Cohort-based courses are everywhere these days. And for good reason. They create a sense of shared momentum. People learn faster and stick with it longer when they’re not doing it alone. A cohort adds community, accountability, and a built-in feedback loop to any learning experience.
But if you're a creator on Substack, teaching a cohort might seem tricky. Substack wasn’t designed as a course platform. There's no built-in curriculum builder, no fancy dashboards, no automatic progress tracking.
And that’s exactly why we chose to use it.
In June this year,
and I decided to teach our cohort courses right here on Substack rather than moving to an external platform and asking our readers to sign up somewhere else.We both did it differently, but for the same reason: to keep things simple, personal, and connected.
In this post,
- I’ll walk you through what a cohort actually is
- how it compares to a course
- why Substack works surprisingly well for it, and
- how we structured, priced, promoted, and executed our own.
Whether you're planning to launch your first cohort or wondering if it's worth the effort, this guide will help you get started.
No complicated tech. No extra logins. Just you, your content, and a group of motivated learners ready to go.