ITProTV

Tim Brume and his co-founder Dom ran a successful brick-and-mortar IT training business in Gainesville, Florida for 15+ years. They were award-winning and profitable, but the model felt broken. Every month started at zero revenue. Courses cost $2,000–$25,000, placing them out of reach for most learners. And despite 100 sales conversations monthly, they landed just one enrollment. The other 99 interested people—unable to afford it, too geographically distant, or unable to secure a loan—were left behind. "We really originally started out looking for something for the 99," Tim recalls. The spark: what if we could sell a single video course for $99 and serve those people at scale?

Neither Tim nor Dom had video production experience. They set up a camera in front of a wall and started making content. Rather than over-engineer, they watched their own videos on a Roku device each night and iterated. They recreated the same DNA that made their in-person classes work: teaching one course per week, with two instructors having a natural dialogue about the subject rather than a scripted lecture.

They launched a subscription model—$57/month or $570/year for unlimited access (later promoted at 50% off: $28.50/month or $285/year). To get content onto devices quickly, they launched a Roku app before their website was ready to process payments. So they made everything free. This turned out to be genius: even today, 30% of their audience watches on TV (Roku or Apple TV), penetrating the living room in a way competitors hadn't. When they finally launched their website, they discovered they'd built it only for the US (no state field for Canada), but their reach was already global.

Tim's big insight came from his own origin story. In 1999, he'd quit trucking to enter IT after watching Leo Laporte on *The Screensavers*. When launching ITProTV, he wanted to advertise on Leo's show—now streaming as TWiT.TV. Leo didn't know them and initially declined. So Tim and Dom packed up and flew to California, met Leo and his wife Lisa in person, shared their story and their why, and made a personal connection.

Leo gave them a shot. Their first ad ran on October 23rd, 2012. Tim watched Google Analytics in real-time as the ad went live—visitors jumped from 30 to 100 to 250 to 300. "We were jumping up and down screaming," he recalls. That first month, credit card sales exceeded the advertising spend. From day one, they were cash-flow positive on that channel. Leo's endorsement—"These are good guys with a good product, go support them"—resonated deeply with his tech enthusiast audience. In year one, 70–80% of ITProTV's revenue came from Leo's listeners.

Year one: $1 million in revenue at an average of $30/month per subscriber (85% paying annually). Tim had run both the old business and ITProTV side-by-side for a year; the old business funded the new one. At the end of year one, he sold the brick-and-mortar operation. Year two jumped to $3 million. Year three to $5.7 million. Year four: on track for $9 million.

But growth wasn't purely from Leo. Tim and Dom invested in other podcast ads and channels—most failed. They tried banner ads and pre-roll. Nothing stuck. The winning pattern was clear: only trusted voices mattered. People wanted honest recommendations from someone they knew or respected.

Another accidental discovery: B2B. They were selling direct-to-consumer, but IT professionals would watch courses, love them, go back to work, and tell their boss. The boss would call Tim and ask for a 20-user license. Tim was unprepared to handle B2B, but the groundswell was undeniable. He eventually hired a sales team. Now, five years in, large corporations and prominent universities subscribe. "Imagine if I would have started two years earlier," Tim reflects. "How many more people could we empower?"

Tim's biggest lesson came from the brick-and-mortar years: leadership and culture matter more than he'd initially believed. He and Dom read Jim Collins's *Good to Great*, took the team through Simon Sinek's *Start with Why*, and flew 19 team members to Vegas for a Zappos customer service workshop. When launching ITProTV, they reset: hire for culture first, treat your team as your top priority, and trust that a happy team delivers great products and customers that sustain the business.

By year four, ITProTV was profitable and on track for ~$9M ARR. Tim initially tried to maintain 20% profit margins but realized that was premature. At their stage, reinvesting in marketing and product made more sense. So he pivoted: planning a capital raise to fund aggressive marketing, sales team expansion, and website development. His vision: achieve 2–3x year-over-year growth and build toward $40–50M ARR, competitive with major players like LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Learn, and Skillsoft—while remaining true to the culture and entertaining, human-centered format that got them there.

Today, ITProTV serves members in over 170 countries. They produce new content every day across five video studios. Content creators are called "edutainers"—subject-matter experts who spend half the day in studio (8:30am–4:30pm) and half preparing labs and materials for tomorrow's shows. There are still untapped opportunities: Microsoft reports 50 million IT professionals worldwide with a ~3-year shelf life, meaning constant demand for certification and upskilling. "Imagine if we could empower 100,000 or 200,000 people around the world by learning more," Tim says. "That's an amazing opportunity for just a group of people in Gainesville, Florida."