The archive · Education & Work · Product decision · 2014
SlideRule bet sequenced learning paths could teach web dev from scratch
Course-catalog startup SlideRule launched by publishing one co-founder's self-taught web-dev route; the 2014-03-31 Show HN drew 368 points and 107 comments.
SlideRule
What the business is
SlideRule is a Yelp-like catalog of online courses where users review courses and track which ones they enrolled in, completed or dropped, launched with curated Learning Paths that sequence free resources into a curriculum for absolute beginners.
How it started
The founders behind the Show HN were building SlideRule, which they described as a Yelp-like catalog of online courses where users review courses and track progress on a dashboard. The Learning Path itself came from co-founder Parul: she had taught herself web development from free online resources and found the hardest part was knowing what to learn next, so the team turned her actual route into a sequenced curriculum built around Udacity's CS253 and CS101 with bridge content, a Django landing-page course, Git and browser tools, and published it on their site.
What happened
Gautam posted the path as a Show HN on 2014-03-31. It drew 368 points and 107 comments: users praised the idea, debated the ordering of CS253 before CS101, asked for Rails, JavaScript, AI, data-analysis and devops paths, and pointed at rivals like The Odin Project that added hands-on projects. Spez defended his course's choice of webapp2 over Django, and the founders answered almost every comment, invited volunteers to author paths, and pushed a data-analysis Learning Path alpha live within days while promising a Rails track if demand appeared. One user hit a CSRF signup error and the team asked for details to reproduce it; another asked directly how SlideRule would earn money, which went unanswered in the thread.
No ending yet — it is still running.
Background
SlideRule is a Yelp-like catalog of online courses where users review courses and track which ones they enrolled in, completed or dropped, launched with curated Learning Paths that sequence free resources into a curriculum for absolute beginners. The founders behind the Show HN had built the catalog first, then realized their strongest asset was co-founder Parul's own experience of teaching herself web development.
The Learning Path came from that experience: Parul had found the hardest part was not finding courses but knowing what to learn next, so the team sequenced her actual route - Udacity's CS253 and CS101 with bridge material, a Django landing-page course, Git and browser tools - around free Python and Django resources and published it on their site. Gautam posted it as a Show HN on 2014-03-31.
The post reached the front page with 368 points and 107 comments. Users praised the idea, debated course ordering, asked for Rails, JavaScript, AI, data-analysis and devops paths, and pointed to rivals like The Odin Project; Reddit co-founder spez, who taught Udacity's course, joined to defend webapp2. The founders answered almost every comment, invited volunteers, and shipped a data-analysis path alpha within days. The material records no funding, user numbers or later outcome, so the case stops at a live product whose launch had just validated the roadmap.
What has to be true
- The pain for self-taught beginners was not finding courses but knowing the right order, which a sequenced path solved in a way a raw directory could not.
- The path was credible because it was the author's own tested route, not an editor's list of everything available.
- Leaning on free resources matched the audience of self-taught beginners and removed the paywall objection from the launch.
- The launch thread worked as live market research: Rails, JavaScript, AI, big-data and devops requests set the roadmap for free.
- Fast follow-through - a data-analysis alpha within days - turned one day of attention into momentum instead of a one-off post.
What can be applied
A real user's sequenced route proves a catalog better than any listing: it demonstrated demand, seeded the roadmap, and turned the launch thread into free product research.
Aftermath
As of 2014-03-31, with the discussion continuing into early April, SlideRule was live with a web-dev Learning Path, a weekly newsletter, and accounts that let users review courses and track progress; a data-analysis path was already in alpha and more paths were planned. The material records no funding, user counts or later outcome.
Sources
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe what you are building, and see who is betting on the same thing.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card