Gagan Biyani 🏛
@gaganbiyani
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CEO @MavenHQ. Previously co-founder @udemy. Fighting for Oakland via https://t.co/gKEElNkRX9
Oakland, CA
Joined May 2009
8 years ago, I got fired as President and co-founder of @udemy, a now-$2B unicorn. This is a tough story to share, and I’ll try my best to be honest. Fortunately this story ends on a positive note & I hope it’ll be useful to anyone who’s been laid off or fired. **Read on**.
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Nobody talks about failure in Silicon Valley, yet 90% of startups fail. Why?. 3 yrs ago, @neerajberry and I shut down @Sprig, which raised $60M from @GreylockVC + @socialcapital & grew to $20m revenue. Then, it all fell apart. For an honest story about failure,. **Read on**.
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I’m biased but @udemy is a true underdog story + thought I’d share details we’ve never shared before. ICYMI, we announced a $50M raise at $2B valuation. Udemy almost died at least 5x. We got rejected by everyone in the Valley. Startups are never a straight line. *Read on*.
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I left America for 3 years and traveled to every corner of the globe. Stayed on every continent. Visited my 60th country. I seriously contemplated living abroad long-term, but eventually the decision became clear: I would move back to the USA. The reason was simple: As an.
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Udemy will do $700M in revenue this year 🤯.Udemy for Business is on a $400M ARR 💥. Still can't believe we started that when I was like 21 years old. The internet is wild.
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At Udemy, we were 3 first-time entrepreneurs trying to raise seed capital. We made every mistake in the book. We got 200+ no’s and wasted 12 months fundraising. We eventually pulled through, just barely. 😅. This thread shares our mistakes as lessons for founders. **Read On**.
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Introducing “Superpowers” - the underlying skills that help you succeed at anything. I spent nearly 6 months building this list and almost wrote a book on the subject. Instead, I’ve condensed that work into a pithy (and punchy) Twitter thread. **Read On**.
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Duolingo is a fascinating study in consumer "education.". The app is fairly useless for language learning* but is wildly popular. 88.4M Monthly Active Users.6.6M Paid Subscribers.$530M in FY 2023 Revenue.$93.7M in FY 2023 EBITDA. The kicker? $8.4B market cap. 2x bigger than.
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Before Udemy could succeed, we had to solve a chicken and egg problem. These problems are a constant dilemma for founders. (ie. Funding is needed to scale but scale is needed for funding.). Here's how we bumbled to a solution that kicked off our $3B business. **Read On**.
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At Udemy, we gave equity to one of our competitors’ CEO after their company closed. He pointed out a few pitfalls that we avoided & later bought his first house via money made on Udemy stock. Now, he’s a good friend & presents opps to me I wouldn’t have otherwise. Karma FTW.
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Prediction: Over the next decade there will be a revenge of the generalist. Generalists will be rewarded as organizations shrink and employees are asked to do more with less. AI will accelerate this trend as specialized tasks become more and more automated.
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Time management boils down to just one skill: saying no.
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SQL is going to die at the hands of an AI. I’m serious. @mayowaoshin is already doing this. Takes your company’s data and ingests it into ChatGPT. Then, you can create a chatbot for the data and just ask it questions using natural language. This video demoes the output. 🤯.
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All told it was just 4 years. If you're gonna fail, do it fast. If you're gonna succeed, do it slowly. In startups, remember to watch your flanks. Your competitors are not your direct competitors, but the whole market.
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If you were laid off, fired or rejected, ask yourself: what did I do to contribute to this situation? What can I do better next time?. Don’t change who you are, but evolve and be willing to see opportunities for improvement. You will get another bite at the apple.
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The hardest part in starting a $100m business: picking the right idea to work on. Pick wrong and you’ll spend years working away with little to no results. Pick right and you'll have a much better chance to succeed. Here’s how I’ve decided what ideas to work on….
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To hear more honest takes on entrepreneurship, global issues and culture, subscribe to my newsletter (launching soon): And follow me on Twitter :). Thank you 🙏🙏🙏.
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Many founders assume the best first step in exploring an idea is building an MVP. This is wrong--there is a better way that can save you time and money. THREAD: The Minimum Viable Testing framework (a follow-up to my article in the First Round Review). 👇🏾.
