Skool Masterclass Review: Is Max Perzon’s Course Worth It?

Skool is having a moment. Since Sam Ovens went all-in on the community platform, Skool has become the go-to infrastructure for online course creators and membership communities. And where a platform goes hot, courses teaching you how to make money on it follow quickly.

Max Perzon’s Skool Masterclass is the most prominent of these — a programme teaching you to build, grow, and monetise a Skool community. Max has genuine credibility in this space: he scaled his own Skool community to over 60,000 members and generated more than $655,000 in revenue in his first year. That’s not fictional.

But there are real questions worth answering before you hand over $125/month. What are you actually buying? What does the business model require to succeed? Is Max’s approach genuinely teachable, or does it depend on advantages — an existing audience, a recognisable name — that most beginners simply don’t have?

This review covers all of it.

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Key Takeaways

• Skool Masterclass (now rebranded as Kourse) is Max Perzon’s programme for building and monetising a Skool community
• Cost: $125/month for the Masterclass, plus $99/month for a Skool subscription if you’re running your own community — total $224/month minimum
• Max has genuinely impressive results: 60,000+ community members, $655K+ in year one revenue
• The programme covers community launch, content strategy, organic growth, paid ads scaling, and sales
• Trustpilot reviews are overwhelmingly positive (807 reviews, predominantly 5-star), but the negative ones raise specific concerns about the affiliate/referral structure
• The business model requires either an existing audience, significant paid ad budget, or months of consistent content creation to gain traction
• Not a scam — Max is a real educator with real results — but the model is harder for true beginners than the marketing implies
• Max now operates under the Kourse brand with an expanded focus on YouTube and online course creation

Who Is Max Perzon?

Max Perzon is a Swedish entrepreneur based in Gothenburg who built a substantial online presence in the SMMA (social media marketing agency) and online education space before pivoting to Skool community building.

His credentials are documented and verifiable:

• Scaled a Skool community from zero to 68,900+ members
• Generated over $655,000 in revenue in the community’s first year
• Grew a YouTube channel from zero to 50,000 subscribers in one year
• Two Comma Club Award winner from ClickFunnels
• HighLevel Top Affiliate Award winner (GoHighLevel is a prominent CRM/marketing platform)
• Won a Tesla through a HighLevel affiliate competition

That last point is worth noting — Max is a highly active affiliate for GoHighLevel (marketed as HighLevel or GHL). He earns commissions when his students sign up for HighLevel through his links. This creates a financial incentive that some reviewers have flagged as influencing his course recommendations.

He now operates primarily under the Kourse brand, which has expanded beyond Skool specifically to cover YouTube growth and online course creation more broadly. The Skool Masterclass content is part of the Kourse offering.

What Is the Skool Masterclass / Kourse?

The programme is structured around five modules, covering the full lifecycle of building a community business:

Module 1 — Niche and Offer Design. Identifying what you know that others want to learn, defining your target audience, structuring your course or programme content, and using AI tools to accelerate the process. This is where Max helps you figure out what your community would actually be about.

Module 2 — Community Launch. Setting up your Skool community, onboarding new members, structuring the content library, and the first steps of generating founding members. This module includes templates and frameworks for getting your first paying members.

Module 3 — Organic Growth. Growing your community without paid ads — through content on YouTube, social media, SEO, and word of mouth. Max’s own growth was substantially driven by YouTube, and this module draws on his direct experience. For people without a YouTube presence this requires building from scratch.

Module 4 — Paid Ads Scaling. Once you have something working organically, how to pour fuel on it with Meta, YouTube, and Google Ads. Max’s media buyer Zoli handles this section. Includes ad creative templates, VSL (video sales letter) frameworks, and Hyros tracking setup.

Module 5 — High-Ticket Sales and Scaling. Selling premium offers within your community, the art of “transformational selling” taught by guest instructors who’ve each closed millions in sales, and operating at scale with a community of tens of thousands.

Bonus content includes a YouTube growth masterclass (how Max grew to 50K subscribers in a year), a performance and productivity section with a personal coach, and access to Max’s extended network of instructors.

The Affiliate / Referral Concern

This comes up in enough negative reviews to be worth addressing directly.

Max Perzon is one of the most prominent GoHighLevel affiliates online. GoHighLevel is a marketing software platform that pays affiliates recurring commissions when they refer paying customers. Max earns ongoing income every month from students who sign up for GHL through his link.

Within the Skool Masterclass / Kourse, Max recommends GoHighLevel as the CRM infrastructure for running your community business. One Trustpilot reviewer specifically called out that the course’s “free” SMMA section is primarily about promoting GoHighLevel, with Max benefiting financially from each student who joins.

This isn’t disclosed as prominently as it should be. It doesn’t make the recommendation wrong — GoHighLevel is genuinely useful for the business models Max teaches — but it means you’re receiving product recommendations from someone with a financial stake in your adoption of that product. That’s a real conflict of interest worth knowing about.

The same reviewer described parts of the course as a “passive promotional scam” — that’s probably too harsh, but the underlying observation about undisclosed affiliate incentives is fair.

