Zach Klein's Blog

Skillshare is a service founded by my friends Malcolm and Michael that allows people to host and take classes with each other. Anybody can register to teach a class about virtually anything, you can offer it for free or charge an admission fee if you’d like.

I haven’t taught a class yet (it’ll go up in a couple of weeks), but the first class I took was organized by a guy whose family runs a small bag company — they design, source manufacturing and market their bags. He taught us about running a small family business and how to design and produce physical goods in large quantities. His most interesting anecdotes involved going to Asia to build relationships with factory owners to find just the right partner to assist with material decisions and produce the bags. What I found most fun about the experience was meeting a couple dozen of other people interested in the same esoteric topic. I have this feeling that Skillshare classes could become a very dependable way to make new friends, collaborators, or for some people to find dates. The evening cost me $10, a better experience than going to the movies.

I’m optimistic about peer to peer education. On behalf of Founder Collective, I led investment in Skillshare’s seed round earlier this year, and it’s thrilling to see just a few months later hundreds of teachers and thousands of students participating in NYC, and the service nearing its launch in San Francisco and Philadelphia.

To kickstart Skillshare’s adoption even faster, I’m personally committing a thousand bucks to compensate anybody for fees related to taking a class. I’m certain that this investment will eventually pay dividends back to me in the form of a wider community of teachers and students for me to learn with and from.

I’ll pay each individual up to $20 for any class they pay to attend. If you want to participate:

1. Browse Skillshare, find a class you like, and register to attend (this may require you to pay for a ticket, some classes are free)
2. Once you receive your receipt, email it to skillsharescholarship@gmail.com and I’ll promptly Venmo you up to $20 for the cost of the ticket.

The offer is good up until Aug 19 or until I’ve contributed $1000 in scholarships, whichever comes first.

One last thing. If you’re interested to teach a class, do it. It’s great way to supplement your cost of living, to meet people passionate about a similar subject, or to promote the services of your own business by sharing knowledge and skills. Create a class here.