He raised $250K, had thousands of users—but here's what he'd do differently next time. | Darius Vaillancourt, Founder of Howdy episode artwork

EPISODE · Jan 16, 2025 · 27 MIN

He raised $250K, had thousands of users—but here's what he'd do differently next time. | Darius Vaillancourt, Founder of Howdy

from A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders · host Mistral.vc

Darius started an EdTech startup to help users of online courses collaborate with each other. It blew up during COVID when everyone felt isolated. It gained thousands of users. They were engaged. They came back to use the platform. And, most importantly, they dramatically improved completion rates for online courses.Darius thought he had it. But it turned out universities didn't want to pay. What users cared about was not what universities (the buyers) cared about. His biggest lessons is that he should've pivoted much sooner. Here's why.Why you should listen:Why success and failure are often not that far apart.Why engagement and usage don't always lead to revenue.How to figure out the KPI that matters for your buyer.Why users and buyers are not one and the same.Why you need to pivot much sooner than you might think-- or like.Keywordsstartup challenges, entrepreneurship, online learning, EdTech, market dynamics, product development, business strategy, lessons learned, networking, pivotingSend me a message to let me know what you think!

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Jan 16, 2025

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Darius started an EdTech startup to help users of online courses collaborate with each other. It blew up during COVID when everyone felt isolated. It gained thousands of users. They were engaged. They came back to use the platform. And, most importantly, they dramatically improved completion rates for online courses. Darius thought he had it. But it turned out universities didn't want to pay. What users cared about was not what universities (the buyers) cared about. His biggest lessons is ...

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He raised $250K, had thousands of users—but here's what he'd do differently next time. | Darius Vaillancourt, Founder of Howdy

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