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Full editorial research report
SaaS / Sales · All levels; Udemy states no prerequisites · English (auto-generated captions in Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Thai and Romanian)
This is a real course from a named instructor on a public marketplace, with a published price, a published rating from 2,450 learners and a 30-day refund policy that does not depend on the seller's goodwill. The 3.2/5 result is driven almost entirely by age: Udemy's own record says the material was last updated on 18 July 2015, a resource the course sends learners to no longer exists, recent reviewers say so plainly, and the sales copy's “UPDATED OCTOBER 2017” banner is contradicted by the platform field directly beneath it.
Last checked · Evidence is labeled by source type and freshness.
Sold by Udemy under its own payment and refund infrastructure, taught by a traceable instructor with a verifiable business-development track record. Legitimacy is not currency. Buy this for durable fundamentals — strategy, pitching, negotiation, objection handling — not for tooling, deliverability or channel tactics, which have moved on since 2015.
Quick verdict
Scott Britton's Udemy course sells nine hours of startup business-development video for a $84.99 list price, holds a 4.2 rating from 2,450 learners across 37,759 enrolments, and is covered by Udemy's 30-day refund policy. Udemy's own record says the content was last updated on 18 July 2015.
Rating methodology
Price, rating, enrolment count, curriculum, duration, last-updated date and refund policy were all read directly from Udemy today, and the review corpus is large and dated. The course was not purchased, Udemy's displayed price changes by session, country and campaign, and no independent review outside Udemy and course aggregators was found.
Weighted total: 3.175, rounded to one decimal as 3.2/5. Read the rating methodology.
Course record
A self-paced Udemy course titled “Business Development For Startups and Tech Companies”. The listing advertises 9 hours of on-demand video across 7 sections and 57 lectures — 30 video lessons plus 27 downloadable PDF slide decks mirroring them — with closed captions, mobile and TV access, a Q&A board and a certificate of completion. Udemy also prints “30h 41m total length”, and the curriculum shows how that number is built: the seventh section, “PDF Versions of the Content”, is billed as “27 lectures • 21hr 41min”. Add that to the 9 hours of video and you get 30h 41m. The slide decks are attachments, not 21 hours of teaching. Access is lifetime, and the course is additionally included in Udemy's Personal Plan subscription.
Instructor and sole course author
Source: bd-udemy-course, bd-creator-site, bd-creator-linkedinPublished Udemy curriculum
Section titles, lecture titles and runtimes below are read from the live Udemy listing and Udemy's public curriculum endpoint on 10 August 2026. Two lectures are free to preview; the remaining lessons were not purchased or watched.
Fit
Founders and early employees at startups who have to open partnership and BD conversations with no formal training.
People trying to move into a business-development or partnerships role who want vocabulary, frameworks and worked pitch structure cheaply.
Not a fit for anyone who needs current tooling, deliverability or channel tactics — this is 2015 material and recent reviewers say so.
Not a fit for buyers who want instructor access; the instructor has publicly described logging into Udemy roughly once in two years.
Price, rating, rating count, enrolment count, duration, full lecture list and last-updated date are all published before purchase.
Udemy's 30-day refund policy applies and is administered by Udemy, not by the instructor.
2,450 ratings with a public star distribution and dated written reviews through June 2026 give an unusually checkable evidence base.
The syllabus is specific and tactical — leverage audits, pipeline building, cold email, pitch construction, presales, objection handling, deal terms.
Two lectures totalling 27 minutes are free to preview before paying.
27 downloadable slide decks mirror the video lessons, and access is lifetime.
The instructor is named and traceable, with a business-development track record he repeats on his own site.
Udemy's own last-updated field reads 18 July 2015 — eleven years before this check.
The sales description headlines “UPDATED OCTOBER 2017” while the platform field on the same page says 7/2015.
