The post was originally published in Russian on Startup of the Day. Alexander kindly agreed to republish what we think is of great value to our readers.
There was an ad on Facebook: get a profession in six months, it has wow salaries, all our students get jobs, leave your doubts, discounts for the course only today. Nothing unusual, everybody saw something like this. The only detail that catches the attention is that Talentsy, the startup of the day, doesn’t train some trivial programmers or online training producers, it trains psychologists.
I got interested, I clicked, I left a request. The manager called me back in a couple of hours and was pleased to answer all my questions. Yes, they train, yes, psychologists, yes, in six months, no, no prior medical training is needed, but you do need higher education. So what if it usually takes ten years, we do it faster, ‘everyone has their own approach’ – that’s a direct quote. Yes, we are licensed, yes, we issue a diploma. Yes, it spells psychologist.
I am going to earn 3-5 thousand ruble / ~40-65 dollars per session, three sessions a day, 20 days a month, I get about 180 thousand ruble / ~ 2400 dollars. Nobody guarantees income, but that’s about what good students get. They will also teach me to attract clients, the curriculum dedicates a whole month to building a personal brand on Instagram. They will give me my first paying clients already during the course: the instructors are so popular that they cannot accept all the clients so they share with students. But, you understand, it will be only 1000 ruble / ~15 dollars per session.
The course costs 150 thousand ruble / 2000 dollars (only today, the regular price is higher), you can pay in parts or get an additional 10% off if you pay instantly. Their LLC’s revenue in 2020 was 50 million ruble / ~650 thousand dollars, there is no information about 2021 yet.
Someone might consider Talentsy’s existence a reason for stricter regulations. It seems to me, it’s a reason to cancel those regulations. They do have a license. They will get any other paper by any new rules faster than many other educational projects.
If there is direct harm, then the regular criminal code must work. If nobody gets hurt – then we have no argument. If there is harm, and the criminal code doesn’t work – then that’s what needs to be fixed instead of picking on online education.
#education #russia #bootstrapped #darksideofhteforce
Translation: Kostiantyn Tupikov
Alexander made his career in Russian internet companies including Mail.Ru, Rambler, RBC. From 2016 to 2018 he was Chief Strategy and Analytics officer in Mail.Ru Group. In this position, he worked on M&A, investments, and new project launches. In 2018 he became Deputy CEO in Citymobil, a Russian Uber-like company that was invested by Mail.Ru Group and Sberbank (the biggest Russian bank), then he left the company to launch his own projects. Now Alexander is a co-founder of United Investors – the platform for co-investments in Russian early-stage startups. His blog #startupoftheday (#стартапдня) is one of the most popular blogs about startups in Russia.
