GrowthSchool is a learning platform offering cohort-based courses designed to teach real-world skills in a short period. It aims to attract industry leaders as mentors to help students become employable immediately. The company is supported by 80+ angel investors from Sequoia and Owl Ventures.
The topics covered in GrowthSchool are marketing, design, tech & data, product, business, and personal growth. Growth School also offers specialized programs for founders and those looking to shift their careers to growth hacking.
Growth School has received a mix of reviews from its users. Positive reviews include students praising the platform’s workshops as value-packed and action oriented. Some users have expressed dissatisfaction describing the courses as poorly structured and incomplete. There are also complaints about the excessive marketing of other courses during sessions.
Compared to other platforms, GrowthSchool has fewer programs on offer. However, these courses are led by industry experts, focusing on community learning, and emphasizing practical, real-world skills. Most of GrowthSchool’s main offers are also cohorts-based, which they claim to have limited seats for each period.
In this GrowthSchool review, we will discuss the platform’s program offers, mentorship application process, and the type of students the courses are designed for. In the end, we will also cover the site’s online reputation and the best businesses to start in 2024, with or without the help of GrowthSchool’s courses.
GrowthSchool Pros and Cons
Pros
Has a variety of programs covering a range of topics and duration.
Wealth of resources that comes with Pro membership.
The instructors are industry experts in their fields.
Cons
Some programs' content is said to be mediocre and can be easily found on YouTube.
Has a no refund policy.
Limited number of programs compared to its competitors like Udemy and Coursera.
Price
The cost of GrowthSchool varies based on its programs. Crash Courses can be as low as ₹299, and the Extensive Programs cost as high as ₹75K.
Refund Policy
GrowthSchool has a no refund policy for all of its programs.
Origin
GrowthSchool started in September 2021.
Reputation
GrowthSchool has a review score of 4.4 from Trustpilot.
The session was very informative. The product being promoted, which aims to automate LinkedIn growth hacking using AI, is undoubtedly excellent. However, it’s important to remember that a human, not AI, will be using these tools, requiring time to learn and implement them effectively. Instead of offering everything as a package, it would be more beneficial to focus on mastering one aspect at a time. This approach would likely be more affordable as well.
What Are the Features of GrowthSchool?
The features of Growth school are its expert-led courses, focus on real-world skills, practical approach, exclusive mentorship, and job-hunting assistance. The platform also encourages community learning and active networking among students, mentors, and alumni. These features aim to create an environment that not only teaches theoretical knowledge but also prepares students for the challenges of the professional world.
The learning methods used in GrowthSchool are:
To help with professional development, GrowthSchool offers a variety of programs in its “Personal Growth” category. Generally speaking, all GrowthSchool programs should help with professional development. But some knowledge sets or skills are considered “must-haves” for modern professionals. So, they dedicate courses for them as part of the “Personal Growth” category.
Here are some examples of the “Personal Growth” courses:
- Digital Marketing by Naim and Krishni Miglani.
- LinkedIn Workshop by Vaibhav Sisinty
- ChatGPT Workshop by Vaibhav Sisinty
Depending on the course, GrowthSchool also offers a job guarantee program (more like job hunting assistance since there is really no guarantee). For example, GrowthSchool’s Full Stack Development Course comes with a 100% job assistance and support program. This includes 1:1 mentorship, LinkedIn-GitHub profile optimization, mock interviews, job referrals, and more. GrowthSchool is also set to build a job board for its students and Pro members.
What Is GrowthSchool Pro?
GrowthSchool Pro is an exclusive membership program offered by GrowthSchool. It provides a wealth of resources and benefits to help individuals speed up their personal and professional growth.
Here’s what you can get as a GrowthSchool Pro member:
What Are the GrowthSchool Programs?
The GrowthSchool programs are the following:
Extensive Programs
Crash Courses
Self-Paced Programs
Career Accelerator
These divisions are based on the courses’ duration, pacing, and focus. Each topic category has courses under these divisions. Some courses are part of multiple topic categories.
What Are GrowthSchool Career Accelerator Programs?
The GrowthSchool Career Accelerator programs are courses designed to help individuals transition into new careers or enhance their current roles. Here are some examples of GrowthSchool’s Career Accelerator programs:
What Are GrowthSchool Extensive Programs?
The GrowthSchool Extensive Programs are comprehensive courses for building a strong career foundation in various fields. They often last for weeks or even months of cohort-based learning sessions.
Here are some of example of GrowthSchool’s Extensive Programs:
What Are GrowthSchool Crash Courses?
