Kyle
Now that Groupon and LivingSocial have cornered the market for generalized, localized daily deals, we’re starting to see siloed startups across the globe create daily deals sites for other verticals. For example Paris startup LimeApp is a daily deals site specifically for online services.
A new Denmark startup, MindTeacher, is bringing the daily deals platform to online course offerings.
MindTeacher is connecting their users to classes for personal development. Whether you want to learn a language, a computer skill or even how to cook, you know you can find those classes online. However, there are 100s of websites to look towards for every different type of class. Also, there isn’t a site out there, yet, that’s offering classes at discounted rates. That’s what MindTeacher does.
MindTeacher is serving both the teachers and the students. For the teachers, MindTeacher is available to help them sell, or sell out online courses that need a little extra push. For students, it helps them find classes at more affordable rates. Using MindTeacher’s deal platform a student that could only afford one class may now be able to afford more.
We got a chance to talk with the people behind MindTeacher. Check out our interview below:
What is MindTeacher?
MindTeacher is an awesome new deal site where you can get major discounts on online courses geared toward personal development. What we do is we promote quality online courses for our partners in order to give their products exposure and give our users a discount for a limited time. So say, for example, that you want to learn French or you want to improve your interviewing skills, but you don’t have time or money to go take courses at a college— MindTeacher makes it super easy for you to just download or stream the courses on your own time! Not only do we scout the best products and negotiate crazy good deals, but sometimes we also find awesome free stuff. We take all this stuff and post it in one place for you to find!
Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?
The guy who dreamt this all up is Martin Fenge, born and raised in Denmark, but Italian at heart. He’s originally a web designer with his own graphic design company. Sarunas is originally from Lithuania. He’s a web guy with his own web development company, but he also studies marketing. The marketing brains and serial start up member is Sara Green , who is also from Denmark. She used to work for YouNoodle in San Francisco.
Where are you based?
We’re currently based in Aarhus, Denmark.
How did you/they come up with the idea for MindTeacher?
Martin has always been fascinated with self-improvement resources and has been a frequent reader of Timothy Ferris’ blog. Posts about both Noah Kegan’s AppSumo and digital products in general, gave him the idea for making a deal site for self-development that’s applied through digital courses. The fact that people can access the courses from anywhere inspired him to take action on the idea.
What is the problem that MindTeacher solves?
There are A TON of online courses available, but it’s a jungle out there. How do you know which ones are high quality? MindTeacher serves as quality control for our users, since we do all the quality checks. On top of that, we negotiate discounted prices on these courses.
Who is your target user?
We focus on people who are interested in learning new things, haven’t got a lot of time, try to save money, and are self-motivated. Our typical user is familiar with computers, tablets and smartphones and appreciates the flexibility that online courses give.
What is your secret sauce?
The secret sauce that puts the finishing touch to our startup burger is our style and our sense of humor. We’re not your grandma’s coupon site (sorry grandmas). We bring a bit of edgy entertainment in the courses we choose and the way we present the deals. Not to mention, our startup members are from all over the world, so we’ve also got that international flavor, which we couldn’t do without in a global market. Also, it doesn’t hurt that we’ve won an entry to a mentorship, where we’re being guided by some of the founders of two of Denmark’s most successful startups, JustEat and Wupti.
What’s one dilemma you’ve faced or are facing in the startup process?
The same dilemma that most startups face, having to juggle the time between full-time jobs, studies, and our startup. While for the most part it’s a great advantage having 9 people on the team, each with our own responsibilities, it can also be hard to organize at times because of the differences in our schedule.
What’s next for MindTeacher?
We’re getting ready to start putting up our first deals and moving towards promoting and featuring quality courses on a regular basis, and otherwise establishing our website as the go- to-place for those of you who want to improve yourself.
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