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Crazy to say this but I'm getting back in the ring after 3 years on the bench. Starting a new startup - details forthcoming. I couldn't be more excited. 🤦🏾♂️🤦🏾♂️🔥🔥🔥🎉🎉🎉.
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A few lessons:. 1. You always lose a job for a reason. For me, managing was not natural. Get a coach and look inward. You'll learn!. 2. Be classy on the way out. I left Udemy on good terms; I didn’t cause trouble. It paid off; I kept a good reputation and Udemy treats me well.
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I’m amazed at how many high-performers have serious or chronic health issues like TMJ, severe muscle pain, carpal tunnel. I’ve dealt with my share of health issues; imho it all comes down to stress. A story about stress and what I’ve learned from managing it. **Read On**.
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'99-'00: my parents divorced, we lost most of our net worth -> started my first biz @ 13yo. '08: mom and I were freaking out as she worked in finance and I in consulting -> decided to explore startups; founded @udemy. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Power On.
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Hire people with high standards. Then let them run their own show. That's it - the fastest way to being a great manager.
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When we started Udemy every investor we talked to asked us: “Why wouldn’t Google or YouTube just do this?”. This is the answer. You can’t learn shit with 10 min viral videos. You gotta go deep, spend dedicated time. Your life will change as a result.
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3. Even if you feel you were treated unfairly, learn from it. Someone smart believed you needed to go. That's a lesson!. 4. This too shall pass. It felt like the world had ended when I was fired, but it actually opened the door for my next opportunity. I learned so much from this.
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This is exactly why "self-learning" is unbelievably ineffective. Sometimes, you are part of the .1%. Most of the time you aren't: you get stuck, you get distracted, lose motivation, etc. Cohorts solve this problem.
How many people make it through each day of Replit's online 100 Days of Code tutorial.
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Today, our startup celebrates an incredible milestone:. First dollar of revenue!!!!. 🥂🚀. Nice work @patel0phone + @APompliano.
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@udemy @erenbali @caglaroktay @founding @adeoressi @rabois @naval @AngelList @rfradin @msugarman @dinesh9 @archieabrams @insightpartners @dennisyang @DarrenShimkus @Sprig Final thoughts:. Prepare for a grind. Udemy is 10yo and worth “only” $2B. You don’t have 2 be Uber to be a gr8 biz. Don't be a sore loser. Eren + I are v good friends. We respect those who rejected us + those who fired us. Blog post(s) forthcoming; please follow me for more :).
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Day 12 of @naval's 60/60 meditations. 60 days, 60 minutes per day. Sit quietly and surrender to whatever happens. Absolutely phenomenal experience. Increased focus. Happiness increased (8/10 to 9/10). Calmer in meetings. Less phone addiction. So far, highly recommend.
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It's been a year in the making. Today, @wes_kao and I are announcing a $4.32M seed round led by @firstround for our new company. We're building a platform for Cohort-Based Courses (CBCs): The backstory 👇🏾.
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I spent 10 hours in a "ride-along" with an OPD officer. By the end, my head was pounding. 5 shocking lessons about why it takes cops days to respond to 911 calls:.- Rules prevent police from doing their job. e.g. There's a 19-factor (19!!) test for police to run through their.
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OK so you’ve seen me tweet about Maven, we raised $25M, and there are a ton of amazing instructors on board. But what are we really doing here?. The top-secret 10-year vision for Maven. **Read On**.
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After @sprig, I took off and traveled the world. Will be sharing a lot more on Sprig and other stories at Thanks to everyone who believed in us. Follow me to read more honest takes from a recovering founder 🙏🙏🙏.
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I’ve been thinking about co-founders a lot lately. In 15 years of building companies, I’ve had >10 different co-founders. They’ve fired me. I’ve fired them. But I’m still friends with 100% of them to this day. 15 Rules on Co-founder Relationships. **Read On**.
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A small example of sheer incompetence in California:.We have the lowest % of votes counted in the entire country and its not even close. 36 hours after polls close, CA has 56% of votes counted 😱. 46 states have 90%+ counted. In Alameda County, we have only 30% (!) - one of the
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PSA: Consulting or banking jobs don't prepare you for startups. Once upon a time, being a McKinsey or Bain alum was a positive signal because there weren't enough other signals. This isn't true anymore. It is now a neutral signal at best.
