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Skillshare

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Skillshare
Company typePrivate
IndustryOnline learning
FoundedNovember 2010; 14 years ago (2010-11)
Headquarters
New York City, New York, U.S.
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Matt Cooper, CEO
Websiteskillshare.com
Skillshare previous logo

Skillshare is an online learning community based in the United States that provides educational videos.[1][2][3] The courses are unaccredited and are only available through a paid subscription.[4]

Most of the courses focus on interaction, with the primary goal of learning by completing a project.[5]

History

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Michael Karnjanaprakorn and Malcolm Ong started Skillshare in New York City, New York in November 2010; the site was live in April 2011.[6][7] Previously, Karnjanaprakorn led the product team at Hot Potato, a social media product bought by Facebook. Ong was the product manager at OMGPop.[8][9] It was originally a platform where students enrolled in offline courses.[4]

Skillshare held the Penny Conference on educational reform in April 2012,[7][10] with Karnjanaprakorn, Codecademy’s co-founder Zach Sims, and Pencils of Promise founder Adam Braun as speakers.[7]

Skillshare launched online courses in August 2012.[4] By April 2013, it hosted over 150 courses,[11] and launched its School of Design.[12]

In March 2014, Skillshare moved to a membership model for $9.95 a month instead of pay-per-course model.[13] Later that year, the company became an open platform, where anyone could be a course instructor, and introduced a free membership option to watch a limited amount of class content each month.[14] In May 2016, the site had 5 million users.[15]

As of 2020, the company had raised $108 million in funding.[16]

In September 2021, Skillshare discontinued the option of offering classes for free and required users to have either a paid membership or a free trial to access all courses, including those that were previously available for free.[17] As of 2021, it hosted 35,000 courses,[18] on topics like business, art, filmmaking, web development, photography, music, and writing.[19]

References

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  1. ^ Ryan Lawler (August 7, 2012). "Collaborative Learning Startup Skillshare Launches Hybrid Classes, Letting Anyone Join Online Or Offline". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
  2. ^ Dani Fankhauser (March 1, 2013). "Toasting Success With Skillshare's Co-Founder". Mashable. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
  3. ^ Daniel Goodman (May 12, 2012). "This Company Wants You To Get Paid For Teaching In Your Spare Time". Business Insider. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
  4. ^ a b c Zoe Fox (August 7, 2012). "Skillshare Goes Global, Launching Hybrid Online-Offline Classes". Mashable. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
  5. ^ Empson, Rip (February 28, 2014). "A Year From Launch, Skillshare Lands $6M From USV, Spark To Double Down On Its Project-Based, Online Classes". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 11, 2025.
  6. ^ Jenna Wortham (August 16, 2011). "Skillshare Raises $3.1 Million to Turn Everyone Into Teachers". The New York Times Bits. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
  7. ^ a b c Brian Anthony Hernandez (April 23, 2012). "How Skillshare Is Transforming Education as We Know It". Mashable. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
  8. ^ Donna Fenn (May 29, 2012). "Skillshare: A New Way to Learn". OPEN forum. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
  9. ^ Myles Tanzer (November 14, 2012). "Tech Insurgents 2012: Mike Karnjanaprakorn". Beat Beat. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
  10. ^ Allie Mahler (April 24, 2012). "A penny for your thoughts: What we learned at the Skillshare Conference". The Next Web. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
  11. ^ April Joyner (April 2, 2013). "Skillshare Takes On the Education Gap". Inc. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
  12. ^ Joseph Flaherty (March 28, 2013). "Can't Afford Art School? Jump Online for a World-Class Education in Design". Wired. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
  13. ^ Farr, Christina (March 19, 2014). "Skillshare Debuts New Spotify-like Membership Model for Online Education". VentureBeat. Retrieved April 29, 2014.
  14. ^ Karnjanaprakorn, Michael. "Introducing Open Skillshare". Skillshare.com. Skillshare. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  15. ^ Harris, Ainsley (July 24, 2018). "Skillshare finds its groove by helping freelancers learn". Fast Company. Archived from the original on July 24, 2018. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
  16. ^ Ha, Anthony (August 10, 2020). "Skillshare raises $66M to expand online learning". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 11, 2025.
  17. ^ "Starting September 15th, 2021, Skillshare will transition away from offering a free class experience". Retrieved November 18, 2021.
  18. ^ updated, Jonas P. DeMuro last (August 11, 2021). "SkillShare learning platform review". TechRadar. Retrieved March 11, 2025.
  19. ^ "Skillshare Review". PCMAG. April 18, 2022. Retrieved March 11, 2025.
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