: Get creative
Explanation: Quodo helps you discover creative classes near you, given by teachers
who love what they do. Book online in seconds and invite your friends to make
learning fun.
Key benefits:
1. [Discover] Discover creative classes near you, from life drawing to cooking the
perfect pasta dish.
2. [Teachers + Trust] Quodo is home to amazing teachers who love to share their
knowledge. We make it easy for you to get to know them through detailed profiles
and user reviews, so you can pick the right teacher for you.
3. [Easy + Fast] It’s easy to book a class and pay online in just a few clicks.
4. [Flexibility] Try any class you like, with no long term commitment.
5. [Social] Learning should be fun, invite your friends (and get group discounts?)
Positioning - supplier
Brand: Quodo
Tagline: Those who can, teach.
Explanation: Quodo helps you find new students for your creative classes, so you
make more money. With a beautiful online profile, tools to schedule your class listings,
and simple payment handling, you can focus on doing what you love doing most.
Key benefits:
1. [Easy + Fast] It’s easy to become a teacher on Quodo, whether you’re already
giving classes or looking for a new way to make money from what you love doing
most. In no time at all you’ll have a beautiful profile to market your classes online.
2. [More students] Quodo finds new students for your classes, so you make more
money.
3. [Control] You’re in control. Change your class listings and manage your schedule
any time. Only accept a booking if you’re 100% comfortable.
4. [Easy payments] We handle the money so you don’t have to. You receive one
simple payment straight into your bank account each month.
5. [Cost] It’s free to list your classes on Quodo, we only charge a 15% fee once
students have attended your class.
5 words that describe our brand
1. Easy
2. Creative
3. Social
4. Inquisitive
5. Trustworthy
Promotion Strategy
All online marketplaces need to grow their inventory of suppliers and customers concurrently. Quodo wishes to
avoid the problems that have beset previous marketplaces for classes and activities by focusing on the
following:
Focus, then scale
Fortunately, unlike some marketplace businesses, Quodo does not suffer from the need to reach critical mass
before the service provides utility. However we plan to focus our platform in limited geo areas and class types to
gain initial traction. Ultimately that should provide us the ability to scale, and offer a great experience to students
and teachers.
Viral mechanics, not paid media
We do not want to rely on costly direct acquisition channels, and instead plan to identify viral mechanics that will
enable both sides of our marketplace to grow organically.
Commoditisation by categorisation
Every teacher is different, and classes will have their own USPs. But we want to avoid patchy inventory, and
disappointed students, so we will commoditise class types and allow students to ‘request a class’ even if we
don’t have a teacher for it yet. We believe paying customers are the best sales hook to acquire new teachers.
Radically increasing supply
We want to extend the inventory of teachers available to students and in so doing create new sources of
supplementary income for people with creative skills. But we’ll start with teachers who are easily identifiable.
Maintaining trust
We will utilise social proof mechanics, and cheap user verification techniques to ensure that our users are as
safe as possible and can trust the Quodo platform.
Be agile! Don’t be afraid to pivot if you have to.
Direct acquisition channels
Students
Owned:
• SEO (website + blog?) – KWs: class
types, geo
• Social media – FB, Tw?, Insta?
Earned:
• PR – specialist blogs based on class
types, free papers
Paid:
• Targeted FB ads by interests + demos
• Adwords
Quodo
Marketplace
Teachers
• Friends, family, networks – initial
inventory of 20+ teachers.
• Hacking – Gumtree, Craigslist, Yell.
• SEO (website + blog)
• Direct sales – time/cost?
• Social media - LinkedIn?
Discovering a viral mechanic
Quodo
Marketplace
Students
Teachers
Will teachers refer other teachers?
What incentives do they require?
B2B
C2B
Will students book a class without a teacher?
Can we find them a class? Will the teacher
then sign up to Quodo?
B2C
Will teachers market their Quodo profile?
What does the product need to offer?
C2C
Will students invite their friends?
Will their friends book a class?
What we plan to test in 100 days
Product, positioning, place:
• Will people book and pay for a class or activity online, based on a description and user reviews? There is
already evidence to prove they will.
• Which vertical do we focus on – activities, classes, tours? Do we further specialise?
