Recording of the Everything Marketplaces Group Chat #180 (1/21) with Matt Cooper, who’s the CEO of Skillshare. Skillshare is one of the largest marketplaces for online education & learning in creative categories like music, film, creative writing, and more. Prior to joining Skillshare as the CEO in 2017, Matt was the CEO of Visually, and before that was an early executive at Upwork.

0:06 Intro
‍1:23 Matt's background
‍3:39 Key learnings from Upwork
‍8:54 Joining Skillshare as the CEO
‍13:00 Considerations when using a subscription model
‍15:36 How using a subscription model impacts user acquisition & marketing
‍16:06 How Skillshare is acquiring consumers on the demand-side
‍18:54 How Skillshare has approached growth & expansion
‍20:40 How Skillshare manages categories
‍22:43 Recent challenges & learnings as Skillshare has scaled
‍25:44 The importance of timing when adding additional services
‍28:15 How Skillshare is leveraging AI
‍31:20 Tips for early stage marketplace founders
‍35:14 Group Q&A on marketplace personalization
‍37:45 Group Q&A on marketplace competition
‍41:10 Group Q&A on taking the managed marketplace vs. open marketplace approach
‍42:38 Group Q&A on building marketplace supply at Skillshare
‍45:46 Parting marketplace advice
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Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cooperm
Matt’s profile on Skillshare: https://www.skillshare.com/en/user/matt-skillshare
Skillshare: https://www.skillshare.com
Mike (Yoroomie) on Twitter/X: https://www.x.com/yoroomie
Mike (Yoroomie) on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoroomie
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You can also find this group chat in audio format as an episode on our Everything Marketplaces podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also connect with marketplace founders & leaders from our group chats in the Everything Marketplaces community.