Thats quite a good business model. Offer free course, earn money on textbook. I think the economic of scale here can give world class educators good incentives to teach good courses, and affordable enough for the masses to get the education.
Too bad the Lean Launchpad and Tech Entrepreneurship class seem to be gone. I was really looking forward to those.
Update, the Lean Launchpad course is not gone. Steve Blank just sent out an email notifying students that the class is delayed but will launch in the next 60 days.
I thought my hypotheses may have been incorrect because Steve Blank already has a book that he could use in the class (4 steps to the epiphany). However, looks like he is double timing it to release a new book for the Lean Launchpad class.
Snippets of the email from Steve Blank:
"First the bad news: I wanted to update you that the start of my upcoming online Lean LaunchPad will be delayed. But the good news is that, I will indeed be launching an online LaunchPad course. It will be offered within the next 60 days.
Why the delay? I am revamping the Lean LaunchPad class to base the new course on my new book, The Startup Owner's Manual (The book that is just what its subtitle says: the step-by-step guide to building a great company). This book replaces its 10-year-old predecessor, The Four Steps to the Epiphany. So the course and The Startup Owner's Manual will both provide you with ten years of real-world learning amassed since The Four Steps to the Epiphany was first published.
The Lean LaunchPad course will be in modules you can take asynchronously and digest at your leisure, ideally with your fellow startup team members. If you want to get a head start, you can buy the recommended text, The Startup Owner's Manual. (The book is recommended, but not required, for course participants.)"
Too bad the Lean Launchpad and Tech Entrepreneurship class seem to be gone. I was really looking forward to those.