From college dropout to $40k a month - all because he learned a skill that most people have never heard of.
Jasen Hunt's story starts with tragedy. A serious accident forced him out of engineering school, leaving him broke and scrambling for work. But this setback led him to discover land surveying, one of America's most overlooked industries.
Today, Jasen runs LandSurveyDrafts.com, the world's only land survey drafting training program. His community on Whop has helped over 300 students master CAD skills and turn complete beginners into in-demand specialists.
In this interview, Jasen reveals:
- How he scaled from broke freelancer to hiring college students
- The Instagram strategy that drives most of his growth
- Why he moved his entire operation to Whop (and made $5k in the first 3 days)
We asked Jasen how he turned his niche skill into internet income — here's what he had to say.
From CAD nerd to $40k months: How Jasen Hunt built a land surveying empire
Hi Jasen — tell us a bit about yourself and the business you run on Whop
Hey there, my name is Jasen Hunt, and I run LandSurveyDrafts.com — the only land survey drafting training program in the world.
Land surveying is a highly specialized and in-demand field, and right now the market is creating a ton of opportunity for people who understand both CAD and surveying workflows.
Our most popular program is Survey2Success (S2S) — our industry-backed drafting program that takes students from the fundamentals all the way to advanced land survey CAD techniques.
We’ve helped over 300 students so far, including engineers, licensed architects, and even professional land surveyors looking to sharpen their skills.
One of our fastest-growing offers is CAD Earn — a business training program that teaches any CAD drafter, regardless of experience level, how to find clients, monetize their skills, and start making real money with the tools they already know.
A lot of our students from the S2S program go on to take CAD Earn to freelance with the land surveying skills they’ve picked up.
We switched to Whop to bring everything together — courses, coaching, community, payments — and we’re building this into the premier destination in the U.S. for land survey CAD education and career growth. And finally fulfill our mission that anyone with CAD skills can make money.
Can you share your backstory and what led you to start LandSurveyDrafts.com?
I’ve been obsessed with CAD since I was 10 years old. It started out as just a curiosity, but really took off in high school thanks to an engineering teacher who showed me the ropes.
I earned a bunch of certifications early on and was on the path to becoming a mechanical engineer.
I enrolled in college for engineering, but ended up getting into a serious accident that forced me to drop out. I was broke, needed money, and started freelancing on the side just to make ends meet.
Things were rocky for a while — lots of ups and downs — but eventually I crossed paths with a mentor in the land surveying industry who changed everything. He introduced me to surveying, and from there I dove deep, started freelancing again, and actually began making solid income.
Eventually, I started my own drafting firm and began hiring college students. I trained them in survey drafting and expanded by taking on more clients.
That’s when I realized the industry was in desperate need of proper training — most firms were either overwhelmed or had no way to train new talent effectively.
So I started doing in-person training, and when the demand grew beyond what I could handle locally, I took it online to serve people across the U.S. — and now, around the world.
How’s the business doing today — and what kind of impact are you seeing?
We currently serve just over 50 active clients at any given time, including both individual students and corporate customers.
Our training programs are hosted on Whop, where we’ve built a strong community and steady growth. Meanwhile, our consulting and corporate services operate outside of Whop through direct contracts and partnerships.
Combining all parts of the business — training, consulting, and corporate work — we’re generating between $40,000 to $60,000 a month.
Our best day ever was a $12,000 day, which really proved the scale and potential of what we’re building.
More important than the numbers, though, is seeing students use their new skills to land freelance work and advance their careers. That’s the real win.
$12k days is wild — but how did you make your first $1 on Whop?
I made my first dollar on Whop pretty much the day we switched all our program materials over from the other platform we were using.
After that, it was just a matter of continuing our normal sales process — reaching out to students, answering questions, and enrolling them like usual.
The biggest benefit was having everything in one place. Before, we were juggling multiple software tools, which got pretty confusing. Moving everything to Whop made things way simpler and smoother for both me and the students.
About four weeks before moving everything over, I created a Whop account just to feel things out.
At that time, Whop had a reward for making $3,000 in the first 30 days, but I didn’t realize this until I had already processed $5,000 in just three days—right after the deadline.
I really wish I’d known about it sooner because it would’ve been awesome to hit that target and meet the Whop team in New York!
Once you got set up on Whop, which apps became key for running your business?
The app I use the most on Whop is definitely the Courses app — it’s where all our training programs live, so it’s the core of our business on the platform. It’s super smooth and makes delivering content really easy for both me and the students.
I also use the Integrations feature to connect with our Discord community. This has been a great way to keep students engaged and informed without having to juggle multiple platforms separately.
Overall, these apps have helped streamline how we connect and teach, saving a lot of time and effort.
Are you using any automations or upselles to level things up behind the scenes?
I haven’t really deep-dived into the upsells, bundles, or automations inside Whop yet.
But one of the standout features for me has been the ability to track and connect data through Zapier.
We’ve done a lot behind the scenes with our CRM and client management, and being able to pull information off Whop easily has been super useful.
The API integration is really solid and has helped us automate parts of our workflow, saving time and keeping things organized even if we’re not fully using all the upsell or bundle features yet.
What’s been your biggest growth hack since launching?
Without a doubt, Instagram has been our greatest asset and platform. We absolutely crush it on the advertising side because our offer is so unique, but also has a wide audience that can really benefit from what we do.
I haven’t seen many offers like ours out there, which makes it even more incredible.
Besides Instagram ads, a lot of our success comes from networking—building strong connections with the right people in the land surveying industry and getting involved with professionals who truly understand the value of our training.
But yeah, if I had to pick one channel, Instagram is definitely the biggest driver for growth so far.
If you had to start from scratch with just your phone and Whop, what would you do?
If I were younger and just looking for a way to make some extra cash, I’d definitely get into clipping—it’s probably one of the quickest and easiest ways to start making money right now. It’s low effort and actually kind of fun compared to other side hustles.
But for the long term, I’d focus on building strong technical skills that don’t require a college degree.
Technical knowledge is way more reliable and objective than things like sports betting or trading because with real skills, you get paid within a clear range depending on your expertise.
That solid base income then gives you freedom to explore other interests, like crypto trading or other ventures, without the pressure of unstable income.
Jasen Hunt's advice for aspiring entpreneurs
My biggest advice to anyone — guys, girls, whoever — is to really invest in technical skills. Once you raise that bar, no matter what life throws at you, even if you hit a rough patch or find yourself with nothing, those skills can get you out of a tough spot.
There’s always a place that needs those skills, and you can make money no matter where you are. That’s a foundation nobody can take away from you.
It worked for me — coming from dropping out of college and struggling, building these skills truly changed my life.
Ready to turn your skills into real cash like Jasen?
If Jasen can bounce back from a college dropout to $40k/month, what’s stopping you?
Start building your own hustle today on Whop — your all-in-one platform for online businesses.
The first dollar is just the beginning.
