Podia did not start as a course-selling platform. Fry's own account is that it grew out of an idea he had been designing on the side in 2014 for online coaching in computer, card, and board games, which he then reworked into a marketplace for real-world tutors (branded Coach) before it settled into the current all-in-one storefront for creators.

“Podia was heavily influenced from an idea I'd been designing on the side in 2014 around "building a platform for people to get online coaching for computer games, card games and board games."”

Fry cold-messaged tutors he found on Craigslist in New York City to get them into meetings so he could interview them while building the early tutoring-marketplace version of the product.

“I used Craigslist to locate tutors in NYC who would meet with me.”

The first roughly half-dozen paying customers came out of the same self-funded, Craigslist-sourced tutor outreach and prototype-building phase; Fry does not spell out the specific moment or ask that converted them to paying, only that this early $30k self-investment period produced both a working prototype and the first customers.

“I invested $30k of my own money to get a prototype working and acquire our first half dozen customers”