Eren Bali (born 1984,

Malatya Malatya ( hy, Մալաթիա, translit=Malat'ya; Syro-Aramaic ܡܠܝܛܝܢܐ Malīṭīná; ku, Meletî; Ancient Greek: Μελιτηνή) is a large city in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey and the capital of Malatya Province. The city h ...

, Turkey) is a Turkish engineer and technology entrepreneur. based in the United States. He was the founding CEO of

Udemy Udemy, Inc. is a global destination for teaching and learning online. It was founded in May 2010 by Eren Bali, Gagan Biyani, and Oktay Caglar. As of November 2022, the platform has more than 57 million students, 213,000 courses, and 74,000 ins ...

, a platform and marketplace for massive open online courses (MOOCs), and he is now the founder and CEO of Carbon Health, a primary healthcare franchise based in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

Early life and education

Eren Bali was born in 1984 to

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

Alevi Alevism or Anatolian Alevism (; tr, Alevilik, ''Anadolu Aleviliği'' or ''Kızılbaşlık''; ; az, Ələvilik) is a local Islamic tradition, whose adherents follow the mystical Alevi Islamic ( ''bāṭenī'') teachings of Haji Bektash Veli, w ...

parents in Durulova, an apricot farming village in

. His mother was a

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

who taught the first through fifth grades in a

one-room schoolhouse One-room schools, or schoolhouses, were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain. In most rural and s ...

. In 2001, Bali won a silver medal in the International Mathematical Olympiad. The same year, he began his studies at Middle East Technical University, graduating in 2005 with a double major in computer engineering and mathematics.

Career

In 2008 in Turkey, Bali launched a livestream-based learning platform called KnowBand, which didn’t take off; shortly afterward, however, a

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...

-based online dating company called SpeedDate recruited Bali as an engineer. In 2010, Bali co-founded

with Oktay Caglar and

Gagan Biyani Gagan Biyani (born May 30, 1987) is an Indian-American serial entrepreneur, marketer, and journalist. He was a co-founder of Udemy, an online education company, and was co-founder and CEO of Sprig, a food delivery company. Life and career Biy ...

. With initial investments from Russ Fradin and

Keith Rabois Keith Rabois (born March 17, 1969) is an American technology executive and investor. He is currently a general partner at Founders Fund. He is widely known for his early-stage startup investments and his executive roles at PayPal, LinkedIn, Slide, ...

, they raised one million dollars in seed financing. Between 2010 and 2014, the company grew to 4 million students and 15,000 teachers. In 2014, Bali stepped down as CEO and became the chairman. The same year, he was named on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list. Shortly afterward, Bali developed an interest in the healthcare industry when his mother became ill, and he spent some months accompanying her to doctors to get the right diagnosis and treatment. Bali first sought to support healthcare startups as an investor before ultimately deciding to start his own. In 2015, Bali founded Carbon Health with Tom Berry. In 2016, the founding team expanded to include Pablo Stanley and Greg Burell, MD. In 2018, Carbon Health merged with Direct Urgent Care and added the owner, Caesar Djavaherian as a co-founder.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bali, Eren Living people Turkish Kurdish people Turkish people of Kurdish descent Kurdish Alevis American technology company founders 1984 births Middle East Technical University alumni