The Cost Stack

Let’s be precise about what Skool Masterclass / Kourse actually costs:

Before you’ve generated a single dollar, you’re paying $224–$500+/month in subscriptions. That’s $2,700–$6,000+ per year just in tooling costs.

This matters for a beginner’s budget calculation. The Skool Masterclass is not a $125/month expense in isolation — it’s the entry point to a cost stack that compounds quickly.

The Audience Problem

This is the most important thing to understand about the Skool community business model that Max teaches.

Building a successful Skool community requires an existing audience, paid ads, or extraordinary content creation to generate initial members.

Max’s own growth was driven by YouTube. He had a channel with growing subscriber numbers before his community scaled. His Skool community grew partly because he had an existing audience of people who wanted to learn from him.

For a true beginner with no YouTube presence, no social media following, no email list, and no established reputation in a niche — building to a community that generates meaningful monthly revenue is a multi-year project requiring consistent content creation or significant paid ad spend.

This doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Students do launch communities from scratch. But the marketing around Skool as “the best beginner business model” — a phrase Max uses — is at best optimistic. The lowest barrier to entry version of this model still requires you to become a credible content creator in a niche before people will pay to be in your community.

Contrast this with affiliate marketing or freelance copywriting, where you can start with zero audience and work directly toward earning from day one.

What Trustpilot Reviews Actually Say

The aggregate rating is impressive — 807 reviews with around 750 being 5-star. That’s unusual even for genuinely good programmes.

Reading the positive reviews, a pattern emerges: many are from people who joined the free SMMA course Max previously offered (not the paid Masterclass) and are reviewing that experience. Some positive reviews are written before the reviewer has generated any income, praising the content quality without verifying the results.

The negative reviews — seven 1-star ratings — are more specific:

• One reviewer describes being banned from the community for asking why no one was showing earnings, then being refused a refund after only two days of membership
• Another calls it a “passive promotional scam” focused on software referrals rather than actionable strategy
• A third questions the “free” framing while noting Max consistently promotes paid tools via affiliate links

Seven negative reviews out of 807 is a very low ratio, but the patterns they describe (affiliate incentive conflicts, refund issues, unanswered questions about results) align with what independent reviewers have noted.

Is Skool Masterclass Worth $125/Month?

For the right person, yes.

If you have an existing area of expertise and want to monetise it through a course or community, the Skool Masterclass gives you a genuinely well-structured roadmap. Max has done exactly what he’s teaching. The content on community structure, organic YouTube growth, and high-ticket sales is drawn from real experience.

The programme makes most sense if you:

• Already have knowledge others want to pay for
• Have some existing audience or are committed to building one through consistent content creation
• Can absorb $224+/month in subscription costs while building
• Are comfortable with GoHighLevel or have already factored in that Max’s tool recommendations come with affiliate incentives
• Are thinking in terms of a 12–18 month runway to meaningful income, not 30–60 days

It makes less sense if you:

• Are a complete beginner with no niche expertise and no audience
• Are looking for a business that doesn’t require building public-facing content
• Have a tight budget and can’t sustain $224+/month before earning
• Want transparent tool recommendations without undisclosed affiliate motivations

Pros and Cons

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Skool Masterclass? A training programme by Max Perzon teaching how to build, grow, and monetise a community business on the Skool platform. Now operating as Kourse, which also covers YouTube and online course creation.

How much does Skool Masterclass cost? $125/month for the programme. Running your own Skool community costs an additional $99/month. If you follow Max’s GoHighLevel recommendations, add $97–$297/month. Total minimum: $224/month.

Is Max Perzon legit? Yes. He scaled a Skool community to 60,000+ members and generated $655K+ in year one. His results are independently documented and verifiable.

Is Skool Masterclass a scam? No. The content is genuine and Max has real experience. The main concerns are undisclosed affiliate incentives and the difficulty of the model for true beginners without an existing audience.

Does Skool Masterclass require an existing audience? Not technically required, but strongly advantageous. Max’s own growth was YouTube-driven. True beginners should expect 12–18+ months of content building before generating meaningful community revenue without paid ads.

What is Kourse? Max Perzon’s rebranded version of the Skool Masterclass, with an expanded focus on YouTube growth and online course creation in addition to Skool community building.

Can I cancel Skool Masterclass anytime? Yes — it’s a monthly subscription and cancellable. Though note that one negative reviewer reported a refund being refused even after only two days.

Final Verdict

Skool Masterclass — now Kourse — is a legitimate, well-produced programme from someone who genuinely built what he’s teaching. If you have expertise to share and an appetite for content creation, Max Perzon’s framework for building a community business is solid.

The honest caveats: the cost stack is higher than the headline price suggests, the business model is not beginner-friendly in the way the marketing implies, and the GoHighLevel affiliate incentive is real and should be disclosed more prominently.

If you’re already building online and looking to add a community revenue stream, this is worth evaluating seriously. If you’re starting from scratch with no niche, no audience, and limited budget, there are faster paths to your first dollar online.

For broader context on building income online, see my guides on how to start affiliate marketing, affiliate marketing for beginners, and how to make $5,000 a month online.

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