Skillshare CEO – Matt Cooper & Education

Are you currently interested in learning a little more about what Skillshare is?

Slowly becoming one of the most popular and respected platforms for online learning, Skillshare is ideal for those wanting to further their knowledge across a range of disciplines – but how did the business come about, and who is the Skillshare CEO?

If you’re currently asking yourself this question, then rest assured that you have clicked on the right article. In this guide today, we are going to be talking you through who the CEO of Skillshare is, as well as providing you with a little background on what Skillshare is as a platform.

So, whenever you’re ready, just keep on reading!

What is Skillshare?

Before we jump any further into this guide, we first think that it would be a good idea to talk you through what Skillshare is, exactly.

To cut a long story short, Skillshare is essentially an online learning platform that was specifically designed to be able to offer people all over the world the ability to gain knowledge and skills across thousands of different disciplines from the comfort of their own homes and technology.

It was initially created way back in 2010 when the creators Michael Karnjanaprakorn and Malcolm Ong both came up with the concept of what we have now all come to know and love as Skillshare.

However, despite the fact that Skillshare was initially developed in 2010, it wasn’t until the spring of 2011 that Skillshare was launched and ready to be used by users all across the globe.

Quickly becoming one of the most respected and well-known websites for online learning across the world, all paid members of Skillshare are provided total, 24/7 access to unlimited classes across thousands of different disciplines, as well as the ability to join the online learning community and converse with classmates in real time.

By 2019, Skillshare was offering more than 27,000 premium classes (yes, you read that right) as well as just over 2,000 free classes.

However, by September 2012, Skillshare announced that the platform would be making the move entirely to premium classes only, which meant that the free classes would be discontinued.

By the end of September of that year, Skillshare became a platform that required all of its members to have a paid subscription to be able to access the course content provided, with the only exception being those taking a free trial. (See ‘When Will I Be Charged For My Skillshare Membership?‘)

Now have a better understanding of what Skillshare is as well as who created it, and who is the current CEO. This brings us to our next section. 

Who is the CEO of Skillshare?

So, now that you have a better understanding of what Skillshare is, we’re sure that you’ll be super interested to learn a little bit more about who the owner of Skillshare is, as well as how it came to be.

As we have already briefly touched upon above, way back in 2010, Michael Karnjanaprakorn and Malcolm Ong decided to come up with the concept for Skillshare – although it didn’t have its name as of just yet.

In November 2010, both Karnjanaprakorn and Ong both decided that they wanted to go ahead with the concept of creating an online learning platform, and by April 2011, Skillshare was live on the internet.

Initially, Skillshare was an entirely free platform and offered 15 online courses by mid-2012.

However, despite these modest financial beginnings, by November of 2013, Skillshare was offering over 250 self-paced courses across many different disciplines, as well as creating and launching Skillshare’s very own School of Design.

At the time of writing this guide, the current CEO of Skillshare is Matt Cooper, who is officially referred to as the Chief Executive Office of Skillshare and has helped to create Skillshare’s mission statement, “to connect life-long learners everywhere and build a more creative and prosperous world”.

Before he decided to take up the role as CEO of Skillshare, Matt was initially the CEO of Visually, which is an online marketplace that was intended for creative work.

However, when ScribbleLive acquires Visually, Matt decided that it was time to move on to other companies and executive roles, and he soon found himself stepping into the role of Chief Executive Office of Skillshare, a position that he holds to this very day. 

Prior to all of that, though, Matt also worked as the VP of Operations, Enterprise and International for a company called oDesk, which is now simply referred to as Upwork – which is currently the world’s largest marketplace and platform for online jobs!

 As a side note, if you are planning on becoming a member of Skillshare or you already have a membership with them, you might be interested in some of the courses that Matt has created himself.

If you’d like to learn more about some of the courses he has taught, you can find them on his page here. 

Wrapping Up

There we have it! You’ve made it to the end of the guide. Now that you’ve taken the time to read through all of the above, we are hoping that you now have a much better understanding of what Skillshare is, as well as who the CEO currently is.

Just to sum up everything that we have talked about above, Skillshare was initially created way back in 2010, but it wasn’t live on the internet and was ready to be used until April 2011.

Since then, Skillshare has gone on to become the world’s most popular online platform for learning across a variety of disciplines and services, as well as offering excellent value for money.

At the time of writing this guide, Matt Cooper is currently the CEO, and the headquarters of Skillshare is currently based in the heart of New York City. Thank you for taking the time to read through this guide, we hope that it has been a help to you! Goodbye for now.