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In startups, if you use your experience as a point of pride you'll regret it. Instead use it to provide perspective and be keenly aware of the pitfalls of knowing too much.
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3 causes for failure:. 1) In 2013, we mistook present for future. Delivery apps got better w scale. We got worse. 2) The profit equation was off. The market size in SF was too small for our big kitchen. We blitzfailed. 3) Cap Table + Burnout. Hard to restart after losing $50M.
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There are 4 instructors who have made over $100K each on Maven. That's just in the first 3 months. 🤯.
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Advice I wish I had as a first-time founder:. • The right strategy > great execution (work less, think more).• Play the long game w/ people: don’t underestimate anyone, but pick your favorites + invest in them.• Understanding yourself = better leadership (ie. get a exec coach).
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💥 Big News! 💥. Maven is launching over 100+ new courses today to help you accelerate your career. Over the last year, almost 10k professionals from Google, Nasa, McKinsey and Tesla have learned career-boosting skills on Maven. Why are so many people taking courses on Maven?.
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Life of a remote-first CEO:.I have 16 meetings today. WTF. 😆.
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Every company in the world should give its employees equity. Every company that raises capital should enable its stakeholders (customers, partners) to invest. Share the wealth to create more wealth and reward your true believers.
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"Education" requirements should be eliminated from almost all job postings.
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I think Oakland is the Bay Area's best-kept secret. - Incredible weather.- Amazing location.- Diverse, kind people who aren't defined by their work.- Fantastic food and drink.- Green, lush parks.- Eclectic, edgy, artsy culture. I truly love this place!.
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Hot take: Almost everyone I know who has pets has mixed feelings about whether they would get them again. For the right situation, pets are incredible. But most people underestimate the financial and lifestyle costs.
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How to validate your startup: . Revenue!.Users who love your product.Key customer insights. How to feel like your startup is validated: . Raise a round.Post about it on Twitter.Buy swag.
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When we closed @Sprig, we had burned $53M of capital. We returned <15% of our investors' money. Out of 100+ investors, not a single one caused trouble. They all took my calls and continue to provide positive references. Still can't believe it. SV culture is so powerful.
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People dramatically underestimate how valuable it is to have just ONE major win on your resume. In many cases, you can ride on that one win for a decade.
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I don't know who needs to hear this but always take a lower comp, lesser title job at a better startup, especially if you are early in your career. The compounding value of being "in the network" and having higher opportunity on your equity is incredibly underrated.
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An extremely smart recruiter told me yesterday that startups time-to-offer should be 3 days. 🤯. That's time from first comms with a candidate to making an offer. What is time-to-offer at your company?.
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💥 Excited to announce Maven's $20M Series A led by @a16z's @andrewchen. First Round and others also doubled down. This is a big step for us and we're hiring like crazy: Onward! 🚀.
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Some honest reflections on 3 years into Maven (my 3rd startup). - This was way harder and more stressful than I remembered. Amnesia is real. - Being a 3rd time founder has reduced execution risk, but strategy risk remains the same. This means less stress, but roughly equal.
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"Former Airbnb product manager made over $300,000 teaching one online course in 2021". Probably nothing.
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I joined Udemy, then got fired and spent 1 year putzing about, 4 years in foodtech getting my ass handed to me, 2 years doing absolutely nothing work-related, then 1 year as a creator. Then finally re-emerged and am now working on Maven. This shit ain't a straight line.
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If you hire the right people, reference calls also serve as good networking.
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Yesterday I made a major life announcement: I’m starting a NewCo after 3 years of exploring. More of you cared than I expected; thanks for the support! 🙏🏾. What the hell did I do for 3 years?. Thought I’d share the back-story. **Read On**.
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Short-term it's a competitive advantage to be working all the time. Long-term it's a competitive disadvantage as you will burn out. Everyone does. Balancing this is one of the hardest challenges of ambitious people.
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Incorporated a new company - docs, banking, legal - all from my computer in <2 hours of effort. Thanks @stripe @atlas and @BankMercury. So exciting to see such innovation in the banking and legal field!.
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If you work for a startup and you don't think your founders are at least a bit ruthless, your equity is likely worthless.
