Thread by @AustenAllred

Time for a story, since @gustaf is asking for some stories about talking to users for a YC presentation.

This is how Lambda School was born, and it's way less sexy than everyone assumes.

We started out as an "online code bootcamp," and taught a huge free class to spur interest. We knew it was (and is) a super crowded market. So we just taught a free, month-long class, put up a paid version, and started asking everyone individually why they wouldn't join.

I was literally sending 1,000+ personalized emails per day *by hand*.

Pretty soon we realized literally everyone was saying, "That's awesome, but I can't afford the risk." So we started figuring out how to make it risk free.

We started talking to employers, and they said, "Yeah of course we have hiring needs, but we need people that know x y and z, and only universities teach x y z." Why can't a code bootcamp teach x y and z? Because they're not long enough.

So we made Lambda School longer, taught computer science.

We have never done anything wise or special, we just try to listen to customers and try to make their demands happen, even when they seem impossible.

Really difficult to do, not difficult to know what to do.