Mike Karnjanaprakorn, cofounder of Skillshare

The easiest way to explain Skillshare is…
a community marketplace to learn anything from anyone.

The idea came from…
a combination of three experiences: 1) putting together The Feast Conference which showed me the power of connecting people around learning experiences; 2) watching Sir Ken Robinson’s “Bring on the Learning Revolution” TED Talk; and 3) playing in the 2010 World Series of Poker. Yes, it’s random! I donated 100% of my poker winnings to charity and got coached by some of the top professional poker players in the world. When I got back to NYC, my friends asked me to teach a class on what I learned, which is when everything clicked. And thus, Skillshare was born.

I believe it’s the right moment for Skillshare to take off because …
we need to start a learning revolution. The pinnacle of education should be learning, not going to college.

What is Skillshare? from Skillshare on Vimeo.

The biggest challenge to overcome is…
creating a global marketplace for learning and convincing every single person they have something valuable to teach.

Favourite Skillshare moment so far was …
the day we launched, there was a tweet going out every minute about Skillshare. It was great to see so many people support our mission and vision behind disrupting education and democratizing learning.

My big piece of advice to social entrepreneurs is…
to drop the world ‘social’ and call themselves an ‘entrepreneur’ instead.

Another example of Collaborative Consumption I admire is …
Airbnb. They’ve grown a remarkable community built around trust, reputation, and having fun.

It’s 2015 and Skillshare has achieved…
our true vision of disrupting education worldwide. The accreditations that our students receive from Skillshare become just as valuable as degrees from top universities around the world.

Link

POSTED IN: CC Pioneers and Protagonists / FOR: May 4, 2011