Not too long ago, we touched on the future of higher education and the growth of online learning. Demand in that space continues to grow, but existing solutions may not be everyone’s cup of tea.
Started by the co-founders of Udemy, altMBA, and Venmo, Maven is a spin on the online learning format most of us are familiar with. The makers were frustrated by what they saw as repetitive learning models—aka video-based courses with low completion rates.
“15 years ago, online education was considered a dead industry. VCs literally told me not to work in online learning. We started Udemy anyway and it took almost 5 years for anyone to take us seriously. [We feel as if] there's been almost no innovation since then,” says co-founder Gagan Biyani, who also co-founded Udemy.
Taking inspiration from co-founder Wes Kao’s altMBA experience, the team took a different approach to online learning and developed cohort-based courses (CBC).
The CBC model provides live courses and lets you learn alongside your peers, as opposed to sitting through pre-recorded videos by yourself. If you don’t have the time to keep up with the live class meetings, they’re recorded for you to watch later. While most courses are built for full-time professionals with busy schedules, instructors still put a heavy emphasis on the benefits of an interactive learning environment.
Maven instructors come from different industries and companies like Yelp, Meta, and Google. Prospective students can sign up for different “cohorts” and enroll in courses that are anywhere from 10 days to a few months long. Course topics for the fall cohort include leadership, marketing, product management, and more.
Low competition rates for online courses, which hover around 5-15%, make us wonder if this CBC model will be picked up by existing online learning platforms. BloomTech, an online coding bootcamp (formerly Lambda School), already utilizes a similar model and has a 70% graduation rate.
What do you think—could this format be a game changer for the online learning space?
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Adobe confirmed that they’ll be acquiring Figma. 👀 Let us know what you think.
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The APIs are flexible and easy to use, designed to provide an effortless experience from your first user all the way through your largest enterprise customer.
Today, hundreds of high-growth scale-ups are already powered by WorkOS, including ones you probably know, like Vercel, Webflow, and Loom.
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“Mailflow was built because we were frustrated about how email is always treated as an afterthought in every collaboration tool. You might have tried to replace email with a bunch of tools, only to find that your clients keep emailing you anyway. So you’re back to email,” says maker Henning Sillerud.