I’m excited to announce that a16z is leading the Series A round for Maven, a platform for cohort-based courses. Maven works with the world’s leading creators to help them create online courses, organized into multi-week programs that bring a group of students together to increase participation and accountability. Since launch January 2021, instructors have already sold over $1 million worth of courses on Maven. The startup is already working with a diverse set of creators who have built courses on a widely ranging set of topics: How to become an influencer, how to find a new job, trading Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and much more. With this new investment, I’ll be joining the company’s board and working with its team of startup veterans, led by Gagan Biyani, a repeat entrepreneur who previously co-founded Udemy.
Maven is working on an important problem that resonates in a deeply personal way: I think of some of the most critical decisions and projects I’ve worked on over the years — from buying a house, picking a career, trying to make it in a new industry — and think about all the generous advisors and mentors who taught me their hard-won knowledge. I wish that this knowledge was even more universally available, with teachers and fellow students to join me on the journey. Many of these topics are important but either niche, too fast-changing, or not academic enough, and so they are never taught in university. Instead we all have to piece them together by searching online, reading hundreds of articles, and watching an endless number of videos. I’m sure you’ve had the same experience!
It’s the perfect time to take on this market. Maven taps into the huge number of online creators — these are people who are experts, creators, and practitioners that have valuable knowledge, and are motivated to share it with their audience. Yet for deep topics that require teaching, a disjointed set of videos aren’t enough. Nor are basic forums or chat groups. If you’re like me and have had to teach yourself a wide range of new things online, you know that the existing options are fragmented and weak. No wonder traditional approaches, like Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs), have a 3-7% completion rate.