• Which kinds of classes are most popular? #sales, conversion rate, ticket price.
• Do people understand what Quodo does (supply and demand)? Do they like the brand and what it stands for?
• Can we operate in a town/city beyond London? Test with Brighton.
Acquisition:
• Supply: Can we acquire teachers? Which channels work best? How much does it cost?
• Long tail supply: Can we convince non-professionals to teach? Will they be good teachers?
• Demand: Can we acquire students? Which channels work best? How much does it cost?
Discovering a viral mechanic:
• C2C: Will people share the classes they’ve booked with their friends? Will those friends book the same class?
Will they book another class? Which method of sharing works best (email, Facebook, other)?
• C2B (concierge model): Will people ‘request a class’ without a teacher? Can we find them an appropriate
class? Will the teacher subsequently sign up to Quodo?
• B2C: Will teachers market their classes on Quodo?
• B2B: Will teachers refer other teachers to the platform? What kind of incentive do they need to promote the
platform?
Motivations:
• What are teachers’ motivations to use the platform? What functionality do they require?
• What are the most important factors when a student is booking a class?
APPENDIX
Competitive analysis
Type of
competitor
Example
competitors
Monetization
Offline
WOM
Notice boards
Zero
Search
Google Maps
search
Ads
Classified ads
Gumtree,
Craigslist, Yell,
Meetup
Ads
Self-employed
tutors and small
businesses
Various with web
presence
Direct
Online learning
Udemy
Coursera
Udacity (tech)
Udemy
commission,
Coursera various
Class aggregatory
HotCourses,
LoveMyCourse,
Floodlight
P2P Tours
Peek
GetYourGuide
Vayable
Commission
P2P Activities
Yplan
Commission
P2P Classes
Didas.co
15% commission
Volume! Low
quality
Commission
Can we unlock the long tail of teaching?
Quodo believes that anyone who can, should teach. Ultimately we want to disrupt the
adult learning market, by allowing anyone to teach what they’re passionate about and
make money in the process.
Educational institutions:
Schools, Colleges,
Universities
Self-employed tutors
(A)
Professionals with
skills to share (A-A)
Anyone with a passion
to share (A-B)
Where Quodo will find teachers?
A – self-employed tutors and businesses who are
seeking to sell their spare inventory of classes.
E.g. self-employed Spanish teacher.
(Easy to identify, but Quodo needs to add
significant value, price sensitive)
A-A – skilled professionals who wish to market
their services to teach on the side. E.g. UX
designer, who wants to teach UX after work.
(Hard to identify, but have the skills to teach)
A-B – individuals with skill and passion, who want
to teach others, even if it’s not their day job. E.g.
UX designer by day, Spanish conversation
teacher by night.
(Very hard to identify, but completely new
inventory)
Monetization options
• Simple commission fee:
• Amount? 15%?
• Timing? On booking? After class?
• “Matching” fee – charge teachers flat fee per new student, classes paid for offline
• Sign-up/membership fee (teachers)
• Subscription fee (students) - X number of classes a month
• Advertising revenues
• Corporate subscription programme
Potential consumer taglines
Fun: Have fun learning
Social: Learn with friends
Discovery/local: Discover classes near you / Find great teachers near you
New skills: Learn something new
Flexibility: Try a new class / Try something new
Passion: Discover your passion
Creative: Get creative
Dating?: Meet new people with the same interests as you
MISC
KPIs:
#Suppliers
#Classes
#Customers
How do we vet teachers?
CRB checks cost £26 and take over two weeks, initially we need to find a low/zero cost way of ensuring safety
for our students.
1. Must accept terms and conditions. See how dating sites deal with safety and security.
2. Skype call – 15 minutes, recorded. Ask script questions. Webcam photo with valid ID.
3. User policing – allow users to report inappropriate behaviour.
4. (Optional) “verified classes” – Quodo team member attends classes and reviews.
Terms and conditions:
Safety and security – see how dating sites do it:
Units:
“Teacher” – alternatives: tutor, instructor, coach, mentor
“Student” – alternatives: pupil, customer
“Class” – alternatives: lesson, tutorial, session