I’m watching with fascination when our Tech Startup Customers leverage SkilledUp Life to the maximum. Such is the case of Michael Hoeft and his Learnhall.

The story before

I met Michael at Pioneer. He was one of the first tech founders to see the potential of SkilledUp Life. I try to help everyone who subscribes to SkilledUp Life, but he was one of those who didn’t want my specific help. He wanted to navigate and learn how to use SkilledUp Life by himself. For a long time, I feared this would result in churn, as you need patience in the early days to truly understand the potential of SkilledUp Life and find a way that it works for you and your tech startup.

When we eventually spoke

When we eventually spoke months after he joined, I was pleasantly surprised. Free talent from SkilledUp Life has not just helped, it has transformed his business. Check out the interview I conducted earlier with Michael here.

SkilledUp Life has been transformational for my business.  I went from running a lifestyle US-based tutoring business to more of a global potentially high-growth business.  I fell in love with my Nigerian volunteer team and I decided to really push in the direction of helping their people get good early internships and jobs in tech and beyond.  We are very nascent, but we all share a passion for helping reduce the youth (15-34 year-olds) unemployment rate thereof ~40%.  I am working with ~15 volunteers, most of whom are in Lagos, Nigeria, and they are a delight to Volunteer with as we all share the same goal: to help train young adult Nigerians to get the jobs of the future.    

Michael Hoeft, Founder and CEO, Learnhall

The transformation is not just the website – it’s the whole business and the target market moving from the USA to Nigeria and Africa.

  SkilledUp Life absolutely has been a god-send and Manoj is a very active Founder who wants his platform to solve real problems for both sides.  

Michael Hoeft, Founder and CEO, Learnhall

The three-fold evolutionary use case creating a significant unfair advantage

In the process of using our free talent, Michael has started to leverage SkilledUp Life like no other Tech Founder. Let’s analyse the stages he is going through.

Stage 1 – Growing his tech startup using our Talent Pool

This is the intended use case of SkilledUp Life. Once subscribed, for as little as £30/month (depending on the stage the tech startup is in), you can use unlimited free talent to build and grow your business. In this case, Michael has used the free talent to:

• Validate his concept and conduct market research which led him to ditch the USA and focus on Nigeria.
• Create a new value proposition as he learned about the market needs of Nigeria and the wider African continent.
• New website and the value proposition.

Stage 2 – Leveraging our talent pool to generate revenue

Learnhall has evolved to provide e-learning courses. To provide such, he would need tutors. Where would you go to find tutors? We now have a talent community of 6,594 individuals from 85 countries. Surely, there must be a few who qualify as tutors?

As they say, the proof is in the pudding. Michael has not just founded free talent to steer his company, but the free talent has now become the product. Amazing win-win.

Stage 3 – Selling to our talent pool (yet to come I believe)

I have not yet spoken to Michael about this, but we all learn continually in order to remain relevant. I’m sure some of our 6,594 individuals from 85 countries would become his eventual customers.

Born is the first case study of a tech startup that has emerged to truly leverage the full potential of SkilledUp Life.

Why stop now?

Why stop at Stage 3? There are further stages, some of which could be:

• Stage 4 – Partnering with us to provide his students with Experience to improve their career prospects.
• Stage 5 – Partnering with our tech startup customers to expand their offer.
• Stage 6 – Partnering with our partners (this takes the biscuit) to take his tech startup to the next stage.

Who knows what other stages might emerge. I wish Michael and Learnhall all the best.

What about me?

Why let Michael have all the fun? Maybe I can also become a tutor on Learnhall? Two areas:

• How to build tech startups without breaking the bank and harming VCs? #NoVCHarmed
• How to get the maximum out of SkilledUp Life?