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@udemy @erenbali @caglaroktay @founding @adeoressi @rabois @naval @AngelList @rfradin @msugarman @dinesh9 @archieabrams @insightpartners @dennisyang @DarrenShimkus Today, many of our peers (marketplaces + other edutech cos) who were higher valued are facing challenges. Overvaluation means overspending, which increases likelihood of failure. Hype gets into people’s heads. Best of both worlds: build hype but stay humble.
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The smartest founders I know:. Give a fuck.Have the ability to block out noise.Have a consistent writing practice (whether internal or external).Are an expert in certain skills, hire for others.Set high expectations, and guide peers to achieve them.
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My process for creating startup ideas:. When trying to find startup ideas, I try to act like a normal human. Less meetings with VC's, more hanging out with friends and accomplishing my own "jobs to be done.". Real insights come from being a customer - not from networking!.
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Many founders think the best first step in exploring an idea is building an MVP. But often this is a waste of time and money. There's a better way - the Minimum Viable Testing framework. Really excited to share details on the First Round Review -
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Contrary to popular opinion, the best advice isn't actionable. In fact, it's the opposite. The best advice makes you think and come up with the action on your own.
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The Defund the Police movement has devastated Oakland, especially its poorest communities. Been meeting with city officials and doing independent research. Some crazy stats:.- There are only ~35 police officers on patrol at any given time. - Oakland has the lowest police to.
My heart is breaking for my hometown. 💔 . Many Oaklanders lost trust in Mayor Thao a long time ago, but now an FBI raid tied to corruption accusations and her deafening silence in the wake of 15 people shot at Lake Merritt on Juneteenth confirm a complete dereliction of duty.
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Tired: Hey I'm looking for advice - do you have 15 min for a coffee chat?. Wired: Hey I'm looking for advice - I've written a document about my situation; are you willing to read and provide feedback?.
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Thanks for the amazing feedback!. Here's an equally honest thread about @udemy going from 0 to $2B valuation:.
I’m biased but @udemy is a true underdog story + thought I’d share details we’ve never shared before. ICYMI, we announced a $50M raise at $2B valuation. Udemy almost died at least 5x. We got rejected by everyone in the Valley. Startups are never a straight line. *Read on*.
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Do you know a talented person who loves startups and is looking to break in?. or a student who is looking for an internship?. or an entrepreneur who wants a part-time gig while they are starting something new?. I'm hiring a Summer Associate: Pls Share.
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👀 Wes, Gagan and Shreyans’ startup no more. We finally have a name!. We’re now Maven. Check us out at
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In hindsight, I’m grateful. I vested most of my stock and Udemy became a unicorn regardless. The wake up call helped me dig deep and learn to be more compassionate. I’ve led teams since w/ relatively good reviews. I've learned the art of "Radical Candor.".
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Many entrepreneurs are watching our startup thinking: WTF. The experience helps in the less relevant stuff (hiring, fundraising, buzz) but in reality the thing that matters is Product-Market Fit. You can't experience your way into PMF. Only hustle and instincts help here.
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Fundraising for first-time founders. This is a first principles thread on fundraising that should help any new founder understand how to raise money and what steps to take. I've personally raised about $70M from 1500 investors & this synthesize a lot of my advice. **Read On**.
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We agreed that I would get an executive coach. I found one I liked and things started to improve. I learned how my childhood had led me to be comfortable with confrontation and insensitive to those with less power. It came across as mean-spirited and condescending.
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Three critical founder skills:. Resilience - being unafraid of failure, learning from it, and trying again in spite of it. Creative Problem Solving - "thinking outside the box" when faced with a challenge. Relentlessness - the "honey badger" mentality of getting what you want.
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I started projecting my own stress on the team. I was a taskmaster: hyper-direct and critical without finesse. I’d practically yell at people when frustrated. I thought that was acceptable, because that’s what my idols did—Gates, Jobs, Zuckerberg.
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How to make $1M, $5M, or $10M+ in Silicon Valley. I've seen many friends "make it" in Silicon Valley over the last 15 years. None got top tier jobs out of college, so they usually started at mediocre Seed or Series A companies with OK founders and OK investors. From there, they.
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Wow. Today is the 1 year anniversary of Maven. It's my 3rd internet startup and 7th company. Learning a lot. These are written as reflections for me and not lessons for you. I hope you'll appreciate me thinking out loud and sharing what's going through my head. 👇🏾.
