How Coding Bootcamps use Community to get you to pay $20,000

Coding Bootcamps are 3 to 9 month intensive programs which aim to accelerate you through a curriculum that normally takes years in degree programs. The best ones are selective, have proven results, and cost anywhere around $20,000.

When you see that number, it is a little eye watering. It’s a lot of money, and you don’t know anything about these bootcamps. Will it work for you? Have others gotten results? Is it worth it? Will you even like it? These bootcamps have to somehow take you from being skeptical, to being a believer who spends $20k.

So what do they do? Do they target you with ads until you give in? Do they bombard you with emails? Do they pitch you hard over the phone? The interesting thing is that they do none of these things.

What they do is this: after you ask for more info, you are required to join their Slack group before an initial interview.

This is where you meet other applicants, from all kinds of backgrounds. They give you all a free beginner Javascript course. They give you free workshops. They have you work with other prospects in pair programming. You are required to do all this to qualify for the technical interview.

By taking you through these steps, over a period of roughly 3 months, they make you a believer. You now know how they teach. You have made progress in your skills. You have made friends in the group. You know this is legit. You believe you can do this, and you are hoping you even pass the technical interview. You want to pay them $20k.

That’s the power of community. Top coding bootcamps have assembled a system and team that leverages this to warm you up effectively in a short amount of time. They invest in their prospects at scale, build tremendous good-will and trust, and use interviews to qualify and make you work to even be considered to purchase their very high ticket offer. And it works, because they are actually good at what they do.

Maybe you can apply some of this techniques to your own community with Skool. There are lots of ways to innovate.

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