First of all... good blog post. Money quote: "Your universe is small and very hard to sell to."
Secondly, I hope I am not misunderstanding your comment, "... completely switch the CMS platform."
While it may not be clear in the slide, this is not a new CMS. It is a backup and security service for popular CMSes.
Secondly, I am not aiming this service at other developers. It's partially omitted in the slide but the market segment is administrators of sites that receive >15K uniques per month.
Administrators != Developers.
15K+ uniques per month implies traffic is high enough to monetize which means uptime is critical.
Does that alter your opinion? Or generally, are there any parameters on the slide that could be tweaked to reach a threshold of viability in your opinion?
Skillshare is just one competitor - there are several startups doing similar things. Do more research about competitive landscape.
Furthermore, you will also be competing with not-for-profits (khanacademy) and institutions (MIT Open Courseware, StanfordU on iTunes, etc) which offer free knowledge. Free is hard to beat.
Lack of a laser-focus: define a niche market of 'learners' seeking a particular kind of knowledge.
Lack of a value proposition: Read your pitch and ask yourself 'So What?'. Repeat as many times as necessary to refine your pitch until it resonates with your audience immediately.
If your idea is going to be built around attracting celebrity mentors or subject matter / industry experts then that's a very big challenge. What's your plan of attack for that?
I could go on, but I hope you get the point that what you are describing is a generic idea. You need to spend more time researching and refining it before anybody could provide you with any meaningful feedback about pursuing it as a business venture.
Investing in a C-corp keeps the personal taxes of the investors simple. LLC's are pass-through entities which means all income of the LLC must be mentioned on their personal tax returns via a K-1 schedule.
Secondly, I hope I am not misunderstanding your comment, "... completely switch the CMS platform." While it may not be clear in the slide, this is not a new CMS. It is a backup and security service for popular CMSes.
Secondly, I am not aiming this service at other developers. It's partially omitted in the slide but the market segment is administrators of sites that receive >15K uniques per month.
Administrators != Developers. 15K+ uniques per month implies traffic is high enough to monetize which means uptime is critical.
Does that alter your opinion? Or generally, are there any parameters on the slide that could be tweaked to reach a threshold of viability in your opinion?