The Early Days of Zenler Revealed - Online Course Platform

Manmeet Kaur Author

Jul 17, 2024 |

Have you ever been curious about how Zenler evolved from a small startup to the industry leader it is now?

How did Zenler Start?
Do You Know How Zenler's Journey Began?

What Challenges Did Zenler Face in Its Early Years?

"Success comes to those who adapt to market needs."

Even if you are a free user you are a valued part of the Zenler family. We've received numerous questions about our beginnings, and we feel it's the perfect time to share our story with you to foster a deeper connection.

The Early Days of Zenler - Back Story

Have you ever been curious about how Zenler evolved from a small startup to the industry leader it is now? Join us for a walk through our history, filled with challenges, changes, and remarkable victories!

Launched Microsoft PowerPoint Add-On Products in 2007

Launched SlideServe in 2008 - Presentation sharing platform

SlideServe is a global hub of professional content ranging from highly informative presentations & documents to mind-blowing presentation creation tools, lead forms, Interactive Quizzes, etc. SlideServe - a free service used by millions of visually minded people to host their presentations and allows them to view, share, and download presentations. 

Corporates can use SlideServe to archive their presentations/documents as well as promote their brand contents. SlideServe also comes with its own simple and easy to use presentation creation tool where you can create visually appealing slides in a few clicks.

World’s HTML5 Point First PPT to HTML 5 Converter in 2010
HTML5POINT SDK

World leader in PPT to HTML5 SDK technology with support for Animations, Transitions, triggers, hyperlinks & other multimedia Effects

HTML5Point SDK: PowerPoint to HTML5 Converter SDK (Software Developing Kit) is a sophisticated SDK Component, allowing you to easily integrate and leverage the world's first and leading PowerPoint to HTML5 conversion tool in an easy, fast and economical way by developers for desktop applications, Web applications or Web services.

Then we moved into eLearning

The first version of Zenler Studio eLearning Authoring tool & Zenler Learning Management System for Organizations launched in 2011

Zenler began with a simple yet ambitious goal, to streamline corporate training.

Our initial product, Zenler Studio, was an eLearning Authoring Tool and Learning Management System launched at the Learning Technologies Expo 2011 in London.

Zenler Studio eLearning Authoring Tool on Several Top Industry Award.

Our vision was clear—to make learning easy and accessible for organizations big and small, from SMEs like iSalon software to giants like Ferrari.

Facing the Giants and Exceeding them!

Despite our innovative approach, things didn't go quite as planned.

The corporate Learning & Development world was fiercely competitive, ruled by giants with deep pockets.

We realized that it took more than a great product to succeed—it required a massive sales force, something our bootstrap budget couldn’t support.

As we faced these tough realities and struggled to scale, we reached a critical crossroads and even considered shutting down.

But then, something unexpected gave us a new direction...

A Turning Point in Our Evolution 

While we were busy planning, life handed us a new opportunity—we just had to be observant and grab it. Out of the blue, an inquiry from an online course instructor highlighted a new path forward.

This wasn't just any query; it was a clear signal illuminating the untapped potential of serving independent course creators, who were craving more control and personalization than platforms like Udemy could offer.

Launched Zenler Online Schools in 2014

Our first Online School and the mark of our first online course platform, wow looking back at it now and we are lightyears away from this, but it marks a massive leap forward for us and was out first footing in this market place!

This marked the beginning of a significant pivot.

We shifted our focus towards empowering course creators like YOU to create, curate, and sell their courses directly from their websites.

Our changes and pivot revolve around our users

Clearly, Zenler is probably the only platform that makes new feature decisions around the instructor's need as a community this is what drives us!

• We had a lot of feature requests to upgrade the old Zenler platform
• Analysed all the data collected from over 10k+ Instructors
• Did hundreds of interviews with Course Creators

Our changes and pivot revolve around our users

"We asked instructors a Very Important Question"

"What is the Biggest Challenge in Selling Online Courses?"

The biggest challenge faced by course creators is

• Sales and Marketing
• Engagement

This was the birth of the Zenler Online course platform!

The Future of Zenler

Customise your sites with limitless design with our true drag and drop editor.
See Our Showcase Site

Reimagining new Zenler

• A new Online Course platform built from the ground up that’s centred around Marketing.
• A platform that supports all the marketing tools needed to Sell Courses
• A platform that helps you with all the Marketing funnels you need to generate leads & sales
• A platform where you see a bird eye view of exactly what’s happening
• A platform that helps you set up email marketing campaigns based on user activity
• A platform that helps you run Social Network Style Communities
• A platform that helps engage with your students using Live Video Classes
• A platform that helps promote your courses using Live Interactive Webinars
• A platform that helps promote your courses using Live Streams
• A Fully Featured Best In Class Online Course Platform
• All with ZERO Programming/Design/Marketing skills

• Automate your marketing
  
• Run Live Classes/ Interactive Webinars/ Livestreams
• Automate your email marketing
• Fully featured Online Course Platform
• Most Powerful Page Designer
• Click & Edit, Drag & Drop
• Create your own Community
• Run your own Blog
• We are obsessed with Support

What you need to know are our beliefs and our views

From this point Zenler moved forward extremely quickly with a few key differences from other platforms we are convinced the success of Zenler is developing based on our user's feedback

Offering free training for every user of our platform regardless of plan.

Offering free Live Support and workshops to all, even if they are not part of Zenler yet!

Pushing and motivating all to be better and think differently, we help them succeed in marketing as well as just platform-specific needs.

We Are Family

Zenler looks at all our users as a close family we listen and react to their needs, this is our mission statement and we know we are standing by our users in every way possible.

Don't take our word for it, see some of our testimonials or check out our Trust Pilot or G2 Reviews.

We are Zenler and we are here waiting for you!

More than 50k Instructors trust Zenler now to run Online Course Sites.

Categories: : Zenler Course Creation