Coursera's Inception
A Journey of Online Education
Coursera's Humble Beginnings
Once upon a time, Coursera was a fledgling startup with dreams of democratizing education. Founded by Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, the platform started as a place to share their Stanford courses online. Little did they know, it would ignite a "MOOC" (Massively Open Online Course) revolution.
Back then, Coursera had a young and talented team, including at least five former student body presidents from Ivy League schools. The culture was all about making education accessible and tearing down those pesky educational barriers. But, alas, they needed to make some money without betraying their altruistic mission.
The Great Monetization Balancing Act
Coursera's challenge was to monetize without compromising access to learning. They couldn't just slap a price tag on everything. The team embarked on a journey to figure out how to turn their vision into revenue.
Step 1: They decided to monetize beyond certificates, exploring what else they could offer to learners.
Step 2: They wondered if businesses would be interested in Coursera. Turns out, they were.
Enterprise Epiphany
Enterprises started flocking to Coursera. Large groups of people used their work email addresses to sign up. Corporate learning and development was booming, and companies were willing to spend on training their employees. Universities, on the other hand, were okay with monetizing companies, not individual learners.
Everything on Coursera was free except the certificates, which companies didn't care about. To unlock the B2B opportunity, they needed to figure out what else should be behind the paywall.
A Shift in Product Mindset
Coursera's product teams had to think differently. They split into Growth, Monetization, and Learning Experience teams.
The Monetization team discovered that putting assessments behind the paywall made sense. It kept most content free, aligned with existing mental models, and catered to learners who wanted to enhance their careers.
The Business Development Team focused on testing ideas with enterprise customers and quickly validated that assessments were valuable. The Enterprise Product Development (EPD) team was born.
EPD had a unique approach to building products. They had to be different because they dealt with purchasers, not just users. However, they kept the learning experience consistent between enterprise and consumer learners.
Product and Sales Coordination
Product and Sales can sometimes clash, but Coursera found harmony. They introduced a self-serve approach (Product Led Growth) alongside a top-down sales motion.
It turned out that PLG increased revenue, attracted more enterprise customers, and gave the sales team a new channel to upsell. They learned to balance input from Sales with their strategic vision and customer insights.
Coursera also faced a challenge when enterprise clients wanted custom content. Instead of building it directly, they began partnering with companies to provide in-demand skills training, expanding beyond university-only content.
Ensuring Learning Isn't Overwhelmed by Monetization
Coursera didn't want to extract more value from learners than they were creating. They introduced financial aid and ran surveys to ensure their courses were helping learners get jobs and advance their careers.
These steps ensured that their monetization approach stayed true to their vision.
The Impact of Enterprise Opportunity and Key Learnings
Today, Coursera has over 100 million learners and nearly 1,000 enterprise customers worldwide. But the journey wasn't all sunshine and rainbows.
Key takeaways from Coursera's enterprise adventure:
Launching a new business line is tough. Be ready to invest and listen to your customers.
Focus is fantastic, but don't become irrelevant. Expanding can be a good move.
It's easier for a B2C company to launch an enterprise offering due to brand awareness.
In the end, Coursera's journey shows that building something valuable requires persistence, conviction, and a dash of creativity. And remember, you can make money without ruining the fun!