Crash Course and Complexly begin from John's 2010 Gchat proposal and $10,000 of Hank's money (2010)
story · status: told 3× · last event: retold (2025-05-23)
Origin known from later mentions
2010 in the title is when this began; it first appears in the videos read here in 2021, so the earlier part is known only from what is said later.
Part of: Complexly: the brothers' production company, renamed from EcoGeek (2016)
Told alongside: Crash Course: launch of the brothers' educational channel (2011) · Hank (for Crash Course): Crash Course videos will always be free for everyone (2025)
About: Google Talk, French Revolution, Crash Course
| date | event | what | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-06-25 | told | Hank replied that it was a great idea, John said he would do it, and that, Hank says, is how Crash Course was born. · also in: We Just Sold Our Company for $0 | The Surprising Origin of Crash Course 00:00:29 |
| 2023-05-30 | retold | John says he did come up with the idea for Crash Course: he loved making educational videos on Vlogbrothers but wanted to do it bigger and better, and knew they couldn't do it alone. | How Does He Do It? 00:00:29 |
| 2025-05-23 | retold | Hank reminds everyone that Crash Course was John's idea, and congratulates him. | I Can’t Believe How Few People it Takes. 00:06:14 |
What is said about it
8 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).
- 2021-06-25 · The Surprising Origin of Crash Course — Hank found in his Gchat archives the story of how John told him the most impactful idea they ever had, in a chat on September 26, 2010. — 00:00:00
- 2021-06-25 · The Surprising Origin of Crash Course — John Green (quoted): John's chat calls the deal made in an indoor tennis court the most interesting moment in world history, except for when the prince of Nepal became a serial killer. (playful) — 00:00:29
- 2021-06-25 · The Surprising Origin of Crash Course — Hank admits he left something out: John wanted that video to be their entire pitch to [redacted] and other venture capitalists. (playful) — 00:00:51
- 2021-06-25 · The Surprising Origin of Crash Course — Hank says they were sure Crash Course could have impact but could not imagine funding it without traditional venture capital. — 00:00:51
- 2021-06-25 · The Surprising Origin of Crash Course — Hank: Thanks partly to John advocating for Crash Course over Hank's terrible other ideas, they never had to take investment, which kept Crash Course focused on staying free. — 00:01:12
- 2026-02-04 · We Just Sold Our Company for $0 — Hank says his earlier tellings made it sound like John had an idea for a video, but John was clearly proposing a big idea: they discussed finding time, taking investment and dropping VidCon. — 00:00:38
- 2026-02-04 · We Just Sold Our Company for $0 — Hank quotes John in the chat, while they worked out funding and time: the ideas interested him, not the payoff. — 00:01:10
- 2026-02-04 · We Just Sold Our Company for $0 — Hank offered the $20,000 he had just made in affiliate marketing; John took $10,000, which funded the initial test episodes of Crash Course and became the seed of Complexly. — 00:01:17