The Strategy
The plan is to create content and roll out incrementally.
Phase 1: Launch the and simultaneously relaunch YouTube
The Formula guide should be the affordable entry to learning the most powerful part of Coda, the Coda Formula Language. I’ve already planned it and collected 30 pre-sales. I’m planning to sell it approximately at $59–$129. This should be the ‘economy of scale’ offer. Even with 1M existing users to roll out to and the pessimistic conversion rate of 0.5% at the lowest price it is capable of turning in ~$250,000 worth of sales after fees and taxes, making the next step possible without raising. I don’t expect high marketing expenses as Coda should help me promote the guide across its user base as they’re also interested in increasing their users’ happiness.
Simultaneously I plan to relaunch investing into better production. Videos should become more precise, bite-sized, and appealing to all new Coda users. They will upsell on the Formula Guide and ultimately the courses. Duration of the phase: 2 months.
Phase 2: Launch the and Doc Templates
The Fundamentals Course is a VOD course about all the essential functionality of Coda along with tips, tricks, gotchas, common idioms, and best practices. It is already planned and with a cohort of 14 students each paying $399–$799 per seat (depending on their Patreon membership status). Simultaneously I will be producing doc templates, free or affordably priced, for common needs similarly to how Notion Partners do this. The main goal of these templates will be to increase the reach of Coda, inspire to learn more about the platform, and upsell.
Duration of the phase: 4 months.
Phase 3: Launch extra courses on Design Patterns, Performance, and Making Packs
Complimentary to the Fundamentals Course will be the additional VOD courses that will offer deeper dives into data design, UI/UX design, optimizing docs for longevity and scale, and creating connectors to 3rd party services. These will be sold as individual extras at $499–$1499 or as a bundle along with the Fundamentals at $2499, and together form the complete curriculum for the Certification Program.
With 25,000 paying teams at the moment and pessimistic conversion of 0.5% this is capable of generating ~$300,000 in revenue shortly after the launch. With the hope that previous steps will also help with the spread and adoption of Coda, I expect this to grow into substantial and stable recurring monthly revenue.
Duration of the phase: 4–6 months.
Phase 4: Launch the Certification Program and the Network of Coda Experts
The end goal is creating a network of rigorously selected Coda Experts and establishing it and myself as a no-brainer choice to go for Coda help. An applicant would have to buy and complete the full bundle of courses before enrolling in a live program with me or another certified expert. I will train and test the first cohort myself, and the alumni would train and test the following cohorts.
The business model will then essentially be income from revenue sales + certification fee + recurring membership fee. Some of these can be waived if the person works as a mentor for subsequent cohorts.
The expectation is that as Coda adoption will rise, so will demand in Experts (think of any other Partners program for any enterprise SaaS in its prime, e.g. Salesforce or Hubspot.) If we can capture this market early, the dividends shall be juicy.
Duration of the phase: 4-6 months.