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I've recently made a habit of e-mailing people when they apply for something and don't get it. This includes job applications or applications to invest in our new company. The graciousness and surprise when people receive these emails is incredible.
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If you work at FAANG (or equivalent big company) and want to work at or start a startup eventually, get a side gig. Build something on the side, run a non-profit, teach, or take on two jobs at once. You'll learn startup hustle while still keeping that fat salary 😄.
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I'm grateful for the experience. Learned way more in 4 yrs @sprig than 4 years @udemy or @UCBerkeley. Few grudges were held & we took care of the team. They mostly landed on their feet (Silicon Valley embraces failure). A classy ending helped sow the seeds for forgiveness.
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Today, Udemy is public and only worth $1.5B. Crazy if you consider it has a $400M run-rate SaaS product that is growing 33% YoY. Been surprised by how unpredictable the public markets are. Feels very undervalued 🤷🏾♂️. (Disclosure: still a tiny shareholder).
Udemy will do $700M in revenue this year 🤯.Udemy for Business is on a $400M ARR 💥. Still can't believe we started that when I was like 21 years old. The internet is wild.
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In the 2001 recession, my parents lost everything, marriage included. My dreams felt like they were slipping away; I was depressed, angry and had nowhere to turn. This is a story about how I turned crisis into opportunity by fusing education and entrepreneurship. **Read On**.
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Many people see being busy as a sign of productivity. For most, it is actually a sign of a lack thereof.
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I was just 21 when I met @erenbali + @caglaroktay. I was a nobody, my family was broke, and I had never run a startup. They, too, weren’t hot shots. Fresh off the boat from Turkey and still proving themselves. They took a chance on me, and I on them.
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@udemy @erenbali @caglaroktay @founding @adeoressi After 1 year of this, $30k in cc debt, nobody would fund us. YC rejected us 3x. We met over 100 investors and they all passed. We agreed if we didn’t raise in 1 month, we’d quit. Finally, @rabois (who knew this but didn’t care) said yes. Then @naval put us on @angellist.
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Just wired ~$100k each to two of our first Maven instructors. Damn that's a good feeling.
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WOW so excited right now. Building is fun, and building with partners is even better :). Officially have a co-founder for the newco. Excited to share more soon!. (p.s. still looking for a 3rd co-founder in product/tech).
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Everyone should do Speech and Debate (or some similar activity) in high school. You learn to:.- speak in public.- (de)construct logical arguments.- write fast and efficiently.- read philosophy and poli sci. Almost every debater I know overachieved vs their peers at same HS.
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People management boils down to just one thing: empathy.
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One of the real surprises as I've grown in my career is how many great people there are out there that can't be bought with money, fancy titles or stock. They value their time too much. You gotta earn it with rapport, reputation and mission.
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@udemy @erenbali @caglaroktay @founding @adeoressi @rabois @naval @AngelList @rfradin @msugarman There is no one path to a gr8 business. You can lose your founders and still have a great business. You can be rejected by Sand Hill and raise elsewhere (or not at all). You can grow up in a one-room schoolhouse in a poor part of Southeast Turkey as Eren and Oktay did.
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Learning. Learn how to learn. If you do, it unlocks everything else. The deeper your learning practice, the more you can learn. This is the ultimate superpower: not only can you learn new subjects; you can even learn to change your mind, your preferences and your mood.
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When we started Udemy, a common investor challenge was: Why couldn't YouTube do this?. The answer is paradoxical. YouTube did provide more online education than any other platform in the world. But this actually HELPED Udemy grow instead of hurting Udemy's growth. Udemy.
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Profile: @erenbali, CEO of the fastest growing healthtech co in America. Eren grew up in post-1980-coup state terror, dad expelled for political dissidence, his mom the only teacher in the village. Since, he's founded 2 unicorns @udemy + @carbonhealth. This is a wild story 👇🏾.
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$2M in course sales so far and Maven still has no logo, our website was created by a contractor (thx @5harath!), and none of our employees/investors have swag. This changes soon, but still very proud of the way we started this company…. Focused on our customer!.
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The modern professional has many talents rather than just one:. 🎨 Data scientist who knows Figma.✏️ Engineer who writes copy.👨💻 Marketer who can run SQL queries. Learning new skills is made easier by user friendly tools and an abundance of information. Always be learning.
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