THINKIFIC

Greg Smith was a Vancouver-based lawyer in 2012 who built an LSAT prep course and wanted a platform to sell it. Nothing on the market fit his needs, so he and his brother Matt built their own.

They quickly realized the platform itself was more valuable than any single course. They pivoted from being a course creator to being the tool other creators used, and Thinkific was born.

SaaS subscriptions with no transaction fees on paid plans. Creators pay monthly or annual fees for course hosting, payment processing, and marketing tools.

The zero-fee model on paid tiers was their primary differentiator from Teachable in the early years. They later expanded into communities, coaching, and digital downloads.

Thinkific course builder, Thinkific Communities, Thinkific Payments, Thinkific Apps marketplace, Thinkific Plus (enterprise tier), Thinkific digital downloads.

Attacked Teachable's transaction fee model head-on. Offering zero transaction fees on paid plans drove significant creator migration and acquisition.

Thinkific also expanded upmarket with Thinkific Plus (an enterprise tier) and built an apps marketplace to let third-party developers extend the platform.

The post-COVID correction hit hard. Online learning demand surged in 2020 and 2021 and Thinkific scaled aggressively to match.

When the world reopened, demand cooled. In June 2022, Thinkific laid off 20% of its workforce.

The pivot from growth-at-all-costs to profitable operations took two painful years.

Raised CAD $22 million in Series A in 2017 led by Rhino Ventures. IPO'd on TSX Venture Exchange in April 2021 at CAD $13 per share, raising approximately CAD $160 million.