Dev Slopes

Dev Slopes emerged from founder Mark Price's frustration with the constraints of selling coding courses on third-party platforms like Udemy. While Price had built an impressive audience—40,000 students on Udemy alone—he realized these marketplaces limited the learning experience he could deliver. He couldn't customize the interface, test new features, or control the platform's direction. More critically, if Udemy or Creative Live changed their policies or disappeared, his entire revenue stream would vanish. The solution was clear: build their own platform.

The company launched in March 2016 with an ambitious vision: create a learn-to-code platform available across iOS, macOS, and tvOS that would guide beginners to "paid professionals." To fund the build, Price and team ran a Kickstarter campaign that surprised even them—raising $190k despite software projects typically underperforming on the platform. The success came from Price's sales ability and a pre-existing community of 10,000 people he'd cultivated through earlier course sales. An additional $300k came from private investor RedFu, bringing total initial funding to roughly $500k. With an 8-person team (3-4 focused on content creation), they balanced platform development with continuous course production.

Dev Slopes' growth model was deliberately multi-pronged. Their primary revenue engine remained the platform-parasitic approach: they continued uploading their best 30-60 hour courses to Udemy, Creative Live, Skillshare, and Lynda.com, earning affiliate commissions. Udemy alone accounted for 90% of their revenue. In their first year (2016), this approach generated $600k in revenue from over 100,000 students. However, VP of Product Evan Leong explained they maintained strategic control: they kept their comprehensive courses on Udemy (where they performed best) while experimenting with shorter "target topics" courses (2-3 hours) on their own platform.

In the month before the interview, Dev Slopes launched their native SaaS model—$15-20/month subscription plans for all-access content through their own iOS/macOS apps. The initial results were modest but promising: 130 paying subscribers generating $2,600 in monthly recurring revenue. They experimented with Facebook ads but saw no meaningful customer acquisition from paid marketing. The real advantage of their own platform was control: they could push new "target topics" courses weekly to keep subscribers engaged and combat churn, something impossible on third-party marketplaces. The Mac App Store feature (acquired through a standard submission form) boosted daily Mac downloads from 50 to 200-400, validating the distribution opportunity.

Dev Slopes operates a hybrid revenue model: 90% from Udemy affiliate commissions, with a nascent SaaS arm ramping up. Their stated goal is $1M annual revenue for the current year. With an 8-person team bootstrapped from Kickstarter and private investment, they're attacking two distinct markets simultaneously—the high-volume, low-margin affiliate channel and the higher-margin, higher-control SaaS subscription model. The real bet is whether they can retain subscribers long-term and grow the SaaS side without cannibalizing their Udemy presence.