Why we created Filtered
We teach just what you need to learn
Our story starts in 2007 when one of my co-founders Marc Zao-Sanders realised that one of the most popular and fundamental of tools — Microsoft Excel — was poorly used and not very well understood. We wanted to change that.
Two years later, along with another former colleague of Marc’s — Chris Littlewood — and myself we set about teaching the world Excel how to use it effectively in the workplace. No longer would you have to sit through hours of ‘advanced’ Excel classes not knowing the difference between a HLOOKUP and a VLOOKUP. We also noticed that too many courses were ‘one-size-fits-all’ and not tailored to the needs of the individual.
Up went a website — www.excelwithbusiness.com — to test and train people in Excel and we were very proud. We started to get it in front of people who appreciated Excel, e.g. accountants, and we grew the business from there. Within four years we have sold nearly 300,000 courses worldwide, grown our site of courses from Excel (to the obvious Word and PowerPoint) but ventured (successfully) into web design, app design, accounting, beauty and now DIY (home improvements).
From those humble beginnings and focus on Excel, we wanted to build and prove through an MVP that our approach — to reduce an individual’s learning —could in fact be extended to larger businesses and corporates. Filtered was born in the summer of 2013.
Filtered is a clean, attractive and built-from-the-ground website which aims to strip out anything you already know or that you don’t need to learn. Thus, leaving the filtrate — the stuff we consider to be important to you. This adapative form of education is both new and intelligent.
Filtered really comes into its own in the business world. With dashboard and report functionality for managers in small businesses or large corporates, we are able to deliver just the type of information needed to them when they want. No longer do they have to contend with ugly LMS’s to which only a few people in a far-away office have access.
In time we hope to increase the courses available to our learners and would welcome any suggestions for either features or course ideas. We love teaching and sharing new ideas, and we believe that Filtered does this in one of the most effective and engaging ways on the internet.
By Vinit Patel, Co-founder of @filtered_courses
