Wow, it’s been an exciting month for our company! I’m Aaron Skonnard, the CEO and cofounder of Pluralsight. Today feels like a perfect day to share some of my own thoughts about the recent news and what it ultimately means to our customers.
Last Thursday, TechCrunch broke the story about our $27.5M Series A funding led by Insight Venture Partners. Shortly thereafter, articles about the investment round appeared in AllThingsD, VentureBeat, and several other sites.
As the 
one who led the investment process for Pluralsight, I want to share some of the thinking that led to this outcome. I hope this post will provide more context for our customers and explain how the investment will impact the future of our business.
When we first considered the idea of taking an outside investment, we weren’t sure it was the right thing to do. Pluralsight was founded back in 2004 and we’ve been profitable for over 8 years now. We pivoted to the online model in 2008, and since then, we’ve seen dramatic growth in overall revenue and our customer base.
We attribute most of this success to our simple strategy of delivering more value per dollar month after month as we continue to grow our online training library.
As a profitable, completely bootstrapped company, it’s easy to convince yourself that “outside money” could be the start of your demise. After all, we’ve all heard horror stories about investments gone bad. Those stories cause many founders to worry about the unpredictable outside influences that often come attached to the money. This is especially worrisome when founders believe those outside influences could negatively impact the culture they’ve worked so hard to create over the years.
We certainly found ourselves in that camp. In fact, if you had asked us a few months back about the possibility of an outside investment, we would have said “no way”.
So what changed?
As our brand began to receive more attention from the press, quite a few investment firms began to reach out to us. Although contrary to our initial instincts, we decided to keep an open mind. Then we began educating ourselves by researching the various possibilities and their pros and cons. Shortly thereafter, it became a very competitive process, and before we knew it, we had a long line of firms interested in our business.
We had countless conversations with investment firms all over the country to understand what they could offer us, both in terms of intellectual and liquid capital. We began to notice differences in their business models, cultures, experience, and most importantly, individual personalities. We began to realize that a few firms had much more to offer us than just a blank check.
It was at this point that our perceptions (as founders) began to shift.
We started to see that the “right” investment could really impact our business in a positive way. For starters, it would immediately remove the growth constraints imposed by the realities of cash flow and profits. We also started to appreciate the benefits of acquiring a new partner, and
a few very sharp board members, who could help fill in some missing pieces as we continue to grow. It also became obvious that our customers would benefit more than anyone. A stronger balance sheet would make it possible to invest heavily in growing and expanding our library and delivering even more value in the near future.
We truly want to deliver more value to our customers, and believe timing is critical. Ultimately, we concluded that “doing nothing” presented a greater risk to our business than “doing something”.
So after an intense period of self-education, pitching to firms around the country, and negotiating term sheets, we decided to go for it.
We chose to partner with Insight Venture Partners out of New York. We’ve been very impressed with Insight and especially Ryan Hinkle, the IVP partner leading their investment in Pluralsight. Ryan impressed us early on by demonstrating a solid, almost inherent, understanding of what’s important in our business model. We believe Insight will help us build and grow in a way that’s consistent with our vision and culture. I personally believe we will go further with them than without them, and that’s why we’re doing it.
The founding partners do remain in control of the company with majority interest and will continue in their respective management roles.
Ultimately, the Insight investment is a major win for Pluralsight and it’s customers. I couldn’t be more excited about what the future holds and what we already have in the works. As time rolls on, my promise to our our customers is simple: you will notice a positive difference in what you are paying for each month. Given that, it’s a great time to let us know what’s important to you. Drop a comment below and tell us what course topics you’d most like to see, and what features we should add to our learning experience!
Thank you for the continual loyalty and support, and for helping us create such a wonderful online community for software developers. Here’s to an amazing 2013!
It’s great to read this Aaron.
I truly believe that Pluralsight has a bright future, and I enjoy your work all the days.
I hope in near future I’ll be part of long list of your great people.
All the best, from Betim.
Thanks Betim! I hope so as well.
It all sounds fantastic, more courses and wider range of information.
