How Skillshare Solved Their Chicken and Egg Problem | Matthew Moore Design. The chicken and egg problem is common for a user generated content driven startup. If there is no content on the site to engage the user, then it’s difficult to get them to sign up and start participating. There are getting to be many novel ways to solve this issue, from private betas with invite codes, to signing up with a service to reserve your user name (I fall for that often since my name is so damn common). I’ve recently been using Skillshare, which is a site where people can attend classes taught by others in their community and also teach their own courses.
I’ve always stuck to looking at classes in NYC, but I was wondering how they do various things on their site, so I clicked through to see another city and this is what I saw: There are several things here that are important: 1. I don’t think Ron Popeil himself could make you more motivated to give up your email address and generate some pent-up anticipation for the full experience.
Great job Skillshare! Skillshare’s Users Are Solving the Company’s Problems. When your startup focuses on feel-good stuff like sharing, community, giving, teaching, and learning, there's an unplanned benefit attached: Your sharing, giving, teaching users may end up solving some difficult problems for you. Skillshare is a startup in that position. It's a company focused on online-to-offline connections, and it's missing a crucial element: venues. The New York-based company provides a marketplace for anyone to teach and take classes. In its first year, more than 6,000 people have done so. The company launched in late 2010, expanding nationally four months ago. It has $3.1 million in venture backing. Skillshare created curriculum builders, promotion tools, social sign-up forms and payment systems for teachers (classes are typically around $20). But classes need classrooms. As the company has grown, the sign-up form's suggestions of "try a library, bar or coffee shop" simply don't work.
Why don't you have a search feature? Why College Is Overrated - Education. We need to debunk the myth that a college degree leads to success. The pinnacle of education should revolve around learning and gaining knowledge. A couple of months ago, I wrote an essay titled “College, Inc.,” which shed a light on the inevitable student loan crisis, and the collective action we can do to prevent it from happening. As a follow-up, I’ll share with you my view about why higher education is overrated. Ben Casnocha recently wrote an article about what 17 million Americans got from a college degree.
Not surprisingly, millions of Americans with college degrees are doing jobs that require less than the skills level associated with a bachelor’s degree: For hundreds of thousands of Americans, spending four years and untold amounts of money (and debt?) Gets you a job as a waiter, parking lot attendant, or janitor. This is the fundamental problem with documentaries like Waiting for Superman and organizations like Teach for America. Alexandre Dana's answer to Skillshare: How does skillshare.com make money. Skillshare. Potential Skillshare Classes. Skillshare Raises $3.1 Million to Turn Everyone Into Teachers.
SkillshareA Skillshare class on baking scones. Would-be bed-and-breakfast owners can turn to Airbnb to get their operations off the ground, and basement inventors have Kickstarter to test the waters and see if their creations have a market. Now, Skillshare is hoping to turn the average person with a bit of know-how into a teacher. The service, based in New York, lets people sign up to teach and attend short classes that touch on subjects as diverse as beer tasting, photography, programming and making baby food from scratch. On Tuesday, the company is announcing that it has raised $3.1 million in a Series A round of venture financing, led by Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital, to extend its offerings. Previously the company raised a $550,000 round of seed funding from Founder Collective and SV Angel, among others.
“We can use the Web to democratize learning and make it affordable and accessible to anyone,” he said. The average class costs around $20. Mr. Michael Karnjanaprakorn: Let's Start a Learning Revolution. College, Inc: The Animation Video by Michael Karnjanaprakorn. Skillshare Founder, Champion of Lean Start-Up Mantra, On Why He Needed That $3 Million | Betabeat — News, gossip and intel from Silicon Alley 2.0.
By Adrianne Jeffries 8/17/11 8:00am Share this: Skillshare CEO Mike Karnjanaprakorn with Skillshare friend, investor and office mate Zach Klein. New York-based peer-to-peer education start-up Skillshare, whose co-founder and CEO Mike Karnjanaprakorn recently typed up an article on how to launch a start-up for just $5,000, raised just enough money for its product team and a little wiggle room back in January. But this week the start-up announced two major feature releases and a $3.1 million funding raise from Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital.
