What is that mysterious industry?
When we hear "bestsellers" today, we think of book authors, music artists, or even products that are sold online. But something else has stayed under the radar, and yet, some of their creators have sold millions of copies. These are not books, not either music hits, these are online courses.
One of its top creators is Hadelin de Ponteves, a French entrepreneur who has sold 1.6+ million online courses in over 200 countries. That's close to the 2M+ sold copies of the bestselling book "The Power of Now". However, the latter was published in 2001, whereas Hadelin's online courses have been released since only 2017.
Hence online education is a fast-growing phenomenon. But that's not all. Guess what has been the main engine of this growth. Among these countries clients of Hadelin's online courses, one country is leading the way, with 300,000+ copies sold inside. And that country is India. 'I often visit Mumbai, India, and feel I have some connection with this land. My plan was to settle in Mumbai for a while, but things just got delayed because of the pandemic. My love for Bollywood is another reason I want to live in Mumbai' he adds.
Today, Hadelin has more than 1 million customers of his online courses, which is in line with his purpose to democratize Artificial Intelligence on a global scale.
Who is Hadelin de Ponteves?
Hadelin was born and raised in Paris, France, where he followed the traditional French education. Being skilled in mathematics, he decided to pursue his studies at the University of Paris Sud 11, where he earned a bachelor's degree in Pure Mathematics.
After ending up 2nd best student of the undergraduate program of his university, he attended the national competition for the French Engineering Grandes Ecoles, and got accepted to Ecole Centrale Paris, one of the most prestigious and selective institutions.
There he studied industrial engineering while practicing stage acting for theater as an extracurricular activity. In the middle of his master (2014), he decided to take a gap year and moved to LA to take a one-year acting class and practice acting deeper, but this time for the screen. He remembers it as one of the best experiences of his life.
Then in 2015, he moved back to France to complete the final year of his engineering studies, where he specialized in Artificial Intelligence. Right after his studies, he worked one year as a data scientist, where he accomplished his very first professional AI projects. During this same year, he developed the desire to become an entrepreneur and decided to take the leap in 2016. That's when he began his very first creation: Machine Learning A-Z, of which he released with his business partner Kirill Eremenko the first beta version at the end of 2016, and the full completed version beginning of 2017.
In 2018 he became the founder and CEO at a new company, BlueLife AI, which builds artificial intelligence for other companies and institutions. Within the scope of this business, Hadelin built several AIs, including a trading robot for a multi-billion dollar company.
As of today, Hadelin has two up and running businesses (his online education business and BlueLife AI). Never having lost his passion for acting and cinema, he has just decided to get back to it and is now attending the "Acting for Film" class by NYFA (New
York Film Academy).
Hadelin is also the author of a book, "AI Crash Course", released in late 2019, which is already highly reviewed online.
