Michael Karnjanaprakorn, CO & co-founder of Skillshare
Skillshare is the latest venture from serial start-up pro (formerly of Behance & Hot Potato) Michael Karnjanaprakorn. This emerging service creates a global learning community where anyone can teach a class on any subject and similarly students can seek guidance on any topic. In their own words, they hoped to create a space where, “anyone can teach and anyone can learn. ” Skillshare provides the tools any teacher needs to produce high quality learning materials for use in the online space. Furthermore, Skillshare has created a marketplace where teachers (content creators) can profit off their instructional materials outside the traditional classroom space, a unique idea in a world with plentiful free YouTube content.
Karnjanaprakorn seems well positioned to lead his company to success. He has recent bachelor’s and graduate degrees (in economics and branding, respectively) and thus speaks from experience when he says he feels education needs a redux. One of the strengths of Skillshare is that they are live and editable by instructors, so when things are unclear, or if the market changes on a dime, so to can the course! This CEO is certainly positioned to disrupt the existing education market, and to directly take on MOOCs and other adult education. Additionally, Karnjanaprakorn has several years of experience in other start ups, which convinces me that he’s familiar with the market demands expected of him to keep his company afloat. His team is broad and experienced in both start ups and established businesses, and many of his investors have long track records of successful venture investments.
I continue to be personally weary of MOOCs and “disrupted education” for adult learners. This type of delivery has incredibly high drop out rates, and little has been done to assess the quality of learning delivered by such services. What I appreciated about Skillshare is that the company makes no claims that you’ll be more employable after taking these classes-simply that you’ll enjoy. Karnjanaprakorn seems to have identified a sweetspot in the continuing education space.
