How do you price your programs?

Let’s talk about what expertise actually costs.

If you could get the attention of a world-class expert (someone at the top of their field) they’d charge thousands of dollars an hour for corporate consulting. If you’re lucky and they like you, maybe they’d give you a break at $300-400 an hour.

Most people don’t understand this gap. They see a $12.99 Udemy course and a $500 professional program and think “why the difference?”

Because the stakes are different.

When it’s just exploration vs. when it matters

A $12.99 course is fine for casual learning. You’re browsing, getting a general introduction, seeing if something interests you. No pressure, low commitment. (And yes, sometimes you find great teachers there.)

There are free and $39/month automated sandbox learning systems that gamify you into thinking you’re learning. But as you probably already know, you come out the other end lost. Not only is your time valuable, but you can actually learn to think in ways that are incorrect and hard to untangle later.

But when it actually matters (when we’re talking about your career, major life decisions, the skills that will determine your next five years) everything changes.

Reading blog posts is not the same as learning from an expert who can see what you’re missing, challenge your assumptions, and guide you past the obstacles you don’t even know exist yet.

We don’t make “watch how I do it” courses

Those are cheap to make: record your screen for 40 hours, throw it online, done. That’s why they’re $25.

We build workshops. We test them. We run them with real students. We see where people get stuck, where they have breakthroughs, what actually works. Then we improve them. For years. Not to add more hours. Not to look polished and “cool.” But to do their job: to create the context for you to do the deeper, more meaningful learning.

Our programs aren’t built around tools and frameworks that will be gone in three years. We weave together principles that are timeless, that will prepare you for whatever comes next, regardless of what’s trending.

“But this other course covers the same topics for $25…”

Here’s what happens when you don’t know what you don’t know:

You compare syllabi. “This course teaches HTML and JavaScript for $25. This one teaches HTML and JavaScript for $500. Why would I pick the expensive one?”

Because you think those courses are the same.

When you see “HTML and JavaScript” on two syllabi, you assume you’re comparing apples to apples. But you’re not equipped yet to see the resolution difference: to understand that one is teaching syntax while the other is teaching how to think, how to make decisions, how to see patterns that will serve you for decades.

That’s why our programs are either very long or very deep. Because to understand each new level, you have to reach the place where you can see the options. Where you develop the judgment to know what matters.

You can’t shortcut that. And we won’t pretend you can.

We’ve experimented with every pricing model there is

Over the years, we’ve used Perpetual Education as a laboratory for pricing. We’ve tried everything:

• $10,000 upfront
• Completely free
• Monthly subscriptions
• Quarterly payments
• Apprenticeships and internships
• Pay-per-module
• Financing plans
• Loans
• Income share agreements

None of them had any notable benefit for the student

In fact, the people who took enrolled in DFTW for free almost always quit (with maybe one exception). We’ve had paid interns quit on their first day. We’ve had people pay $10k and finish strong. We’ve had people pay nothing and disappear.

The pattern became clear: It’s about fair exchange.

If you want this, show us. Trade us. Money is just the method of exchange: a way of saying “I’m committed, this matters to me, let’s do this together.”

The price filters for intent, not ability. And that intent is what determines whether you’ll actually do the work.

We know what we’ve built

We’re very confident that what we create is way ahead of anything else out there.

We know because we’ve audited hundreds of courses: simple video courses, framework-specific mentorships, altMBA programs, bootcamps, university classes, everything in between. We’ve seen what works and what’s just marketing.

But we also know because our students tell us. We see how much they’re able to accomplish. We watch them level up in ways that surprise even us.

And we know because we’re actually using these approaches in real work (not just making cute little courses). Our programs are built from living it, from running an agency, from shipping real projects, from teaching actual students for years.

Bring your expert friends

Come kick the tires. Test us.

Derek has interviewed and tutored hundreds of people from bootcamps and computer science programs – during and after graduation. We’ve seen the curriculums. We’ve watched how students learn. We see them struggle afterward and just how far from hireable they actually are.

Sure, you could say “this is just a way to sell your course.” But believe us – running free mentoring and open office hours every week for years, listening to people for hours and hours and hours, isn’t easy. It’s a trade. We get to learn about education, what works and what doesn’t. In exchange, we help people get back on track.

This stuff isn’t magic. You need a foundation. You need practice. You need to know what you’re doing and be able to keep learning on your own. And it’s a lot of soft skills too.

We’re an education consultancy. Our work here is about iteration and learning (for us too). If you don’t think our materials, our path, our pedagogy are working, let’s work on it together.

Show us other examples. Show us what’s working and why. We can build whatever you feel is missing as part of the program, in real time.

We’re designers who design designers. So it’s not about “being right.” It’s about building toward better and better education: together, and for the greater good.

What you’re actually paying for

Our courses cost $500-1000 because they’re worth 10x that.

You’re not buying videos. You’re buying breakthroughs. The kind that change how you think, open up new opportunities, and shift your trajectory.

There are also some really great and inexpensive subscriptions and targeted learning platforms that we recommend. But the key is getting to the place where you’re ready to extract that value. There are unlimited paths you could follow. We’ve outlined a path that is both practical and allows you to explore, learn, and pivot based on what you find. It’s much more about you than a course. It’s a course of action. It’s a program you run.

Even if you have just a few key insights, you’ll make back the investment many times over: in better career decisions, stronger work, clearer direction.

Most of our courses involve projects that could easily pay for the course. Your company can pay for it. Your family can give it to you as a gift. And there’s really no reason why you can’t use the program structure to work on real client projects who will pay you.

For the subscription courses like DFTW, you aren’t paying for videos. You’re renting space in our brains. We need to allocate time. We need to plan ahead. We need to be available for you.

If you’re not getting much more than the subscription price in value, you aren’t taking advantage of the program and you should stop. This way, you don’t get roped into some $20-30k bootcamp you soon realize you aren’t cut out for.

Our subscriptions, when viewed as what they really are, cost less than a few hours of coaching. If it’s not worth it to you, then it’s doing its job – making sure you’re not stuck in some unneeded subscription model. Your progress will be self-evident.

The price is high enough that we know you’re serious. It’s enough for us to cover the real costs of running a school: the research, the updates, the constant improvement, the infrastructure that keeps everything working.

And depending on the course, you’re getting hours of expert review, coaching, and consulting that would individually cost more than the entire program.

Cookbooks are great, but nothing beats time in the kitchen

You can read every cookbook ever written. But nothing will beat spending a month in the kitchen with your grandma or Gordon Ramsay.

The truth is, we should be charging more.

While everyone else is going for mass enrollment, discounts, email list growth, and creating entire webs of loss-leader teaser content… we’re not into that. We want to get straight to work.

These prices are extremely generous. An MBA might say idiotic. But let’s see how it goes.

Our goal is to empower as many designers as possible. Not with little tips and tricks and distractions, but with real power. To get out there and have autonomy in the world.

Maybe one day we’ll be able to subsidize that further. But for now, we’re proud of our pricing system, and we’re not concerned with what the lurkers think.

Oh, and if you want us to “prove it”? No – you prove it. Our programs have info sessions where you can meet the curriculum designers and instructors. There’s no sales team. In fact, we’re more likely to try and talk you out of it and redirect you to something more fitting.

If you have questions or want to talk about it, YOU show up. We’re not going to beg you to take care of yourself.

But the lurkers and complainers won’t show up. So that’s part of the filter. You have to be at a level of maturity to take advantage of what we do here.

Open invitation.

If you’re serious about real change, come see us.

You won’t regret it.