Case Study: SkillBank Focuses On Making Users "Buy-In" To Drive Product-Market Fit
SkillBank has been set up in such a way as to reward motivated fellows for making it through the program for a very low cost.
Introduction:
Mehak Vohra is the founder and CEO of SkillBank, a 1:1 mentorship and training platform for entry-level marketing roles. Before starting SkillBank, Mehak was a growth marketing consultant for startups and investors. With 70k+ followers across her socials, she receives millions of views on her social content every year. Mehak has been featured in Marie Claire Magazine, Forbes, AdWeek, AwesomenessTV, Huffington Post, and more.
Executive Summary:
Problem: Figuring Out How To Price and Deliver Curriculum
For pricing, we realized early on that we could not charge all of our fellows for the program upfront. For curriculum delivery, we used to offer live Zoom classes as the only way to take the program.Market: Agencies Need A Reliable Talent Funnel
SkillBank solves the talent funnel issue for agencies. They send us the job descriptions of the roles they are hiring for, and in return, we send them a list of fellows to interview.Solution: Targeting 29-35 Year Olds As An Ideal Source Of Fellows
In 2019, I cold DM'd over 200+ growth managers and scheduled 15 min calls with them. It wasn't to sell them but to ask them questions about what they were having trouble with in hiring entry-level talent. These conversations had a huge impact on the creation of our career curriculum.Team: Getting Collective Buy-In Through Open Dialogue
It's really important to me that I get buy-in from my core team around any changes we make, so we hold two meetings a week (Mondays and Fridays) to give everyone on the team an opportunity to bring up any concerns. We keep a very open dialogue at SkillBank, which is a big reason I feel like I can depend on my team so much.Takeaway: Ensuring User “Buy-In” Into The Mentorship Program
It is incredibly important that a user of our program has "buy-in." We've experimented with many different models, and the iteration of SkillBank that you see today has been set up in such a way as to reward motivated fellows for making it through the program for a very low cost.
Case Study: SkillBank
Problem: Figuring Out How To Price and Deliver Curriculum
Tell me about a problem or set of problems that you’ve had to solve on your journey to product-market fit.
We encountered two major problems with the SkillBank program when we first started: pricing and delivering the curriculum.
For pricing, we realized early on that we could not charge all of our fellows for the program upfront. We used to offer an income share agreement, but we wanted to offer a payment option that's even more affordable in the long term.
We now offer three payment options for fellows that want to take our program. (Upfront, month-to-month, and deferred tuition option). You can get started with SkillBank for as low as $322 upfront.
For curriculum delivery, we used to offer live Zoom classes as the only way to take the program. We've now discontinued the live cohort model for a new model we've created called rapid training programs or "RTPs."
Fellows learn the curriculum on their own time with our "masterclass style" recorded lectures and instead meet 1:1 with a mentor weekly to cover the curriculum and get feedback on their weekly projects.
Why were these problems so critical to solve? What was it like personally struggling to overcome these challenges to achieving PMF?
For pricing, we want anyone, regardless of their economic background, to be able to afford our training program. This is the whole reason I started SkillBank. I'm fighting for a world of equal opportunities.
For curriculum delivery, we noticed many prospective fellows couldn't find a live class they could take because they had work or kids to take care of during class time. We wanted to make the curriculum accessible to anyone willing to invest time. This new model helps our fellows take the program when it best suits them. This could be at 2 pm during the day or 2 am.
Both of these problems were equally frustrating for me. No other boot camp has quite figured out how to structure either of these problems correctly, but I think we're one step closer to getting it right.
Market: Agencies Need A Reliable Talent Funnel
Let’s get deeper into the pain point or points you were trying to solve. Imagine I’m a customer thinking about using your product or service. How do you go about understanding my pain and creating a solution to address it?
When building the newest iteration of SkillBank, we first started on the hiring side. We realized early on that we wouldn't have a business if agencies didn't hire our fellows after completing our program. We learned that marketing agencies have three main pain points:
1. Creating a talent funnel
2. Retaining that talent
3. Training that talent
SkillBank solves the talent funnel issue for agencies. They send us the job descriptions of the roles they are hiring for, and in return, we send them a list of fellows to interview. We have many different acquisition methods for finding new talent.
Our course isn't easy to complete, so if a fellow completes our program, we give them our stamp of approval. We know they work hard, and they will be motivated to provide results for the companies they are working with.
