The fourth question on our application form asks whether you have a computer. If the answer is no, you do not get a call. People sometimes find that harsh. Here is the reason, with the numbers.
What our data shows
When we looked at hundreds of paid students, the ones who owned a laptop kept and finished the program about twice as often as the ones who did not. It was a stronger predictor than age, than city, than whether they had tried e-commerce before. The combination of no laptop, no experience and no budget produced a return rate above 90%: almost nobody in that group made it to the end.
Why a phone is not enough
- Building a store, editing product pages and checking a theme is a desktop job. It can be done on a phone; it cannot be done well, or fast.
- The Meta ads manager on a phone hides half of what you need to read.
- The AI tools we teach run in a browser with several tabs open, files, exports. A phone screen turns a ten-minute task into an hour.
- The habit matters. Sitting at a desk for two hours is a different commitment than scrolling on a couch.
What we tell people who do not have one
Come back the day you do. A second-hand laptop is enough; nothing in either program needs a powerful machine. We would rather lose your application today than take your money and watch you stop at week two. That is also why the guarantee exists: we want people who can do the work.