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General Assembly raises $35M Series C

blog.generalassemb.ly

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Re: General Assembly raises $35M Series C

#11

Post by mgadams3 »

They're pretty good at marketing... that's about it. The lowest quality start-ups in this training/education space (at least from my experience) are not coincidentally some of the most funded.

http://www.crunchbase.com/company/general-assembly http://www.crunchbase.com/company/skillshare

Once the focus becomes the return for investors instead of the quality of instruction/training, it's a bad alignment of incentives. It seems in these cases there was a rush to expand before they'd really figured out the long lasting recipe of what actually works beyond marketing gimmicks. They're the "cool" version of DeVry and University of Phoenix, dumping more $$ into marketing than into their product.

Contrast this with codeschool.com that has raised $0 to date and is a much better way to learn. Or with some of the better in-person learn to code, design, etc programs, none of the good ones have raised any money. From my experience with all of these, and there seems to be a significantly negative correlation between taking large amounts of VC money and quality. FWIW.

Obviously GA would have the advantage of a theoretical community, but at least in SF... that doesn't exist for them anyway.

Re: General Assembly raises $35M Series C

#12

Post by jaydz »

mgadams3 wrote: post #10
jknightco wrote: post #3

Slightly off-topic: does anyone have any experience with GA's courses? I'm considering taking one now, but I don't know anyone else who has. If so, would you recommend them?

I took several of their classes about a year and a half ago, one of which was a long-form evening class. I never had a good experience... I get more out of watching a good meetup presentation on youtube. GA is defined by over promising and under delivering. At least all of their operations out in San Francisco have been terrible, i hear they are better in NYC where they started.

So they're the modern tech version of University of Phoenix? I wouldn't surprise if GA gets acquire by a for-profit.

Re: General Assembly raises $35M Series C

#13

Post by rayiner »

ludicast wrote: post #4

I liked them better when they were a gorgeous co-working and hackathon space. They really had a "future of NYC tech" vibe. Their pivot/focus on education seems to be unfortunate, not sure how they can get money back for their investors when education's future is more likely things like coursera (especially with their specialization tracks) udacity and edx. That said, I do hope they succeed, I never had a bad time sit…

I don't want to malign GA because I know nothing about them. But the future of online education is IMO more along the lines of extensively marketed low quality private colleges. That's where the money us: attracting high volumes of low information young people.

Re: General Assembly raises $35M Series C

#14

Post by nickkthequick »

lquist wrote: post #6

So much money for such terrible( http://www.yelp.com/biz/general-assembly-san-francisco ) classes! Some highlights from Yelp: "Their web immersive is a joke, but you'll never hear anyone admit that because they make you sign a waver/NDA that you promise not to tell anyone anything truthful/negative about your GA experience." "Most of the money goes towards the advertising and marketing team, they have more marketers…

That's not the case for the one in NYC: http://www.yelp.com/biz/general-assembly-manhattan

Re: General Assembly raises $35M Series C

#15

Post by jmathai »

mathattack wrote: post #7

We want to build General Assembly to still be thriving 75 years from now There's a lot of negativity here on their pivot and marketing. I just like that they're talking about building a company to last. (Of course the VCs will want their money back well before 75 years)

I don't really know anything about GA but I do know you can't really trust much of anything you read.

Re: General Assembly raises $35M Series C

#16

Post by dopamean »

nickkthequick wrote: post #14
lquist wrote: post #6

So much money for such terrible( http://www.yelp.com/biz/general-assembly-san-francisco ) classes! Some highlights from Yelp: "Their web immersive is a joke, but you'll never hear anyone admit that because they make you sign a waver/NDA that you promise not to tell anyone anything truthful/negative about your GA experience." "Most of the money goes towards the advertising and marketing team, they have more marketers…

That's not the case for the one in NYC: http://www.yelp.com/biz/general-assembly-manhattan

My sister did a back end web dev class in NYC this past fall and had a great experience. She learned a ton that she has been able to apply to her position doing QA at a startup. Just another anecdote to throw in the mix.

Re: General Assembly raises $35M Series C

#17

Post by untog »

lquist wrote: post #6

So much money for such terrible( http://www.yelp.com/biz/general-assembly-san-francisco ) classes! Some highlights from Yelp: "Their web immersive is a joke, but you'll never hear anyone admit that because they make you sign a waver/NDA that you promise not to tell anyone anything truthful/negative about your GA experience." "Most of the money goes towards the advertising and marketing team, they have more marketers…

Sounds like a typical danger for an organisation like this. I'm in NYC and the GA here (the original one) has a fantastic reputation. Maybe they need to tighten up on quality control in their new locations.

And to be fair, the Yelp link you've posted also has a number of very positive reviews, you just didn't post quotes from them.

Re: General Assembly raises $35M Series C

#18

Post by subpixel »

ludicast wrote: post #9
inmygarage wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the in-person element is crucial to the future of education. While there are many people who live in rural areas or internationally who benefit immensely from online platforms like Coursera, there are also a ton of people who live close enough to a city that it's worth it to pay more for the opportunity to learn in a physical environment. That's why GA is great - it takes the best of both, and can provide onl…

Don't want to be "that guy" but compare these offerings: GA Data Science (4000$ and taught by MBAs): https://generalassemb.ly/education/data-science/new-york-cit... Johns Hopkins Data Science via Coursera (490$, taught by Professors of Biostatistics, and granting a cert with Hopkins' name on it): https://www.coursera.org/specialization/jhudatascience/1?utm... Now I'm not taking either class, but going to be very hard…

To play devil's advocate, it's not all about the quality. It's about the product, and to whom they are selling it.

GA is something like the University of Phoenix meets the Apple Store. In-demand course offerings, aspirational customers, sexy downtown location.

Good luck earning all that money back though.

Re: General Assembly raises $35M Series C

#19

Post by untog »

ludicast wrote: post #4

I liked them better when they were a gorgeous co-working and hackathon space. They really had a "future of NYC tech" vibe. Their pivot/focus on education seems to be unfortunate, not sure how they can get money back for their investors when education's future is more likely things like coursera (especially with their specialization tracks) udacity and edx. That said, I do hope they succeed, I never had a bad time sit…

Their pivot to education was precisely about money, I think. It certainly sounded like being a co-working and hackathon space wasn't very profitable.

I know a few people that put on hackathon events and apparently GA jacked up their prices far enough to become totally unaffordable, hence why everyone ended up going to Pivotal Labs instead.

Re: General Assembly raises $35M Series C

#20

Post by erichmond »

untog wrote: post #19
ludicast wrote: post #4

I liked them better when they were a gorgeous co-working and hackathon space. They really had a "future of NYC tech" vibe. Their pivot/focus on education seems to be unfortunate, not sure how they can get money back for their investors when education's future is more likely things like coursera (especially with their specialization tracks) udacity and edx. That said, I do hope they succeed, I never had a bad time sit…

Their pivot to education was precisely about money, I think. It certainly sounded like being a co-working and hackathon space wasn't very profitable. I know a few people that put on hackathon events and apparently GA jacked up their prices far enough to become totally unaffordable, hence why everyone ended up going to Pivotal Labs instead.

This. I suspect their actual motivation was always to be a education play, but wisely used the co-working / hackathon angle to generate income while they built out the education piece.

That said, there's plenty of great places here in NYC to co-work from, so it's probably all for the best.

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