Maybe it is the cynic in me doesn’t like the phrase “you will notice a difference in what you are paying for each month” possibly it should be reworded to include the word ‘positive’
I notice a difference in many services I pay for, not all of them are good and that is usually when I stop paying!
Very good point. Fixed.
Its seem to be good news.
I would like to many questions in the Post Assessment. The questions should serve as recap of entire module.
I have been using Pluralsight since you guys started in the C# arena and every week I look forward to new videos. For a individual like me the $29 monthly subscription is well worth it considering the same type of instruction on a live class room environment will cost few K’s.
All the best and keep up the good work.
Jay
Aaron – Fantastic news! big fan and supporter of Pluralsight here.
So far the focus of Pluralsight courses has been Microsoft and .NET
Do you plan to expand that in to all technology stacks with this investment?
congratulations again.
Yes, we have major plans to expand beyond Microsoft into all software technology stacks, including open source and third party technologies, but we plan to do so without sacrificing our commitment to the Microsoft developer landscape. This is a big part of what this investment is all about.
Great news and congratulations to everyone at Pluralsight!
I am expert in some disciplines and a newbie in others (many others). It is important to keep widening the offerings in the same subject to cater to users with different experience levels.
Thanks!
Agreed. We plan to continue investing deeper – 300, 400, and 500 level courses (more advanced) – in the major topic areas of interest today.
I’ve enjoyed many of the developer specific classes, and thought that it would be beneficial to have more courses like UX Design.
Agreed. UX is big on our list.
Congratulations and all the best Aaron. It’s a tough decision to go for capital to be sure and can both add new opportunities and new challenges. You guys have a stellar team and a stellar product and so we’re all sure you’ll shoot for the Moon!
Congrats. I hope you become the source for learning the cutting-edge programming stuff like Knockoutjs, Angularjs, Nodejs, MongoDB, CoffeeScript, etc.
That’s our plan!
This is great. I appreciate feeling like an insider and that my subscription is valued and that your company cares about its customers. I’m excited about the future!
Depth, mostly … The missing component with quick view, is depth of experience. I,d like to see Virtual box, downloadable lab , step by step well written hands on labs , and video clip support of the lab process. The closer you can come to hands-on learning, the better for adult education. BTW, if you want to contract me to work on this concept … I’m all over it …. Marty@nwtstech dot com SharePoint 2010/2013 expert)
Congratulations to you, Aaron, and all the Pluralsight team – this is certainly great news!
My outlook on this tends to be positive, for I believe that a funding such as this can and should greatly impact in a positive manner our experiences as customers and members of this great learning community. However, I reckon it’s also deeply important to stay true to the culture and beliefs which the company has stood on since its inception. I think this is decisive for avoding those so called “horror stories”, as you so very well put it.
In terms of what I would like to see implemented in the future, I think you folks should study and consider ways of bridging the gap between instructors and students. Thoughout my learning experiences here, more often than not I felt the need of eventually being able to get in touch with the instructors… maybe a thing or two that were left unexplained or not well understood. Simple tools such as forums and chat session would be a nice addition. And drawing from good experiences I had with other learning providers, I believe that “live learning classes or sessions” would be a nice thing to consider, moving ahead. This would orobably demand some sort of fee adjustment, but I think that getting closer to the “live classroom” experience is the ultimate goal of any e-learning.
All the best!
Marcos
Thanks for your feedback, Marcos. Culture is incredibly important to us. We are actively engaged in several features that will improve engagement.
I am one of your customers in China. How I can help to expend your growing business to China? A huge market there.
Thanks!
I’d love to hear what you think of the Chinese translations. Try playing a course with “CC” on it and enable captions inside the player, then in the top left of the caption window, click on “en” and you can switch. I’d love to hear how the translation comes across. If you have other ideas, please do connect with us by submitting ideas at http://support.pluralsight.com
Congratulations. I have started enjoying your high-level executive summary videos on various topics .
Have you guys considered addressing non-microsoft technology stack. It would be very beneficial . Willing to pay more $$ .
Yes, we are investing heavily in non-Microsoft technology stacks right now. That should be one of the biggest things you’ll notice in 2013. We will also remain very committed Microsoft technologies and invest even more there.