The advertised “30h 41m total length” is only reached by billing the 27 downloadable PDF slide decks as “21hr 41min” of content; the actual teaching is 9 hours of video.
bdinsiders.com, a resource the course directs learners to, no longer resolves in DNS, and a 2026 reviewer flagged exactly this.
“I will personally respond to any questions” is hard to reconcile with the instructor's own post about barely logging in.
The pull-quote calling this “the best course on Startup Business Development on the internet” is attributed to nobody.
The $84.99 list price is rarely what anyone pays, so a buyer who does not wait for a sale overpays relative to the typical buyer.
No independent review outside Udemy and affiliate-funded course aggregators was found in any search run.
Multiple low-rated reviews across years cite poor audio quality and slide-heavy delivery.
Risk review
Sold and fulfilled by Udemy, a publicly listed marketplace, with payment and refunds handled by the platform.
A written 30-day refund policy exists at a public URL and does not require the instructor's cooperation.
The instructor is named, has nine published courses and roughly 146,000 total enrolments on the same account.
The complete curriculum, runtimes and enrolment count are visible before purchase, and two lessons are free to preview.
The rating distribution is public: 1,048 five-star, 895 four-star, 385 three-star, 79 two-star and 43 one-star.
Wayback snapshots of the listing run continuously from 2019 to 2026, so the course's history is checkable.
Content dated 2015 is sold in 2026 with no update banner from the platform and a contradictory one from the seller.
The headline “30h 41m total length” overstates the teaching more than threefold once the 21hr 41min Udemy assigns to 27 PDF attachments is set aside.
Marketing copy pressures with “I can't guarantee I will keep making it available to purchase forever” on a course untouched for eleven years.
Udemy's list price and its real selling price diverge sharply and unpredictably, which makes the headline price close to meaningless.
Recent written reviews are increasingly about the material being out of date rather than about the teaching.
The instructor's personal site is stale and its current article feed is generic content unrelated to business development.
Earlier third-party write-ups of this course credited the instructor with founding the Battle Cancer fitness charity; public reporting describes that organisation's founder as a UK-based former detective sergeant, and this instructor's own bios claim only the tech and BD track record.
Terms
Price read on 2026-08-10 from the live Udemy listing and Udemy's public pricing endpoint, which returned discount and campaign as null.
Homepage testimonials
These are seller-selected user posts and screenshots, not a representative sample. We preserve the visible wording and label what was and was not independently verified.
“Good, informative course, very comprehensive overview of the different stages in business development. Some of the references to tools and bdinsiders are no longer available, thus why I didn't give it full 5 stars, it'd be good to update this part of the material.”
Verbatim 4.5-star Udemy platform review dated 8 January 2026, not a seller-curated quote. We independently confirmed the reviewer's complaint: bdinsiders.com no longer resolves in DNS.
View source ↗“Content is good, but it is too old to replicate. this course found interested because this course refreshed my mindset again”
Verbatim 4.5-star Udemy platform review dated 12 December 2025, reproduced with its original spelling. Udemy controls review display and moderation.
View source ↗“It's great but I feel it can be updated to today's media outlets.”
Verbatim 3.5-star Udemy platform review dated 30 March 2026. The reviewer's display name is an account name, not a verified individual.
View source ↗“Its going too deep and too long into cold calling and cold emailing...Its too much and boring...”
Verbatim 1.5-star Udemy platform review dated 27 November 2025, included so the quoted sample is not selected only from favourable reviews. 43 of 2,450 ratings are one-star.
View source ↗Evidence
Facts, claims, reports, analysis, and unknowns are deliberately kept separate.
On 10 August 2026 the live Udemy listing showed a $84.99 individual price with no active discount campaign, a 4.2 rating from 2,450 ratings, 37,759 learners, “Last updated 7/2015”, “7 sections • 57 lectures • 30h 41m total length” and “9 hours on-demand video”. The curriculum reconciles those last two: the PDF section is listed as “27 lectures • 21hr 41min”, and 9h 0m of video plus 21h 41m of slide decks is exactly 30h 41m. Udemy's public record gives content_length_video as 32,429 seconds and last_update_date as 2015-07-18.
