Education Technology · Profile from Education Technology Research Companion
Skillshare, Inc.
A New York subscription platform for short, project-based video classes in creative skills — illustration, design, photography, video, writing and freelancing. Skillshare began in 2011 as a marketplace for in-person classes taught by neighbours, moved online in 2012, adopted an all-you-can-learn membership in 2014, grew through creator-economy marketing to a pandemic peak in 2020–21, and has since spent years adjusting teacher pay and tightening its free offer while remaining private and venture-backed.
At a glance
- Founded
- November 2010, New York City; site launched April 2011
- Founders
- Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Malcolm Ong
- Headquarters
- New York City (largely remote since 2020, verify)
- Ownership / structure
- Private, venture-backed C-corporation; major investors include Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital and OMERS Growth Equity/OMERS Ventures (reported)
- Leadership (2026)
- Paul Slavin, CEO (appointed August 2025; succeeded Matt Cooper, CEO ~2017–2025)
- Segment and buyer
- Consumer lifelong learning and creative skills; individual learners pay; a smaller team/B2B offer existed (Skillshare for Teams, status verify)
- Scale
- ~35k+ classes (2021); ~5m registered users in 2016 and over ~12m registered members claimed around 2020–21 (company claims; paying members not disclosed). Revenue not disclosed (press estimates in the ~$100m+ range around 2021 are unconfirmed)
- Capital raised / valuation / market cap
- ~$108–$116m raised by 2020 (reported); later rounds reported by data providers (verify); valuation not disclosed
- Signature moves
- In-person class marketplace (2011); move to online classes (2012); membership model and open teaching (2014); Series C and CEO transition (2017–18); $66m OMERS-led Series D (2020); end of free classes (2021); Teacher Fund replacing the royalty pool (2022), reversed to a revenue share (2023–24). Misses: teacher-payout volatility, unclear path to scale after the pandemic peak
7 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2011
Founding Offline Classes
Launch
2012
Online Classes Pivot
Pivot
2014
Membership Model and Open Platform
Pricing change / business-model change
2018
Series C and CEO Transition
Funding round / leadership change
2020
Series D OMERS
Funding round
2021
End of Free Classes
Pricing change
2022
Teacher Fund Payment Model
Pricing change (supply side)