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➡️ About The Guest
Wes Kao is a marketing executive, entrepreneur, and advisor who writes a newsletter at newsletter.weskao.com. She is co-founder of Maven, a platform that empowers the world’s experts to offer live courses directly to their audience. Maven raised $25M from First Round Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, and has served more than 20,000 students. In 2022, Maven was named by Fast Company as the #1 most innovative company in education.
Previously, Wes co-founded the altMBA with bestselling author Seth Godin. The altMBA was the first mainstream cohort-based course and created the category. She grew the altMBA from zero to thousands of students in 550 cities in 45 countries in three years.
Her work has been featured in Fast Company, Business Insider, Inc, Entrepreneur, TechCrunch, and The Information. In 2021, she was selected by Entrepreneur magazine on the 100 Women of Impact list. She has spoken at SXSW and guest lectures at UC Berkeley and Harvard Business School.
➡️ Show Links
https://www.linkedin.com/in/weskao/
➡️ Podcast Sponsors
Collective - https://collective.com/success
Hubspot - https://hubspot.com/
Kajabi - https://kajabi.com/success (Code: success)
ButcherBox - https://butcherbox.com/success (Code: success)
Justin Wine - https://justinwine.com/ (Code: success)
Green Light - https://greenlight.com/success
Indeed - https://indeed.com/clary
The Product Boss Podcast - https://www.theproductboss.com/podcast
NetSuite — https://netsuite.com/scottclary/
Factor — https://factormeals.com/successpod50 (Code: successpod50)
HelloFresh — https://hellofresh.com/50successpod (Code: 50succespod)
ZBiotics — https://zbiotics.com/success (Code: success)
➡️ Talking Points
00:00 - Introduction
01:05 - Wes Kao’s Origin Story
05:28 - Founder Mindset Sans Title
12:22 - Unlocking Employee Creativity
21:43 - Maven's Inception
29:33 - Sponsor: The Product Boss
30:23 - Cohort-Based Learning Explained
38:05 - Accountability in Maven Courses
39:53 - Launching Maven: Lessons Learned
46:07 - The Thought Process Behind Scaling Maven
51:44 - Closing Thoughts from Wes
52:55 - Connect with Wes Online
53:08 - Overcoming Career Challenges
53:53 - The Most Impactful Person in Wes Kao’s Life
54:46 - Book and Podcast Recommendations
55:18 - Advice to 20-Year-Old Self
55:27 - Defining Success
