Course Business Categories
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A breakdown of the different types of course businesses and their revenue potential, from solo creators to large B2B platforms.
Course Business Categories
-
Individual Creator/Small Company
- Examples: Jack Butcher, Ramit Sethi
- High likelihood of making $200k-$1M per year
- Requires building an audience around specific expertise
- Can scale to $10M but difficult to go beyond
- Expansion path: Add consulting/coaching at $10k+ per year
-
Mass Market Course Libraries
- Examples: MasterClass, The Great Courses
- Revenue: $150-300M per year
- Focus on creating many high-quality evergreen courses
- Strategy: Build large library of 100+ courses
- Pricing: $100-300 annual subscription
-
B2B Corporate Training
- Examples: Pluralsight ($3B valuation)
- Revenue: $300-600M per year
- Largest category by revenue
- Key aspects:
- Heavy focus on sales teams
- $600/year per employee pricing
- Target corporate training budgets
- Focus on certifications/technical training
- Sales-driven model:
- Large sales teams with $300-500k quotas
- Cold calling focused
- Less about education quality, more about sales
Why Companies Buy B2B Courses
-
Employee perks/benefits
- Helps with recruitment
- Improves Glassdoor ratings
- Education stipends ($5k/year typical)
-
Certification preparation
- Microsoft/Cisco certification training
- Required for promotions
- Resume building for employees
Note: Platforms like Udemy/Teachable are considered tech companies that enable course creation, not course businesses themselves.
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.