Business Career Inspiration Youth

We sold courses worth Rs. 13.13Cr ($1.6M) – Ankur Warikoo

Inu Etc January 31, 2023Last Updated: January 31, 2023

2 minutes read

From Jan-Dec ’22 we sold 13Cr worth of courses, enrolling 185,000+ new students.

We run 4 courses currently.

1. Complete Guide to Starting up

Rs. 1,499 ($18)

37,800+ students

64% completion; 3% refund rate

Rs. 10L sales/mth ($12K)

2. Take Charge of Your Time

Rs. 399/699 ($5/$8)

208,600+ students

87% completion; 5% refund rate

Rs. 80L sales/mth ($100K)

3. How to YouTube

Rs. 1,499/1,999 ($18/$25)

5,400+ students

78% completion, 1% refund rate

Rs. 25L sales/mth ($31K)

4. How To Speak Effectively

Rs. 379 ($4)

30,700+ students

91% completion, 4% refund rate

Rs. 10L sales/mth ($12K)\

The courses are designed with 3 principles in mind.

1. Cost-effective (so that students get quality education at affordable prices)
2. Lifetime access (so that students pay once and reap benefits always)
3. Refundable (students can claim a refund if they don’t like the course)

To achieve this scale, we use digital marketing extensively, as against relying on my distribution.

While I have an 8M social media following, it was always a conscious call to not use my content as a sales engine. Instead, use it as a trust engine.

My content helps. My ads sell.

Ads cost almost 50% of the sales, making it the biggest cost item for this biz.

On a monthly basis, we spend between Rs. 50-70L on Google/FB ($70-90K), ensuring that every single dollar returns a dollar back, for every course, every month!

Organic sales are around 15%

This generates an operating profit of Rs. 40-60L per month ($50-75K) or an annual operating profit of Rs. 5-7Cr ($600K-900K) To manage this scale, our cost of operations is surprisingly (and consciously) low.

We run a no-code operation, so software is our biggest cost line item, after digital marketing.

Human resources are designed to be lean as well. We have a core team, comprising only 5 individuals besides me.

GJ, who heads the biz
Surabhi, who manages all operations
Ananya, who handles all customer queries
Hari, who manages all tech integrations
Nishant, who edits all videos

For every course, we build a temporary core team comprising Curriculum designers Instructors Editors & designers Teaching Assistants They come together, work remotely, create and deliver the course, and then dissolve.

All of this makes this biz generate an EBITDA (net profit) of Rs. 3Cr ($350-400K) translating into a ~20% EBITDA Margin. This biz has the potential to be 10X its current size, with better EBITDA margins.