The GrowthSchool Crash Courses are short programs that provide quick and intensive training on specific skills. They often last a few hours to a few days of live and recorded sessions.
Here are some examples of Crash Courses offered on GrowthSchool:
Who Is GrowthSchool For?
GrowthSchool is for:
Industry experts are also welcome to apply as a mentor on GrowthSchool. Once accepted, the platform will provide curriculum design assistance, technical help, and marketing support to ensure that their course reaches a wide audience.
How to Apply as a GrowthSchool Mentor?
To apply as a mentor at GrowthSchool, you can follow these steps:
You can choose to build a guide, a crash course, or an extensive program depending on the time that you can commit. It will also depend on GrowthSchool’s review decisions on your application.
There are no clear qualifications for the instructors of GrowthSchool. But based on the site’s web copy and marketing materials, GrowthSchool instructors are selected from the top 1% of professionals in their respective fields. They are industry leaders and experts who have a proven track record of success.
What Are the GrowthSchool Reviews?
The GrowthSchool reviews are about the great value of its courses, practicality, and the quality of its mentors. It has an impressive 4.4 score in Trustpilot, with nearly 6K reviews. Vaibhav’s LinkedIn Workshop is one of the most praised programs on the platform.
GrowthSchool also has a significant number of negative reviews. Some are even questioning the legitimacy of the positive review, saying they are demanded from students or bought.
Here are some of the positive reviews of the platform.
The most recent reviews are about Vaibhav’s LinkedIn Workshop, while some reviews are about the other Crash Courses. I could not find any recent review from a student who has studied with one of the Extensive or Career Accelerator Programs.
GrowthSchool’s negative Trustpilot reviews are mostly about the poor structure of some courses, unfulfilled promises for free resources, lack of access to the courses, and the excessive marketing of more expensive programs. Some entries talk about being asked to write a review in exchange for additional content. Here is an example.
Asking for a review should not be a problem as long as it is not taking so much time, especially in a crash course. However, some people may view it as cheating if the one asking for review is giving something in exchange.
The following reviews talk about buying a program but being unable to access the resources. They also share about reaching out to GrowthSchool’s support and not getting any response.
Another review talks about the excessive time spent on marketing other courses. It happened during a 5-day crash course. Some also complain about the mediocrity of the course content. They say you can get the same value from free YouTube videos.
Who Is Vaibhav Sisinty?
Vaibhav Sisinty is an entrepreneur and speaker known for his expertise in growth hacking in marketing. Along with his friends, he founded an award-winning digital media company, CrazyHeads, at 19. Vaibhav is also recognized for his online courses and workshops that focus on growth hacking strategies. He was popular on platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn.
After CrazyHeads, Vaibhav joined Uber as a city coordinator. He was later promoted as a marketing manager, in which he was supposed to be assigned to Mexico City. The plan was postponed, and Vaibhav later joined Klook. During the pandemic, Vaibhav gained huge traction as an education influencer, so he formed his own ed-tech platform, GrowthSchool.
Vaibhav Sisinty is the owner, founder and CEO of GrowthSchool. He also offers consulting services for brands and speaking engagements to various institutions. Vaibhav Sisinty graduated from the GITAM Deemed University, with a degree in Computer Science.
Online Businesses to Start in 2024
GrowthSchool offers a range of programs that can help you build a strong career, including mentorship in D2C (Direct to Consumer) business, management consulting, and courses on generative AI for founders and business. You can use them for career advancement or in seeking new employment opportunities. Another great option is to start an online business.
After completing courses from GrowthSchool, you can consider starting the following online businesses:
I tried most of these business models. While they are proven to be profitable, they also have their share of disadvantages. After trying them all, I stick to local lead generation as the best online business to start in 2024.
Create Passive Income with Local Lead Generation
Local lead generation does not require advanced technical skills, and it is not a costly business to start up either. This does not mean that it is easy, but it definitely tops most online business models regarding profitability and scalability. Local lead generation also opens the possibility of earning consistent passive income for long periods.
To start, you need to understand the fundamentals of SEO. Local lead generation involves building a niched website and ranking it on local search engine results. Thus, you only need to focus on one aspect of SEO, and that is “local SEO.” Locally ranked websites are natural lead magnets. These leads make your site valuable for local businesses.
As a digital real estate, you are renting out your ranked websites to local businesses. You can charge $500-$3000 for each site monthly. Since you are using organic traffic to generate leads, local generation has higher profit margins compared to most online businesses. Your ranked websites can also stay at the top of local search engine results for long periods and with minimal maintenance. This is how local lead generation creates passive income consistently and with much room for scalability.
