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Pluralsight
Company typePrivate
IndustryOnline education
Founded2004 (2004)
Founder
  • Aaron Skonnard
  • Keith Brown
  • Fritz Onion
  • Bill Williams
Headquarters
Farmington, Utah
,
U.S.
Number of locations
3 offices
Area served
Globally
Key people
Aaron Skonnard (CEO)
ProductsOnline Technical training
Websitewww.pluralsight.com
Pluralsight Headquarters, Farmington, Utah

Pluralsight is a privately held online education company that offers a variety of video training courses for software developers, IT administrators, and creative professionals through its website.[1] Founded in 2004 by Aaron Skonnard (current CEO), Keith Brown, Fritz Onion, and Bill Williams (no longer with the company),[2] Pluralsight is headquartered in Farmington, Utah. In September 2014, Pluralsight stated it uses more than 600 subject-matter experts as course authors,[3] offers close to 4,000 courses in its catalog,[4] has more than 750,000 individual subscribers and more than 6,000 corporate clients.[5]

History

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Pluralsight was founded in 2004 as a classroom training company that involved sending an instructor to a business or training event. By 2007, the company shifted its emphasis to online video training.[2]

Since 2011, Pluralsight has seen rapid growth. The company has been named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing private companies, ranking as the #9 Top Education company and the #19 Top Utah company.[6]

Business model

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Through a subscription model, Pluralsight provides online professional tech training to individual and business customers.[5] According to the company site, individual plans range from US$29/month to $49/month. The company also offers yearly plans at a discounted rate.[7] Business and academic plans do not have standard pricing and are quoted individually.[8]

Company milestones

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  • 2004: Launched with classroom trainings.
  • 2007: Shifts emphasis to online video training.
  • 2010: Fully transitioned to online training model.[9]
  • 2013: Notable recognitions:
  • May 2013: Launched free kids programming suite.[14]
  • May 2013: Opened office in Bangalore, India.[15]
  • Jul 2013: Author Scott Allen reached US$1 million in teaching fees and royalties.[16]
  • 2014: Notable recognitions:
  • Aug 2014: Partnered with Utah's GOED and Stem Action Center Initiative to donate US$5-10 million in free Pluralsight access to Utah K-12 teachers.[23]
  • 2015: Notable recognitions:

Venture funding

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When Pluralsight first started, all four of its founders contributed US$5,000 each. For the next nine years, the company and its founders received no outside funding.[27] As of March 2015, Pluralsight has received US$169 million in venture funding.[28]

In December 2012, the company raised US$27.5 million in Series A funding from Insight Venture Partners.[2] On March 18, 2014 Pluralsight received an additional US$2.5 million in Series A Funding.[29]

On August 27, 2014, Pluralsight received US$135 million in Series B funding from Insight Venture Partners, Iconiq Capital, and Sorenson Capital. The US$135 million was reported at the time to be the largest venture funding round ever received by a Utah company.[30] Co-founder and CEO Aaron Skonnard stated that after this round of funding, the company's valuation had increased from less than US$100 million in 2012 to nearly US$1 billion.[3]

Acquisitions

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For most of its history, Pluralsight grew its author base and course catalog from within. Starting in 2013, Pluralsight has acquired a number of e-learning and education companies to bolster its technology, course offerings, and executive leadership.

On July 24, 2013, Pluralsight acquired PeepCode, a provider of Open Source training to developers, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition added about 100 new courses in the Open Source category to Pluralsight's course catalog, expanding it beyond its traditional realm of offerings focused mainly on developers who worked on Microsoft technologies.[31][32]

On August 5, 2013, Pluralsight acquired Chicago-based TrainSignal, a company providing training for IT personnel, for US$23.6 million. Pluralsight absorbed 35 TrainSignal employees, and maintained its office in Chicago as a Pluralsight satellite. This move helped Pluralsight broaden its offerings into new territories covering IT development and operations.[33][34]

On October 31, 2013, Pluralsight acquired Tekpub, producer of a series of screencasts covering new development technologies, for an undisclosed amount. Co-founder Rob Conery joined Pluralsight, and continues to produce training videos under the Pluralsight brand. Other high-profile authors from Tekpub, including Jon Skeet and Scott Hanselman, became Pluralsight authors as a result of the acquisition.[35]

