Gagan Biyani

Gagan Biyani, Co-founder and CEO of Maven, discusses his journey from founding Udemy to launching the innovative cohort-based education platform, Maven. He shares insights on revolutionizing online learning and the importance of engaging instructors. Gagan candidly reflects on the challenges of his food delivery startup, Sprig, which despite raising $60M, ultimately failed. The conversation touches on the rising costs of traditional education and how modern platforms can offer better, more accessible alternatives for lifelong learners.

Today’s episode is with Gagan Biyani, co-founder and CEO of Maven, a company that empowers the world’s experts to offer cohort-based courses directly to their audience.After being early at 3 startups that achieved over $1 million in run-rate in their first six months of going live, Gagan has learned some valuable lessons and seen a wide range of outcomes — from Udemy going on to IPO in 2021, to Sprig shutting down in 2017.In our conversation, we dive deeper into the process of starting a startup. We start on generating ideas and open-ended exploration. We talk about key signals to look for in the market and the competition, as well as the mistakes he sees many aspiring founders make.Next, he recaps his concept of minimum viable tests for validating early versions of your idea. As we mention in the episode, Gagan wrote a popular article on The First Round Review last year, where he shared much more detail about his “Minimum Viable Testing Process.”Then, we dig into how you start bringing the idea to life, from exploring different potential business models, to selecting your co-founders and managing that relationship as the company grows.If you’re eager to hear even more on finding startup ideas from Gagan, he’s teaming up with The Hustle’s Sam Parr to run an Ideation Bootcamp on the Maven platform — learn more and sign up here by May 2nd if you’re interested.You can follow Gagan on Twitter at @gaganbiyani. You can email us questions directly at review@firstround.com or follow us on Twitter @firstround and @brettberson.

Gagan Biyani, CEO of Maven and cofounder of Udemy, discusses topics such as the keys to learning, starting businesses for the wrong reasons, greatness and evolution, the importance of continuous learning, lessons from professional failure, overcoming fear of judgment, and marketing online courses.

Gagan Biyani, a serial entrepreneur and CEO of Maven, reflects on his journey from co-founding Udemy to launching his latest project. He shares how a free truffle taught him the pitfalls of traditional business thinking. Biyani emphasizes the importance of intuition over metrics and discusses fostering company culture while scaling. He candidly reveals lessons from his exit at Udemy and the emotional complexities of partnerships. The conversation also dives into AI's transformative potential in education, exploring its limitations and the need for human touch in learning.

Gagan Biyani, CEO of Maven and Co-Founder of Udemy, discusses idea formation, the five stages of ideation, and innovative startup concepts like 'Quora for people' and 'reference checks as a service'. The conversation explores scalability, AI integration, and the potential of creating a 'cameo for experts' platform.

Gagan Biyani, CEO of Maven and co-founder of Udemy, shares insights on the evolving landscape of online education in the age of AI. He discusses how AI is reshaping learner expectations and delivery methods, contributing to the rise of interactive cohort-based learning. Biyani reflects on his journey from skepticism about AI's potential to recognizing its transformative power, especially in education and content creation. He emphasizes the importance of tailored AI courses and the careful selection of expert instructors as essential for navigating the AI education landscape.

Gagan Biyani, co-founder and CEO of Maven, shares his journey from Udemy to leading a new wave of cohort-based learning. He discusses why many online courses struggle and how Maven’s approach offers a unique solution. Gagan dives into the exciting dynamics of product management, emphasizing the importance of hiring the right talent and continuous learning. He also reflects on Udemy's branding challenges and the strategies Maven uses to grow and engage instructors. Tune in for insights on building successful products in today's education landscape.

Gagan is the co-founder & former President of Udemy, an online education company that's worth more than $2bil. He later co-founded Sprig, a food delivery startup & went on to become the interim head of growth marketing at Lyft. Gagan recently announced a new education startup with Wes Kao. They've raised $4.3mil from investors like First Round Capital, Naval Ravikant & Li Jin. Let us know what you think on Twitter: @bzaidi @gaganbiyani Watch the full interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/IifuGSaEkkU In this conversation, we discuss: lessons in building Udemy + Sprig, from high-highs to low-lows why cohort-based courses will play a major role in the future of online education what it was like being fired by a co-founder the impact of financial struggles & the unique pressure of being the child of immigrants perspective gained from traveling to all 7 continents Timestamps: 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:47 Who is Gagan Biyani? 00:05:20 Udemy Origin Story 00:10:54 Starting Up a Business When You Have A Work Visa 00:12:57 Setting A Timeline 00:16:54 Parental Pressure + Traditional Careers 00:20:53 Struggles 00:26:54 How Do You React To Financial Troubles? 00:29:27 Living Within Your Means 00:30:34 Being Content 00:33:27 Getting Fired By A Co-Founder 00:42:20 The Rise & Fall of Sprig 00:44:05 Chamath: "You're Going to Fail" 00:50:07 Failure + Cognitive Dissonance 00:52:40 3 Years of Travel 00:57:20 Finding Hidden Gems 00:59:24 Figuring Out What's Next 01:00:59 Naval's Advice 01:04:51 Evaluating Business Ideas 01:07:28 Gagan's New Startup: Cohort-Based Courses 01:13:37 Opportunities In Online Education 01:17:29 Formats That Work Best 01:21:19 Wrap-Up

Gagan Biyani, co-founder of Udemy & Sprig, shares insights on dealing with uncertainty, finding the right co-founder, team alignment, fundraising strategies, and the right time to quit a startup. Discover how to de-risk uncertainty through MVPs, customer research, and soul searching. Pre-order Founder's FAQ book for more tips.

Gagan Biyani, CEO of Sprig, talks about building the world's largest restaurant. He discusses lessons learned from Chipotle, the challenges of the food delivery market, and how Sprig chooses new markets. Gagan also shares fundraising tips for entrepreneurs.