When the Skillshare team realized they had a winning formula–a platform where anyone with a skill to share can propose to teach a class which then becomes available when a minimum number of students sign up–and when they noticed competitors starting to move in, they decided it was time to staff up and start grabbing land. “We didn’t choose investors in a couple days,” Mr. Follow Adrianne Jeffries on Twitter or via RSS. ajeffries@observer.com. See What Zach Klein Just Did There With His SkillShare Scholarship? | Betabeat — News, gossip and intel from Silicon Alley 2.0. About. Education is what someone tells you to do. Learning is what you do for yourself. The traditional way of education forces square pegs into round holes. It's a one-size-fits-all solution that forces people down a predetermined path. Our mission is simple. Reunite learning with education and make it accessible to every single person on this planet. Anyone can learn anything, at any age, at an affordable cost, anywhere in the world.
Learning has no roadblocks, prescribed paths, tests, quizzes, or outdated majors and degrees. Teachers are passionate. Learn by Doing Rather than memorize equations for a test, learn by taking action. Your statement of accomplishment no longer needs to be a degree, certificate, or stamp of approval. Proof of learning is in progress and action. Everyone is a Teacher You can learn from anyone – which means we’re all teachers. Why teach? Learning Can Happen Anywhere Our cities are our best and biggest campuses, and any address can be a classroom.
We Can Change Education. Skillshare Unveils a New Online Experience. 30 November '11, 04:15pm Follow The Web has brought human beings together in a tremendously powerful way. We’re connecting all the time. We’re tweeting, poking, emailing and Skyping. But one New York City based startup has taken it to the next level of higher learning. We interviewed the founder of Skillshare, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, better known as “Mike K”, in our feature piece How the Internet is Revolutionizing Education. He said: “Technology has the opportunity to completely disrupt education by democratizing learning. In the past 7 months, Skillshare has been listening to its community and working on a new experience that better emphasizes the diverse collection of skills and passions of that community. The Learn section has been redesigned for vertical browsing so it’s easier to discover classes that match the categories and skill sets that you’re interested in.
Profiles received a major revamp. Check out Jeff Ramos’ profile below: Skillshare: Non-Traditional Education 2.0. The concept behind Skillshare is simple: empower everyone to teach anything, anywhere. And sometimes it’s the simplest ideas that have the greatest long-term impact. The Skillshare philosophy is that everyone has something valuable to teach. Skillshare.com provides countless opportunities to enrich yourself intellectually or just pick up a new hobby, all while interacting with other members who share similar passions. In fact, it was CEO and co-founder Michael Karnjanaprakorn’s own poker skills that set the idea in motion. Following his success at the World Series of Poker, Michael thought, “Hey, I can teach others how to do this.”
While poker classes are still available through Skillshare, it’s not the only way the site can help make you a winner. There is something here for everyone, be it Mastery of Community Management or learning how to make dumplings. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Danya Cheskis-Gold, Skillshare’s Community Manager. Danya: Yup, absolutely. Penny Conference 2012 | Skillshare. Let's Start a Learning Revolution. P2P Learning Startup Skillshare Gets $550,000 From Founder Collective and SV Angel.
Peer-to-peer education startup Skillshare, which just launched in April, raised a $550,000 angel round, according to an SEC filing. Investors in the New York City startup include Founder Collective, SV Angel, Collaborative Fund, David Tisch, and Scott Heiferman. Skillshare is a community where people can offer classes to other members. People sign up online, and meet in person for real classes for everything from how to bake cupcakes to how to get startup funding. People can charge for the classes. “Our business model is similar to Eventbrite,” says co-founder Michael Karnjanaprakorn. The site is focussing on classes about tech startups, food and drink, and arts & crafts to start out.
The founders are curating the classes to start out in order to attract the right kind of people and define the culture of the site. The goal of Skillshare is to make education relevant and more current to what people need to learn. Classes to learn anything from anyone. Does Skillshare allow or plan to allow online streaming of lessons. The Future Belongs to the Curious.