Client stories
What learners say after their session
These notes come from workshop attendees, consultation clients, and drop-in visitors. Names are used with permission.
I run a community fund that pays volunteers in SOL every fortnight. The workshop showed me why our batch sometimes landed in different fee tiers. The printed reference card still sits on my desk.— Tom W., community organiser, Oxford
Clear explanations of compute units. I had read the docs twice but the annotated explorer walkthrough made it stick. Would have appreciated one more example on failed transactions.— Mei L., accountant, Cambridge
Booked a one-to-one after a confusing swap fee. James mapped my exact instruction pattern to the fee table in under an hour. Straightforward and no pressure to book follow-ups.— David R., café owner, Reading
The drop-in room is quiet and the binders are well organised. I spent ninety minutes reading and only needed five minutes of tutor time — exactly what I wanted.— Sarah K., retired teacher, Abingdon
Our small dev team booked a private workshop. Eleanor adjusted the pace when half the room was new to Solana and half was not. The fee comparison exercise sparked good discussion.— Marcus F., studio lead, Bristol
I was nervous about asking basic questions. The group was small enough that it felt safe. Still wrapping my head around priority fees, but I know where to look now.— Anita G., freelance writer, London
Case note: Treasurer preparing a quarterly SOL payroll
Client: Helen M., treasurer for a small arts charity in Reading
Session: Transaction & Fee Workshop, March 2025
Helen managed quarterly SOL payments to four contractors but could not explain fee variance to her board. During the workshop she worked through three of her past transactions (shared via explorer links, with addresses redacted).
We identified that two payments included token-account creation instructions she had not noticed, and one ran during a congested slot when she had omitted a priority fee. She left with a checklist for future payroll batches and a revised internal note for her finance committee.
Follow-up: Helen emailed six weeks later to say her next batch matched her predicted fee range within 0.00001 SOL per transfer.
Case note: Developer reconciling NFT listing fees
Client: Raj P., freelance developer, Bristol
Session: One-to-One Fee Consultation, January 2025
Raj listed batches of NFTs for clients and needed to quote accurate fee estimates in his proposals. His consultation brief described three listing patterns with different instruction counts.
During the hour we mapped each pattern to our reference tables, noted where compute budget requests affected totals, and drafted a one-page fee estimate template he could attach to client quotes. Raj mentioned the session was dense — he planned a second drop-in visit to review the template alone.