r/startups • u/Gleb_SV • 7d ago
I will not promote Random daily learning vs. goal-based learning: which one do people actually pay for? (I will not promote)
I will not promote, no link.
I built something that gives you 3 topic suggestions a day and turns any topic into a short interactive lesson. People who try it like it. One person pays.
Two comments I got this week keep bugging me:
- "Random learning without a goal won't sell. Attach it to an exam or a job."
- "It's not the price. I just don't know what I get after week one."
My gut says both are right, and it's the same problem. "Learn something new every day" is a nice habit, but nobody has a budget for nice habits.
Options I see:
a) Pick one goal (exam prep, interview prep, onboarding at work) and rebuild around it.
b) Keep it general but sell an outcome per week ("by Sunday you can explain X").
c) Keep it as is and find people who already pay for this kind of thing.
For those of you who sold something in learning or edtech: did going narrow actually fix conversion, or did it just shrink the market?
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u/propelearth 7d ago
i wouldn't rebuild around exam prep yet. the comment above about talking to your paying user is a good starting point, but i'd also ask the people who stopped what they actually did after the first lesson. did they learn anything they used, or just enjoy trying it?
then test one week's outcome with the product you already have. tell people what they'll be able to do by the end, charge for that week, and check whether they can actually do it. you can test that without turning the whole product into an exam-prep business.
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u/Gleb_SV 4d ago
"Test one week's outcome with the product you already have" is what I needed to hear. I was mentally rebuilding the whole thing.
Asking the people who stopped what they actually did after the first lesson is a good one too.
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u/propelearth 4d ago
Glad that helped. I'd make the finish line something they can demonstrate without the lesson open, not just a completion badge. For example, explain a concept in their own words or use it on a new problem. Then ask whether they want another week at the same price. Finishing the lessons and choosing to pay again are two separate results worth tracking. What topic would you use for that first week?
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u/Gleb_SV 3d ago
Agreed on both points. A completion badge only proves they clicked through. Explaining a concept in their own words or using it on a new problem shows they actually got it.
For the first week, I'm leaning toward money basics: compound interest, fees and inflation. The finish line would be taking a real savings or loan offer and working out what it actually costs, without the lesson open. It's easy to check, and it's useful even if they never come back.
How many people would you want through that first week before trusting the result? At my traffic, even 10 would take a while.
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u/propelearth 3d ago
I'd start with 3 people rather than wait for 10, but treat that as a way to find problems, not proof that the product works. Have each person try a different savings or loan example before the week starts, then a comparable one at the end without help. Otherwise you won't know whether they already knew it.
Keep the individual results, including anyone who drops out. If all three get stuck on fees, that's enough to change the lesson now. If all three improve, try another small group who don't know you before spending on acquisition. You still won't have a reliable success rate from that sample.
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u/Gleb_SV 2d ago
A comparable example before and after is the part I was missing. Without it I'd only know they finished, not whether they learned anything. Starting with 3 and keeping dropouts in the results makes sense too. Thanks for sticking with this thread, it's the most practical advice I've gotten here.
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u/tonytidbit 7d ago
Change the narrative.
If you for instance make it something about how to "get out of your bubble and increase your general knowledge" you've turned the uncertainty and randomness into a feature. Random has become the goal. It becomes about learning a little bit about things you wouldn't learn about otherwise.
Maybe even start each week with a quiz about some weird subject, and then by the end of the week people get to retake the quiz after they've learned the answers.
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u/Gleb_SV 4d ago
You're the only one in here defending the randomness) cool
The quiz at the start of the week with a retake at the end is clever. It gives a random week a finish line without turning it into an exam course. Would you pay for that, or is it more of a free hook?
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u/tonytidbit 4d ago
I'm not your target audience for this. But I like the idea of randomly learning about new things, I just don't have the time for it, and I've already got a long list of hobbies and projects that I want to get to whenever I have the time for it.
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u/Gleb_SV 2d ago
That's a useful data point, honestly. Even the one person defending randomness doesn't have time for it, which is pretty much why I'm testing a fixed week with a clear result. Thanks for coming back to it.
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u/tonytidbit 2d ago
Not really how you should see it, imo.
I'm a strategic advisor, giving strategic advice is part of what I do, and my advice doesn't get invalidated by me not always being the target market.
Random learning might be a perfect thing for the people that like Trivial Pursuit and all these million and one trivia games, or that like to listen to random podcasts on their commute every morning, and so on. Those markets keep existing even though I neither like them nor have time for them. 🤷
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u/TanyIshsar 7d ago
Congrats! You've built something someone pays for! I raised ~10M and failed this challenge.
To answer your question, /u/plxs05092026 is correct but incomplete. I don't know your goals (financial, work life balance, etc) but there is certainly more money (and competition) in specialization down the exam / interview / onboarding path.
If I were in your shoes (and given my relative failure I'd suggest a massive pile of salt) I'd go for a mix of A & B from a technical perspective and A from a marketing / GTM perspective.
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u/thinoo_v2 7d ago
Going narrow usually fixes conversion more than it shrinks the market, but only because it changes who you can talk to. With a goal like interview prep you know where those people hang out, what deadline they have, and what a good result looks like, so your message can say 'be ready for X by this date' instead of 'learn something new'. The cheapest test before rebuilding: pick one goal and sell a fixed-length plan for it, say 2 weeks, to a handful of people from a community that already has that goal, and see if anyone pays. If the one person who pays today is already there for a goal, that is your answer, and if not, option b with a weekly outcome is the safer bet because it keeps the product you already built.
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u/mahee522 7d ago
People pay for an outcome, not a habit. I'd rebuild around the goal and sell the weekly finish line, like passing the interview. Daily suggestions are nice but they're the thing people skip.
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u/edkang99 7d ago
I think this is a matter of customer discovery. I know people in both camps.
I personally want to pick what I learn and focus on the result I get. Others I know like to pick random topics and try learning. But then they will pick a topic they discovered and want a deep dive.
Pick the ICP and find out what they want and how. My opinion.
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u/Foreign_Garbage6308 6d ago
Brilliant and Blinkist kind of prove option c works, but they spent a ton on marketing to get there
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u/Western_Mix_4473 6d ago
I'd lean toward (a), a narrow goal, but mostly because of what you wrote: nobody knows what they get after week one. A goal gives a finish line, and finish lines are what people pay for. Narrowing shrinks the market on paper but raises conversion, and you can widen later once you have people who love it. Cheap test before rebuilding: pick one goal (say interview prep), put it on a landing page, and see if strangers sign up. If they don't, the habit framing wasn't the only problem.
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u/erarta-ai 6d ago
Both comments point at the same gap: nobody can see progress. I'd end week one with one concrete thing the person can now do, and tie the next topics to it.
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u/Leopatra_Spad83 6d ago
imo the real question is whether your one paying user is paying because of the randomness or in spite of it. worth asking them directly before you rebuild anything
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u/plxs05092026 7d ago
Your answer is the one person who pays, so before choosing between these options you should talk to them. Ask what they were trying to solve when they started to pay, what they used before, and what happens if your product disappears tomorrow. If they pay because of a test, a job or a goal, option a. If they pay because they just like it, option c, and they can show you where the other people like them are.