From pre-business model to IPO: lessons from an early Coursera employee
I remember my first conversation with Daphne Koller, the co-founder of Coursera, in March of 2012. At the time I was at Google, in what I thought was my dream job. But after talking to Daphne, I was convinced that Coursera was going to change the world, and I had to be part of it.
I joined Coursera the month the company launched. It was pre-business model, and under 10 employees. I was our first business hire, and over the next six years wore a lot of different hats from consumer monetization, to leading international growth, to starting and scaling an enterprise business. When I left six years later, we had over 40M learners and were on track to do over $150M in revenue. I lived many lives during those six years.
Today, 9 years after Coursera’s launch, the company went public. It is truly the collective achievement of so many people who poured their hearts into making Coursera what it is today. On the one hand, Coursera’s success always felt inevitable — the mission was so large and set such a far out goal post — there was no option other than reaching millions and millions of learners. On the other hand, Coursera’s journey was far from a straight shoot — there were rounds that were very hard to raise, there were transitions that were difficult on the company, and there were strategies that failed. But the Coursera team always pulled through, with some of the biggest company breakthroughs coming from those less senior in the ranks. Over the last two and half years as a partner at GSV, an investor in Coursera, I’ve been able to watch Coursera continue to evolve and thrive. I’m so proud of the Courseraians past and present.
At some point I will write more about the early days of Coursera, but in the meantime here are some of my biggest lessons from my time there…
The power of a mission
Coursera, even in early days, never felt small because we had such a big mission. At a time when edtech had trouble recruiting engineering talent, Coursera’s mission (coupled with Andrew and Daphne :)) recruited the strongest engineering team that I’ve seen in my career (I’m looking at you Leith, Tom, Ngiam, Frank, Pang Wei, Bipin, Zhenghao, Sourabh, Jean, JJ, Emily, and so many more!). The mission made partners want to work with us, and newspapers want to write about us. It made us think big, work hard, and was the foundation of our culture.
Andrew and Daphne made sure we stayed aligned with the mission. It was how they hired and what they reinforced. I remember our first foray into monetization. Andrew said that we could not launch certificates until we had a scholarship option, so that all students, regardless of their income, could benefit from the offering. The requirement delayed the launch by two weeks, but reinforced something much larger and more valuable.
People often ask me about the trade-off between mission and business or profit. On a micro level there may be at times some tradeoffs, but at a macro level a company with an authentic mission has so many advantages. A mission both sets an aspiration destination, and gives the company (and employees) the fuel to get there.
Have a good moat
Coursera’s partnerships with top universities proved to be a very effective moat. Daphne understood this well, and spent the first two years of Coursera traveling the world to bring on as many of the top universities as she could. Over time, as the number of learners grew, Coursera’s partnership moat grew stronger (partners wanted to be where the learners were) and a new learner moat emerged. Coursera leaned into those moats building out a degree business with highly advantaged CAC (from recruiting degree learners fro our massive consumer learner base) and an enterprise business. And that trifecta of business models served as an even larger barrier to entry.
A good moat makes it easier and easier to win over time. It also gives you the room to make mistakes, which we most certainly did.
Users over competition
In the early days, Coursera was obsessed with competition. EdX and Udacity had launched around the same time, and they were all led by academics (which poured fuel on that fire). But as we grew up, we stopped worrying about our competition and focused on our users. And those users gave us the insights — from which courses to produce, to new product lines to release — that catapulted the business ahead. Behavior from a competitor is a lagging and diffuse indicator of where the market is going. User data on the other hand, can allow you to spot trends before they happen and can advance your business in ways that are unique to you.
Have a learner mindset, take initiative, and hire well
While I was hired as our first business leader, it was unclear what my role actually was. My first week, Andrew, Daphne, and I discussed whether we even should be thinking about business models and monetization at this point. There was also no real management structure, no OKRs, and no official meetings. I remember scheduling our first leadership team meeting with myself, Andrew, Daphne, Pang Wei (who led university operations), and Ngiam (who led engineering). Things were open and ambiguous.
But I quickly learned that initiative cuts through ambiguity. The lack of structure or definition in my role allowed me to focus on areas that would have the biggest impact on the company. That orientation towards impact, not role or swim lane, turned out to be a real asset to me as an early employee, allowing my role to continue to evolve and grow as the company evolved and grew.
Throughout my time at Coursera, I repeatedly took on functions that I had no experience in. I had to believe in my own ability to learn, to ask the right questions, and to figure it out. It wasn’t just me on that learning journey; I took my whole team with me. It became part of my team culture. We were constantly learning, trying to figure out how to make the business work, and how to become more effective leaders and operators. Being new to functions, made us question everything and rely on first principles. It created a culture where it was okay to make mistakes which were just another opportunity to learn.
I also had to realize though when my learning cycle would not be fast enough, and when I needed to hire real experience under me. The first year of the enterprise business we did $4M in bookings with almost no one on the team with any sales experience. Our goal for the next year was to 4X. I knew we could not hit that goal without bringing on some outside experienced talent. Luckily we were able to make some excellent hires (who are still mostly still in place today!), and we exceeded our goal by over 25%. Good hires can be a step change in your own learning and development. The business and my organization kept growing and so did I.
Make friends and have fun
A startup journey is long and intense, but throughout you can also have a lot of fun and form some lifetime friendships. In the early years my team (aka The Honey Badgers) used to perform our OKRs to the CEO in the form of a skit or a song. Our CEO didn’t know quite what to make of it… but we were a high performing team and it was very funny. We traveled together to Columbia, China, Mexico, India, and throughout Europe opening up markets, speaking at conferences, forming partnerships, and eventually building on the ground enterprise operations. We propped each other up, championed ideas internally, and launched the products/businesses that have driven the majority of company revenue. And it was really, really fun.
I have so much admiration and care for the people that I was lucky enough to work closely with during my time at Coursera. I am so grateful for the friendships that Coursera brought into my life, and how those friendships have persisted. They are first people I call to review a blog post (thanks Connor!), or when I have business idea, or just want to chat.
I hope these lessons help others who are starting or joining early stage companies! And most importantly, I hope you have an amazing journey like I had.