On April 9, 2014, Pluralsight announced it acquired Digital-Tutors, a company providing training for creative professionals, for US$45 million. This acquisition expanded Pluralsight's training catalog to more than 3000 titles, and helped broaden the company's topic coverage to all aspects of software design, programming, maintenance and operations, for games, apps, business systems, services, and websites.[36] Approximately 30 employees from Digital-Tutors joined Pluralsight, and Pluralsight maintained the former headquarters in Oklahoma City as its newest satellite office.[37]

On November 19, 2014, Pluralsight announced it had acquired Smarterer, an online skills assessment platform, for US$75 million. Based in Boston, Smarterer was founded in 2010 and was backed by Google Ventures, among others.[38] Smarterer founder and CEO Dave Balter stated that his entire 18-person staff would remain with the company.[39]

On January 26, 2015, Pluralsight announced its acquisition of Orlando-based Code School, an online training site offering video courses and exercise-based lessons related to entry-level and intermediate coding and programming.[40] It was reported that the acquisition was for US$36 million. Code School's office, and its team of 39 full-time employees, remain open in Orlando.[4]

Courses

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Pluralsight has a large author base, with more than 600 industry experts contributing content and courses to Pluralsight's training platform. As of January 2015, Pluralsight has close to 4,000 courses available,[4] which have subtitles available in 50 different languages.[30] The company has reported that it is adding 100 new courses every month.[3]

Some of Pluralsight's most popular courses include:[41]

Partnerships and community involvement

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In October of 2012, Microsoft and Pluralsight announced a partnership making Pluralsight courses available to MSDN subscribers and through its DreamSpark, BizSpark, WebsiteSpark, and Engineer Excellence programs.[2][42] The customized "Pluralsight Starter Subscription" consisted of several Visual Studio 2012 courses including ALM with TFS 2012 Fundamentals, Microsoft Fakes Fundamentals, and IntelliTrace, among others. In November 2014, Pluralsight and Microsoft partnered again, giving MSDN subscribers a 12-month e-learning benefit, granting users access to a selection of Pluralsight's courses.[43]

In May 2013, Pluralsight launched a free programming suite for kids ages 10 and up to help teach coding in school. The initial three courses included Learning Programming Scratch, Android Beginner App Inventor and Teaching Kids Programming.[44]

In 2014, Pluralsight partnered with the state of Utah's Office of Economic Development to offer all Utah K-12 teachers a free one-year subscription to their training library. Utah Governor Gary Herbert valued the donation between US$5 million and US$10 million.[45][46][47]

Pluralsight also partnered with LaunchCode (co-founded by Square's Jim McKelvey) in November 2014 to help candidates secure jobs in technology by offering one year of free access to the Pluralsight course library.[48] In December 2014, the company supported the "Hour of Code" movement by hosting an hour of code for a week, kicking off the event with Utah's Governor Herbert and the Utah Technology Council. More than 200 students across the state participated in the Hour of Code.[49]

