We’re #3 on Paul Graham’s Frighteningly Ambitious Idea List

Is anyone else surprised at the number of frontpage articles name-checking pg this week?

This is very very a long shot project. I have watched colleges trying to get their first accreditation (I guess most likely going to be DETC in that case), but it is really a difficult process which gives them very little room outside of following the existing for-profit college business model. Plus the pricing is another issue. For example via distance CS Master Degrees at state colleges can go for under $10.000 (Columbus State, Dakota State). The other more important thing is brand building. And developing Top Education brand burns lots of money and time. But it is exciting to watch the new approaches to Education grow. Hopefully one or another are able to break out.

A similar discussion/blog post in a thread on another trending HN post:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3742455

Maybe we're all just seeing an end to the vague rhetoric about college "preparing you for life" rather than training you for the workplace.

No arguments on the long shot part, and you're right, focusing on accreditation does put some serious limitations on exactly how we can structure our business model. Not focusing on accreditation, however, means it is very easy to create a business model that is impossible to accredit. Udemy, for example, will never be able to achieve their original vision of being a real college or university because their business model relies so heavily on revenue sharing for the instructors, which is a big no no for accreditation boards.

Cost is actually the one area where we can compete very aggressively. Columbus state may be able to sneak under the $10k mark, but for an equivalent program we'll be just over $3k with a much more flexible and adaptable system. That number, btw, is with state and federal subsidies for the school, often upwards of $10,000 per student per year. We're coming in completely unsubsidized at a price that's less than a third of our cheapest competition with an offering that is significantly higher quality (we're competing with MIT for some of our professors).

Brand building really is the toughest nut to crack, and one what we have a couple different strategies for. Not really comfortable discussing those strategies on this forum, but let's just say we've thought a great deal about the problem.

Excellent point, and a strategy we have built in the learning system part itself. As odd as it may sound though, I actually wouldn't want to go up against Stack Overflow. They are a much more dangerous competitor than Stanford.