Skillshare is an

online learning community An online learning community is a public or private destination on the Internet that addresses its members' learning needs by facilitating peer-to-peer learning. Through social networking and computer-mediated communication, or the use of datagogi ...

based in the United States for people who want to learn from educational videos. The courses, which are not

accredited Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...

, are only available through paid subscription. The majority of courses focus on interaction rather than lecturing, with the primary goal of learning by completing a project. The main course categories include

creative arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design' ...

entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

, lifestyle and

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and Reproducibility, reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in me ...

History

Michael Karnjanaprakorn and Malcolm Ong started Skillshare in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, New York in November 2010; the site was live in April 2011. Previously, Karnjanaprakorn led the product team at Hot Potato, a social media product bought by

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

. Ong was the product manager at OMGPop. In August 2011, Skillshare raised $3.1 million in Series A funding led by

Union Square Ventures Union Square Ventures (USV) is an American venture capital firm based in New York City. The firm has backed more than 130 startups, including Twitter, Etsy, Stripe, Coinbase, Zynga, Tumblr, Stack Overflow, Meetup, Kickstarter, MongoDB, Flur ...

and

Spark Capital Spark Capital is a venture capital firm in the United States, responsible for early-stage funding startups of consumer, commerce, FinTech, software, frontier, and media sectors. It has branches in San Francisco, Boston, and New York City. Hi ...

. In late 2013, Skillshare had raised $4.65 million in funding, and $6 million by February 2014, with financing co-led by Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital. Total funding reached $10 million. Skillshare held the Penny Conference in April 2012, a one-day discussion on the current educational system and how to reform it, with Michael Karnjanaprakorn,

Codecademy Codecademy is an American online interactive platform that offers free coding classes in 12 different programming languages including Python, Java, Go, JavaScript, Ruby, SQL, C++, C#, and Swift, as well as markup languages HTML and CSS. The ...

’s cofounder Zach Sims, and Pencils of Promise founder Adam Braun as speakers. Skillshare launched 15 self-paced, online courses in August 2012, with students collaborating to complete a project. By November 2013, it hosted over 250 courses, and launched its School of Design. Skillshare collaborated with Levi's to launch the School of MakeOurMark in October 2013, focusing on individual creativity with courses in

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employe ...

tattoo A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several tattooing ...

ing, and various forms of illustration. In March 2014, Skillshare moved to a membership model for $9.95 a month. Later that year, the company announced a new

open platform In computing, an open platform describes a software system which is based on open standards, such as published and fully documented external application programming interfaces (API) that allow using the software to function in other ways than th ...

, where anyone could be a course instructor, and a free membership option to watch a limited amount of class content each month. In May 2016, Skillshare raised $12 million in Series B funding. The company raised a further $28 million in Series C funding in July 2018 ($20 million in equity and $8 million in venture debt). As of March 2019, Skillshare had over 27,000 premium classes and more than 2,000 free classes available. The platform has introduced the "Groups" feature that allows members to connect with other creators, share work, and take skills to the next level through engaging discussions and prompts. In September 2021, Skillshare discontinued the option to offer classes for free and required users to have either a paid membership or free trial to access all courses (including classes that were previously available for free).

Courses

Skillshare organizes courses into advertising, business, design, fashion and style, film and video, food and drink, music, photography, gaming, technology, and writing and publishing, often taught by industry leaders. All online courses are self-paced. Notable instructors include

Seth Godin Seth W. Godin is an American author and former dot com business executive. Background After leaving Spinnaker in 1986, he used $20,000 in savings to found Seth Godin Productions, primarily a book packaging business, out of a studio apartment i ...

(entrepreneurship),

Jessica Hische Jessica Nicole Hische ( ; born April 4, 1984) is an American lettering artist, illustrator, author, and type designer. She was one of the first of a new generation of letterers and the present-day flourishing of the lettering arts can in part be t ...

(lettering),

Susan Orlean Susan Orlean (born October 31, 1955) is a journalist, television writer, and bestselling author of ''The Orchid Thief'' and '' The Library Book''. She has been a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' since 1992, and has contributed articles to many ...

(creative non-fiction),

Young Guru Gimel Androus Keaton (born February 27, 1974), better known by his stage name Young Guru, is an American audio engineer, record producer, disc jockey, and record executive from Wilmington, Delaware. In 2019, Young Guru won a Grammy Award for Bes ...

(audio mixing and recording),

Yuko Shimizu is the Japanese designer who created Hello Kitty. She was born in Japan. After graduating from Musashino Art University, she joined Sanrio. She designed the first original Sanrio character, Coro Chan This is a list of characters from Sanrio, ...

(inking and drawing techniques),

Marc Ecko Marc Louis Ecko (né Milecofsky; August 29, 1972) is an American fashion designer, entrepreneur, and artist. He is the founder and Chief Creative Officer of fashion company Ecko Unlimited. He also founded ''Complex'' magazine in 2002. Early ...

(entrepreneurship and brand creation),

Gary Vaynerchuk Gary Vaynerchuk (born Gennady Vaynerchuk; November 14, 1975; , ), commonly known as Gary Vee, is a Soviet-born American entrepreneur, author, speaker, and Internet personality. He is a co-founder of the restaurant reservation software company Res ...

(social media strategy),

Guy Kawasaki Guy Kawasaki (born August 30, 1954) is an American marketing specialist, author, and Silicon Valley venture capitalist. He was one of the Apple employees originally responsible for marketing their Macintosh computer line in 1984. He popularized ...

(entrepreneurship) and

Paula Scher Paula Scher (born October 6, 1948, Washington, D.C.) is an American graphic designer, painter and art educator in design. She also served as the first female principal at Pentagram, which she joined in 1991.Scher, Paula." (n.d.): Oxford University ...

(graphic design). In June 2018, the company launched Skillshare Originals, a collection of courses produced by The Skillshare's in-house team.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Skillshare Internet properties established in 2011 Technology companies established in 2010 Education companies established in 2010 2010 establishments in New York City Technology companies based in New York City Educational technology companies of the United States Learning programs Freelance marketplace websites Subscription services Online marketplaces of the United States