References

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  1. ^ "Pluralsight LLC: Private Company Information - Businessweek". Businessweek. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  2. ^ a b c d Perez, Sarah. "Developer Training Platform Pluralsight Raises $27.5 Million From Insight Venture Partners To Expand Its Online Catalog - TechCrunch". TechCrunch.
  3. ^ a b c Kim, Eugene. "Pluralsight Is Worth Almost A Billion Dollars - Business Insider". Business Insider.
  4. ^ a b c Perez, Sarah (2015-01-26). "Online Learning Service Pluralsight Acquires Code School For $36 Million". Tech Crunch.
  5. ^ a b Karol, Gabrielle. "Pluralsight Raises $135M to Help Grow Enterprise Customer Base - Fox Small Business Center". Fox Business Network.
  6. ^ "Pluralsight - Layton, Ut". Inc. (magazine). Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  7. ^ "Pluralsight Individual Plans". Pluralsight. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  8. ^ "Pluralsight Academic". Pluralsight. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  9. ^ Skonnard, Aaron (2012-03-19). "PluralSight.net Part 1: History of PluralSight.net - YouTube" (Interview). Interviewed by Adam Cogan. {{cite interview}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  10. ^ "Utah Business Fast 50 Honored". Retrieved 2014-11-26.
  11. ^ "2013 Utah 100 Fastest Growing Companies in Utah". Retrieved 2014-11-26.
  12. ^ "The 2013 Inc. 5000". Retrieved 2014-11-26.
  13. ^ "Deloitte Technology Fast 500" (PDF). Deloitte.
  14. ^ "Developer training company Pluralsight releases online coding courses for kids". Gigaom. 2013-03-25.
  15. ^ Burke, Jordan (2013-03-02). "Pluralsight opens India office". Silicon Slopes. Retrieved 2014-11-21.
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference Lacy1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ "Utah Business Fast 50". Utah Business. 2014-09-02. Retrieved 2014-11-21.
  18. ^ "MWCN Unveils the 2014 Utah 100 Rankings". MountainWest Capital Network. 2014-10-21.
  19. ^ "The 2014 Inc. 5000". Inc. Retrieved 2014-11-21.
  20. ^ "Deloitte's 2014 Technology Fast 500 Ranking" (PDF). Deloitte.
  21. ^ "The American Business Awards: Website Awards". The Stevie Awards. 2014-09-12. Retrieved 2014-11-21.
  22. ^ "Innovation Dominant Theme among 2014 Big Awards for Business Winners and Finalists" (Press release). 2014-10-02.
  23. ^ "Science Community Opportunities". UtahPublicEducation.org. Retrieved 2014-11-26.
  24. ^ "America's Most Promising Companies". Forbes. Retrieved 2015-03-23.
  25. ^ "The Unicorn List". Fortune. 2015-01-22.
  26. ^ Rawle, Christopher (2015-02-02). "The Official List of Winners at the Utah Startup Awards". Beehive Startups.
  27. ^ Rawle, Christopher (2015-02-04). "The Rise of Pluralsight". Beehive Startups.
  28. ^ "Pluralsight - CrunchBase". CrunchBase.
  29. ^ "Mar 18, 2014: Pluralsight - Funding Round - Series A - CrunchBase". Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  30. ^ a b Kolodny, Lora (2014-08-27). "E-learning Co. Pluralsight Raises $135M in Record Round for Utah". The Wall Street Journal.
  31. ^ Perez, Sarah. "Developer Training Platform Pluralsight Acquires PeepCode To Expand Into Open-Source Content - TechCrunch". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  32. ^ "Learn-to-code company Pluralsight acquires 2 competitors for $23M". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2014-11-26.
  33. ^ Carr, David (2013-08-05). "Pluralsight Buys TrainSignal, Broadens IT Training Lineup". InformationWeek.
  34. ^ Lowe, Scott. "TrainSignal Acquired By Pluralsight in $23.6 Million Deal - SiliconANGLE". Silicon Angle. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  35. ^ DeAmicis, Carmel (2013-10-30). "Developers are becoming jacks of all trades". PandoDaily. Retrieved 2014-11-21.
  36. ^ "Pluralsight Course Library". Pluralsight. Retrieved 2014-09-13.
  37. ^ Shieber, Jonathan (2014-04-09). "PluralSight Buys Digital-Tutors For $45 Million To Add Media Software Training". TechCrunch.
  38. ^ Castellanos, Sara (2014-11-19). "Skills test software startup Smarterer acquired for $75M". The Business Journals.
  39. ^ Balter, Dave (2014-11-20). "I Sold My Google-Backed Startup for $75 Million Yesterday--and I'm Scared to Death". Inc.
  40. ^ O'Connell, Ainsley (2015-01-27). "Pluralsight Continues Its Acquisition Spree, Dropping $36 Million On Code School". Fast Company.
  41. ^ "Pluralsight Top 100 Leaderboard". Pluralsight. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  42. ^ Harry, Brian (2012-10-11). "MSDN subscribers worldwide get Pluralsight Starter Subscription - Brian Harry's blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs". MSDN.
  43. ^ Askilsrud, Cathrine (2014-11-12). "New MSDN e-learning Benefit: Pluralsight Training". Channel 9.
  44. ^ Carney, Michael (2013-05-09). "Pluralsight turns philanthropic, launches free coding bootcamp in Utah public schools". PandoDaily.
  45. ^ "Get A+ Skills With A Free Year Of Online Education". State of Utah.
  46. ^ Metcalf, Dan. "The Davis Clipper - Pluralsight a tech business magnet for Davis County". The Davis Clipper. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  47. ^ "Pluralsight Opens New Headquarters, Launches GOED Initiative". 2014-08-04.
  48. ^ Gallagher, Jim (2014-11-07). "Pluralsight teams with LaunchCode". St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
  49. ^ Mills, Glen (2014-12-08). "Governor Herbert teams up with high tech industry to develop the next generation". Good4Utah.com.
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