Capital and Growth…capilizing sustainable growth. All terms and concerns however I think the pace and the content in the past has been spot on in my opinion. So I dont see things from the same perspective as you. Give up the concept of complete autonomy to bring in more capital and the advice and concerns of an outside board could fall on either side of the fence. Hopefully, it falls on the “good” side. I am sure your customers will let you know if your product is compromised. So far so good.
I hear you. Assuming quality and all other factors remain equally good, wouldn’t you prefer to see 40-50 courses per month, as opposed to the 15-20 today, and even more breadth of depth across the library for your subscription fee?
I love your content, but it’s very Microsoft stack oriented. PLEASE consider adding more courses on topics such as Java EE.
That’s the plan! Please see my other comments above.
I have my subscription for few months and that’s my best investment!
Thank you!
Hope to see month-to-month for us very small biz (ex.: up to 3 or 5).
More C++11, Boost, advanced programming techniques, meta template programming… constructing a useful app from end to end using the latest techniques.
I agree with Steven on the advanced programming techniques. While I find a lot of the videos helpful, I certainly wouldn’t classify most of them as “hardcore,” as the logo suggests. The vast majority of pluralsight videos I see being published are fundamentals, or high-level overviews.
We’re working hard to stay true to our “hardcore” tagline.
Super excited for you guys. I’ve very much been a cheerleader from the stands. Some things I’d like to see you venture into is Certifications, partnerships with the large outsourcing firms (Tek, Volt, RHI, etc), and lastly major pushes into Fortune 1000 companies with enterprise purchases of your training. Once you get it onto individual’s evaluations within those companies, imagine the wealth of highly skilled developers could have on the tech economy.
Thanks so much for the encouragement!
It just so happens that I’m personally in India right now talking with some of the largest companies here. I can tell you that we are committed to LMS integration in 2013 as well as other initiatives that will make these sorts of strategic partnerships possible. I’m incredibly excited! And the food here is simply incredible (my first time to India)
Wishing you all the success Aaron … great to have known you personally
Significantly adding in-depth mid-point and post assessment questions would greatly add to the value of the courses. What many of the courses at Coursera lack in production quality, they more than make for in ensuring that you picked up key points. The 4-10 questions that often have obvious answers at Pluralsight have little value, yet cost much more. (Coursera offers few courses in computer science, so don’t run off thinking that may be an alternative to Pluralsight!)
Thanks for your feedback on our assessments. We have been having similar discussions internally.
I would like to see Windows Server 2008R2 course.
I think that could be good news. I think PluralSight has a lot of value. I’d like to see more XNA content. I’d also like to see more value in the “Plus” subscriptions, or a lower premium. i.e. more questions in the Assessments or better pricing for Yearly subscrptions…many of the Courses only have 6 questions in their Assessment.
Pete
I think that as you get more and more courses bundling them together is going to be a key feature. Maybe you can allow people to make their own lists of videos that when grouped together really round out a concept. Or if we bring on a new employee I could have a list of videos that brings someone joining our company up to speed on what we are working with.
I guess it would be like playlists for videos and if there was a place to share them like spotify has you could have the community begin to generate content for you.
You are reading our minds. We refer to this potential feature as “learning paths”. You can vote it up over here: http://support.pluralsight.com/forums/136402-feature-requests/suggestions/2480057-roadmaps-learning-paths
Happy to hear of your success. Please continue to focus heavily on the Microsoft stack. It is always important to remember that it has been the core value proposition of your business that has propelled your success to date. Many businesses make the mistake of diluting themselves and spreading themselves too thiin. It best to be the recognized as the undisputed ‘master on one’ instead of ‘jack of all trades.’ In other words focus on your differentiator.
…just some friendly advice from one business man to another! Regards.
I appreciate this feedback and advice. It’s definitely been one of our concerns. However, we believe it’s possible to cover all major technology stacks in our library with the same commitment to quality. But as we grow into new dimensions, we will not sacrifice our commitment to our existing communities.
:Looing forward to a win-win between Pluralsight and IVP.