Sources: Business Development For Startups and Tech Companies — official Udemy course page · 2 further sources recorded in the research fileThe 12 August 2020 archived listing showed $135.99 discounted from $194.99, and later snapshots show $129.99 in 2022, $89.99 in 2024 and $84.99 in 2025 — the list price has fallen steadily and promotional pricing is routine. Archived snapshots also record the recent-weighted rating declining from 4.33 in 2022 to 4.19 today.
Sources: Udemy course page — 12 August 2020 archived snapshot“UPDATED OCTOBER 2017”, “the best course on Startup Business Development on the internet”, “I will personally respond to any questions you may have”, “I can't guarantee I will keep making it available to purchase forever” and the $100 million exit story are the seller's own unaudited representations. The platform's last-updated field, which reads 7/2015, contradicts the first of them.
Sources: Business Development For Startups and Tech Companies — official Udemy course page · Life-Long Learner — Scott Britton's personal site and about page2,450 platform ratings distribute as 1,048 five-star, 895 four-star, 385 three-star, 79 two-star and 43 one-star. Written reviews from late 2025 and 2026 repeatedly say the material is dated — one names the dead bdinsiders resource — while low-rated reviews across years cite audio quality and slide-heavy delivery.
Sources: Class Central listing — Business Development For Startups and Tech Companies · 1 further source recorded in the research fileA real, refundable, fully disclosed marketplace product whose content has not been updated in eleven years, whose sales copy contradicts the platform's own update field and duration, and whose instructor has publicly described near-total disengagement from the platform, earns 3.2/5: safe to buy on sale for fundamentals, hard to justify at list price for tactics.
Sources: Business Development For Startups and Tech Companies — official Udemy course page · Scott Britton — LinkedIn post about his Udemy catalogue · Udemy course page — 12 August 2020 archived snapshot · 2 further sources recorded in the research fileThe price an individual buyer will see, whether the instructor still answers Q&A, whether any lesson was quietly re-recorded, completion and outcome rates, the paid-versus-discounted split of the 37,759 enrolments, and Udemy's practical enforcement of its consumption-based refund exclusion all remain unknown because the course was not purchased and Udemy publishes no such data.
Sources: Business Development For Startups and Tech Companies — official Udemy course page · Scott Britton — LinkedIn post about his Udemy catalogue · 1 further source recorded in the research fileUnresolved
What price any individual buyer will actually see: Udemy prices vary by country, account, device and campaign, and this course has a long history of coupon discounting.
Whether the instructor still answers the course Q&A board, and how quickly.
Whether any lesson has been re-recorded or edited since 18 July 2015 without the platform's update field changing.
Completion rates, and whether learners who finish it win partnerships or deals.
What share of the 37,759 enrolments were paid at list price versus deep discount, free coupon or Personal Plan subscription.
How Udemy applies its “notable amount of the course has been consumed” refund exclusion in practice.
Whether the 21hr 41min Udemy assigns to the 27 PDF slide decks is an instructor-entered figure or a Udemy calculation — either way it is what inflates the advertised total to 30h 41m.
Next options
These alternatives are descriptive only. We have not researched or rated them here.
Udemy discounts heavily and often, and archived snapshots of this listing show routine markdowns and coupon URLs. The identical product at a sale price changes the value calculation more than any other single factor.
The listing advertises the same course inside Udemy's subscription from $9.10/month. Note that Udemy's refund policy explicitly excludes subscription plans from the 30-day guarantee.
View current company site ↗Outreach tooling, email deliverability and buyer behaviour have changed since 2015. This report does not rate a specific substitute, but a current course is the obvious comparison for anyone buying for tactics rather than fundamentals.
