Today we announced that Skillshare has raised a $66 million Series D funding round, led by OMERS Growth Equity. The last few months have been pivotal for the company, and like everything else in 2020, the path to funding was full of surprises. I wanted to share a few lessons learned from the process.

The value of focus

This isn’t necessarily a new lesson, but it was a valuable one to reinforce nonetheless. When I joined three years ago, Skillshare had pivoted away from its in-person teaching model several years earlier. We were using our open platform to teach as many different skills online to as many different people as possible. Creative classes and content had naturally evolved to be our core, but we aspired to be the go-to source for business, tech, and professional learning as well. But in mid-2019 we came to the conclusion that while we could compete in business and technology, we could be the clear market leader in creative learning.

We started the work behind the scenes, making subtle shifts in our product, content, and messaging to refocus our business where we were strongest. In January 2020, we officially refocused our content, product, community, and brand to help people explore and discover their creativity, both personally and professionally. And with that focus, the community flourished. Today Skillshare is made up of 12+ million members from around the globe who are passionate about leading an authentic, creative life. The corporate world has taken notice, too: our brand pivot has led us to partner with hundreds of businesses to help employees tap into creativity and feel more fulfilled at work. Prior to the COVID outbreak in the US and Europe, we were already reaching high points of user acquisition, member engagement, and growth.

#venture-capital #fundraising #online-learning #startup #deep learning