I knew that name. We went to high school and college together, and had lost touch since then.
I looked her up. Holy shit. @alt_MBA was like the godfather of all of these courses.
After spending a few months with Wes, I realized there was nobody smarter on Cohort-Based Courses out there. On top of that, I felt like talking with her was just fun, easy, fluid.
We decided to co-found the company together.
I wrote up a memo (I felt so 2020) and started to talk to some investors, including the inimitable @btrenchard at @firstround.
We signed a term sheet and then reached out to some of our favorite online influencers and angels to invest.
We have so much more to do, and yet it feels like the start of something.
We created this doc on our story and company: bit.ly/wk-gb
I’ve been thinking about co-founders a lot lately.
In 15 years of building companies, I’ve had >10 different co-founders.
They’ve fired me. I’ve fired them. But I’m still friends with 100% of them to this day.
... 15 Rules on Co-founder Relationships
**Read On**
Rule 1: You don’t have to know each other in advance.
@erenbali and @caglaroktay didn’t know me when we started @udemy, but I think all of us would agree the company wouldn’t have happened without any one of us.
Rule 2: Create a pre-nup through role definition.
99% of companies should have a clear CEO. If you are not that person, you report to them.
Co-founders firings should not be done lightly, but if it happens, the CEO decides.
Most investors add no value, but when they do, it can be company-saving.
In 2010 as @udemy was just picking up steam, eBay-owned PayPal was cracking down on marketplace businesses for violating ToS. Without warning, they shut our entire payments system down.
**Read On**
We had a few months of runway and were starting to raise our Series A. It would take weeks to implement an alternative system, and that would've killed our traction story.
It was all-out panic mode.
We asked everyone for help - many were experiencing the same problem.
PayPal was notoriously bureaucratic at this time and was completely inaccessible to small startups like us.
The "best case" scenario, we heard, was 3 months of downtime.
In the 2001 recession, my parents lost everything, marriage included.
My dreams felt like they were slipping away; I was depressed, angry and had nowhere to turn.
This is a story about how I turned crisis into opportunity by fusing education and entrepreneurship.
**Read On**
I was in a tough spot. We didn’t grow up wealthy, but I certainly had enough. I went to good schools, traveled internationally, and had all the tech and books I needed.
The crisis threw a wrench in everything.
Like many people today, I started to question the status quo.
Slowly, I started to get pissed off. The world felt like it was out to get me. I questioned if the “adults” in the room knew as much as they purported.
My grades slipped and my rebellious nature came out.
It's so easy to devolve into anger when times are tough.
Recently I've shared some heartfelt tweet-stories about entrepreneurship. Your support has been so encouraging 🙏🙏🙏
Now I'm doubling down with a personal mailing list: gaganbiyani.com - please help spread the word!
**A thread on what will make this newsletter unique**
1. I'll talk about firsthand experiences.
There are great newsletters that opine about tech, startups, vc. Instead, I'm going to talk about in-the-trenches realities. Real shit that most newsletter writers haven't experienced or aren't willing to share.
2. Global.
Silicon Valley is an extremely insular place. I love it actually, but it isn't for everyone and isn't relatable. I've spent almost 4 years of my life abroad and been to 60 countries.