While I’m at it, adding message boards/forums to Pluralsight would be a huge plus in my humble opinion. I realize there are countless sites where developers can post questions, but the ability to communicate among Pluralsight subscribers and authors would seem like a natural fit. Plus, I think you probably know some developers who could work on the functionality. (If the forums are there and I haven’t seen them, I look pretty silly about now).
Todd, you’ll be happy to know that our team is working on a commenting feature *right now* and we hope to have it released soon!
Congratulations for funding!
I very much enjoy Pluralsight content but have noticed that only 2/400 courses are on algorithms.
That is 0.5% out of all courses. So I want to see additional courses on the subject that are booth practical and theoretically based.
Thanks.
Congrats. Finding PluralSight has been a wonderful addition to my career learning path. My only needs:
– More time to learn.
– A better UX in the Android App..
FYI, my biggest peeve right now – the inability to play in accelerated speed when using the Windows Phone app. Is it possible to add this feature?
On the other hand the desktop player is beyond expectation. Great job!
Having been an analyst the past decade I felt like I “painted myself” into a corner trying to get back to my educational “roots” of software development. Now finally in a strictly development type role, I have been challenged with how to speed up my learning process and do it as efficiently as possible. Pluralsight, along with a Safari Books Online subscription, has been just the tools I’ve been looking for. As mentioned in Aaron’s latest course, “Career and Survival Strategies for Software Developers” technology is constantly changing and it’s critical for developers to keep their skills “fresh” and up to speed with what the market demands. I appreciate Pluralsight’s wide variety of subjects covered, the quality of the videos and how up to date they maintain their library. I also appreciate Pluralsight’s open communication with their customer base and how responsive they are to customer’s concerns and feedback. Actions such as those and this blog entry for example continue to build my trust and confidence in Pluralsight. Appreciate this posting Aaron. Keep up the great work!
I would like Pluralsight to take a look at the success of the Apple Appstore ecosystem and take it a step further. Their present model employs free apps, paid apps, and Lite Apps. Their Lite Apps are really paid Apps with features shown but turned off with the option to pay. “Thinking Differently”, why not have multiple layers (say 3) of access based on learning type (Free for the curious, Intermediate for the hobbyist, and Pro for the entrepreneur) and require that ALL courses have these offerings? I’m for more than 3 levels but that might make it harder to market it.
I am very happy to hear you have access to new and better resources. The only two things I would like to see improved / added is a Roku channel so I can watch videos in proper formatting on my television (doesn’t look right with computer hooked to T.V.) and your android app could stand some improvements. I just took advantage of your discount special, so I am very happy with everything overall.
I ran my team’s training with Pluralsight – we found the content to be v. good but assessments to be quite weak – so much so I quickly said “it’s OK, watch the videos, do a demo app using the technology you learned, don’t bother with the assessments”. TBH, ten quick WCF questions after 15 hours of video stunned me somewhat – the assessment and content should feel like they’re in balance : )
For the past few months I’ve been enjoying Coursera.org – you should look to see how they use peer assessment and incremental tests over a series of weeks – this contributes to a deeper understanding / stronger engagement.
Next, I’d suggest you include offline viewing for a separate fee? Perhaps a greener solution than mobile bandwidth?
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Congrats, Aaron!
Are you going to invest in Virtual Labs with virtual environments? In areas like BizTalk it is hard to set up the basic environment for 200-300 courses and the real-life environment for 400-500 courses..
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Aaron, I am a big Pluralsight fans and viewers, it helps me to keep up to date with Microsoft, particularly, technology. I myself are founder of small startups and what I am really interested in your post is how do you select venture capitalist / investment firms to begin with? With the very effective and successful business model like Pluralsight, many investment firm / venture capitalists would love to put their money in, but not all of them offer good benefit (beside blank check) and not all of them would see your vision for the company. How do you be selective, what criteria to look for, questions to ask in picking the right investment firms?
I’m just your mother and have always known it was in there. I’m just sayin: “Congratulations on your vision and “hard work”. This wasn’t a stroke of luck. It was very hard work” . Onward and upward!