Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

General Assembly raises $35M Series C

blog.generalassemb.ly

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 43 posts

Re: General Assembly raises $35M Series C

#21

Post by jsherry »

In NYC, GA conducts nighttime Meet & Greets with their "graduating" classes. As an employer, this is an efficient way to recruit. I attended one a couple weeks ago and thought it was fairly well organized. If GA can help people get placed into companies, then that's a huge advantage / differentiator for them versus online-only course providers.

So without speaking the quality of the classes themselves - GA specifically, or the concept of online v. in-person - this is a perspective worth considering before slamming the in-person education model altogether. Execution of the actually classes is obviously a separate discussion, but as I said one I'm not prepared to address.

Re: General Assembly raises $35M Series C

#22

Post by colmvp »

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…

Interesting to compare them with Hack Reactor: http://www.yelp.com/biz/hack-reactor-san-francisco

Re: General Assembly raises $35M Series C

#23

Post by jenno »

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 the web development immersive. I will say, the experience you have depends mostly on two factors: 1) your instructor, and 2) your own ability to want to learn and the amount of effort you put in.

That said, they did try to fit a lot in the 12 weeks, but there are so many facets of the tech stack they didn't cover (they rushed through html/css quite a bit, so those that don't know it will still feel lost after the course unless they dedicate some time to get it down. They also don't cover things like how to host your app on AWS, only Heroku).

The redeeming quality they have is that they do seem to care a lot about students' outcomes. After the course ends, they try their hardest to get everybody a junior dev position or apprenticeship. There's a great support network for this and people on staff dedicated to students' outcomes.

For me, the course was worth it because:

* I had some background in web design before

* It was hard for me to teach myself, not knowing what to google or what path to take

* I got an apprenticeship afterwards which turned into a full time position

But about half my classmates did not get a job or full-time position. Your mileage may vary.

Re: General Assembly raises $35M Series C

#24

Post by jennnings »

jaydz wrote: post #12
mgadams3 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I've taken a marketing and design course with them in NY, and I would say that was pretty worth the money - concise knowledge that's actionable in areas I have little familiarity with being a product gal. Would definitely do it again for a 1-2 hour class, but I wouldn't pay 4k for an immersive.

Re: General Assembly raises $35M Series C

#25

Post by toomuchtodo »

subpixel wrote: post #18
ludicast wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> GA is something like the University of Phoenix

Show me one person who takes a University of Phoenix degree seriously.

Re: General Assembly raises $35M Series C

#26

Post by toomuchtodo »

rayiner wrote: post #13
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.

> That's where the money us: attracting high volumes of low information young people.

What happens when the old wood (stubborn, ignorant, ingrained) dies off and people who don't care about a college degree start hiring those educated with Khan Academy/Coursea?

Re: General Assembly raises $35M Series C

#27

Post by AJ007 »

jaydz wrote: post #12
mgadams3 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is probably a good indicator of what Apollo is interested in:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405270230458500...

"Apollo Education Group Inc., APOL +1.38% best known for its University of Phoenix for-profit college, is expected to launch an "online marketplace" dubbed Balloon on Tuesday. It will start with a catalogue of nearly 15,000 technology classes from big-name course providers including Microsoft Corp. MSFT -0.84% , Adobe Systems Inc., ADBE -0.89% Coursera and Udacity, and explicitly link them to job opportunities."

They will try to acquire some company in this area, GA or other.

Re: General Assembly raises $35M Series C

#28

Post by mathattack »

jmathai wrote: post #15
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.

Even if it's on the internet? :-)

I hear you though.

Re: General Assembly raises $35M Series C

#29

Post by rayiner »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #26
rayiner wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> That's where the money us: attracting high volumes of low information young people. What happens when the old wood (stubborn, ignorant, ingrained) dies off and people who don't care about a college degree start hiring those educated with Khan Academy/Coursea?

I see no indication that the "new saplings" care any less about pedigree than the "old wood." Indeed, the VCs have imported a lot of Wall Street culture and the tech industry is noticeably more pedigree conscious than it used to be. And it's not like the rest of the economy is moving in a different direction, not with the constant drumbeat of "you must go to college."

In any case, that's irrelevant. Even if employers warm up to online education, I still see heavily-marketed, lowest common denominator type places dominating. Maybe Westwood College will be dead, but the MOOC equivalent will be thriving. They'll be the ones making all the money (which is what 'ludicast was posting was about).

Re: General Assembly raises $35M Series C

#30

Post by subpixel »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #25
subpixel wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> GA is something like the University of Phoenix Show me one person who takes a University of Phoenix degree seriously.

I don't know them personally, but there are many thousands of them: the people who pay to pay to take University of Phoenix classes, and who forked over about $1B dollars in each of the last two quarters.
Post reply on HN