13 · Buyer checklist
Questions
Yes as a transaction. It is a real course sold on Udemy by a named instructor, with a public rating from 2,450 learners, a public curriculum and a 30-day refund policy administered by Udemy. That says nothing about whether 2015 content will work for you in 2026.
The Udemy list price checked on 10 August 2026 was $84.99 USD as a one-time purchase, with no discount campaign active for a logged-out US visitor. Udemy's list price is rarely what buyers pay — the same listing showed $135.99 down from $194.99 in 2020 — and the course is also included in the Personal Plan subscription advertised from $9.10/month.
Udemy's own last-updated field says 18 July 2015, and the listing prints “Last updated 7/2015”. The sales description separately headlines “UPDATED OCTOBER 2017”, which the platform field does not support.
Udemy's standard policy: eligible course purchases can be refunded within 30 days if the request meets Udemy's guidelines. Udemy can deny refunds for abuse, including where a notable amount of the course has been consumed or downloaded, and some payment methods only get Udemy credits. Subscription plans get no 30-day guarantee.
Nine hours of video across 30 video lessons, plus 27 downloadable PDF slide decks that mirror those lessons. The listing's “30h 41m total length” comes from Udemy counting the PDF section as “27 lectures • 21hr 41min” and adding it to the 9 hours of video. Treat 9 hours as the real figure — it is what the same page advertises as “9 hours on-demand video” and what Udemy's own video-length record (9h 0m) says.
Our historical archive recorded this course at udemy.com/course/business-development-for-startups/, which returns HTTP 404 and has never been captured by the Wayback Machine. The live listing is at udemy.com/course/business-development-strategy-startups/ under the title “Business Development For Startups and Tech Companies”.
Source registry
bd-udemy-courseSupports: The live listing displays “Last updated 7/2015”, a 4.2 star rating from 2,450 ratings, 37,759 learners, “Buy individual course $84.99”, a Personal Plan subscription option from $9.10/month, “7 sections • 57 lectures • 30h 41m total length”, “9 hours on-demand video”, closed captions, mobile/TV access, a certificate of completion, the full section and lecture list including “PDF Versions of the Content — 27 lectures • 21hr 41min”, the description banner “**UPDATED OCTOBER 2017****”, and Scott Britton as the sole named instructor.
Limitations: Udemy fronts the page with a Cloudflare bot challenge, so it had to be captured through a rendering proxy. Displayed price varies by session, country, account and promotion.
bd-archive-2020Supports: The 2020 snapshot shows an original price of $194.99 marked down to a current price of $135.99, evidence of Udemy's list-price-versus-discount mechanics and of a list price that has since fallen to $84.99.
Limitations: A snapshot records one moment for one visitor; Udemy prices differ by country and campaign and these historical figures do not govern a purchase today.
bd-classcentralSupports: An independent aggregator carries the same course under the same instructor, lists the seven syllabus sections, records “1 day 6 hours 41 minutes” of content, and reports “4.2 rating at Udemy based on 2447 ratings”.
Limitations: Class Central mirrors Udemy's own metadata on a cache delay and earns affiliate commission on click-throughs; it publishes no first-hand review of this course and its review section is empty.
bd-creator-linkedinSupports: The instructor's own post opens “Recently I logged into Udemy for the first time in probably a year or two and saw I crossed over 100,000 course sales.” It is the clearest public signal of how much attention he currently gives the platform, and the 100,000 figure is a cross-catalogue sales claim.
Limitations: LinkedIn serves only the post preview to logged-out readers; the comment thread is visible but the full post body is truncated behind an auth wall. The sales figure is the creator's unaudited claim across all nine of his courses, not this one.
bd-creator-siteSupports: The instructor's own site confirms his identity, a contact address, and the SinglePlatform-to-Constant-Contact acquisition he cites in his Udemy bio.
Limitations: The about page is years out of date, describes a return to New York that has long since happened, and the site's current article feed is generic self-help content unrelated to business development.