Assuming you’ve managed to address the pain points I face as a customer, what additional information did you discover in your journey to PMF that there’s a large market in need of a solution to the existing problem?
We spoke to many agencies that tried to start an internal training program but failed because the economics of running an internal school didn't work. It's expensive to train talent that you are worried might churn, so these agencies turn to us to train for them.
How did you narrow your scope of what portion of the market you wanted to tackle first? Who did you decide would be your first beachhead customers and why?
Funny enough, SkillBank was originally a copywriting boot camp. I used to run an online ghost-writing agency for CEOs and VCs, and I needed a way to train our talent. When I decided to start charging for the program, I pivoted our curriculum into teaching growth marketing to beginners. I found our first customers by finding people on LinkedIn that were job searching. I could DM'd them and then convince them to sit through my lectures.
Now, our target audience is anyone that is working in the customer service industry and is looking to upskill in marketing and land an agency job.
Solution: Targeting 29-35 Year Olds As An Ideal Source Of Fellows
How did you build your solution to maximize its relevance with the customer and ensure product-market fit? If you haven't found PMF yet, what have you learned? What are the blockers for getting to PMF?
For the fellows, the number one thing we've had to focus on is this: are we helping graduates land a job after completing the program?
For the agencies, the number one thing we focused on is this: Are the agencies retaining these graduates for a long time?
We are constantly tracking both of these numbers and calculating them in different ways.
What are some of the things you did that “didn’t scale” to shape your solution today?
Identifying the best archetype that should be taking our program. When I first started SkillBank, I was focused on people that recently graduated from college. While some of those fellows performed well, we saw that our best demographic is those between the ages of 29-35 years old. They're more serious.
We're always looking for new avenues for identifying new fellows.
What did you learn to best engage with your customers? How did you build a tight feedback loop with your customers to rapidly improve your solution to their problems?
In 2019, I cold DM'd over 200+ growth managers and scheduled 15 min calls with them. It wasn't to sell them, but to ask them questions about what they were having trouble with in hiring entry-level talent. These conversations had a huge impact on the creation of our career curriculum.
Walk me through how you landed your first few customers as you were building your product or service.
We got our first SkillBank fellow from LinkedIn. I cold messaged over 300 people looking for an entry-level marketing job, and I asked them if I could help them land a job in growth marketing. Only one person responded, and he was the first graduate of SkillBank.
Team: Getting Collective Buy-In Through Open Dialogue
If you have a cofounder, walk me through a time when you two had a conflict. What was it about? How did you handle the situation? What was the resolution, and how did it impact your working relationship with your cofounder?
I'm close with my team, and I've been fortunate not to have many conflicts with them. It's really important to me that I get buy-in from my core team around any changes we make so we hold two meetings a week (Mondays and Fridays) to give everyone on the team an opportunity to bring up any concerns. We keep a very open dialogue at SkillBank, which is why I feel like I can depend on my team so much.
What key qualities did you look for in key early hires to increase your chances of discovering product-market fit, and how did you prioritize what types of hires you needed to make first?
We're in a space that's been broken for a long time, and there isn't a correct answer for how education should be structured. This is why I firmly believe that the only way we can fix education is by trying out many different things. Every member of the SkillBank team is passionate about education and is willing to move and iterate quickly.
If there was a potential employee of your startup reading this Case Study right now, how would you convince them that joining your team is the next best step in their career?
We've created a whole new model for skill training at SkillBank. We aren't in the same category as other boot camps. We're creating a whole new lifestyle and way of living for our fellows. On the agency side, we have relationships and partnerships with the top agencies in the United States (Dentsu, Hawke Media, etc.), and we're building alongside them to create the future of skill training.
Takeaway: Ensuring User “Buy-In” Into The Mentorship Program
What are the key lessons have you learned so far from your journey to achieve product-market fit?
It is incredibly important that a user of our program has "buy-in."
For colleges, they have solved this issue in education by charging a large amount of money to their students.
We want everyone to access our education, so we've had to do things differently. We've experimented with many different models, and the iteration of SkillBank that you see today has been set up in such a way as to reward motivated fellows for making it through the program for a very low cost.
What’s the hardest problem you’re facing now after solving the prior one(s)?
Now, we are focused on finding multiple talent streams. Our fellows need to be motivated people that want to land a job in the next 3-6 months. Many boot camps are dependent on paid media to find new students. While it's a faucet that provides reliable results, we're building more sustainable talent discovery options.
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