Isaac Silverman

not letting the ai haters stop me from having fun. Zootopia - game footage 😉 nano banana pro + kling + topaz

The dirty little secret of edtech: the biggest names don’t actually care if you learn anything. As co-founder of Udemy, it is something I reckon with every day… Duolingo - edtech’s only decacorn, worth $14B. Brilliant app, addictive product, and great for motivation. But let’s be honest: most users can’t hold a basic conversation in their chosen language. It’s a game, not an education. Masterclass - it’s called “edutainment” for a reason. Great brand and team. But not useful for serious learning. Udemy/Coursera opened access to millions, but video courses have a fatal flaw: they only work for the most motivated. 4-10% completion rates! I still get DMs about their positive impact, but still average person doesn’t view them as mainstream solutions to education. Kajabi/Teachable nailed creator monetization. But many (not all) creators don’t prioritize outcomes — just sales. Too many $5,000 “get rich quick” courses with spammy marketing. There are gems, of course, but still not enough quality for mainstream acceptance. Then there’s University of Phoenix, the worst offender. It proved you could tap federal student loans, deliver poor outcomes, and keep billions in revenue. Ironically, the best education models — coding bootcamps like App Academy, BloomTech, General Assembly, Galvanize — actually drove real outcomes. But they didn’t quite reach scale. In large part due to unfair (and immoral, imho) practices by the higher education cartel. Here’s the thing: everyone in this space starts with good intentions. I know the teams at Duolingo, Udemy, and others. They care. But the incentives of Edtech 1.0 pushed everyone toward engagement and monetization instead of real learning. Public investors eventually caught on. Consumer growth stalled, B2B slowed, and valuations dropped. Coursera/Udemy are each ~$700M (!!) in annual revenue, but trade at 1.5-2.5x multiples (!!). It is a hard time in edtech. We need Edtech 2.0. The next generation needs to deliver real learning outcomes AND high engagement. There’s a number of companies trying - of course I believe Maven is one of them. To build multiple $10B+ companies in education, we need to care deeply about whether people actually learn. American competitiveness is literally reliant on rebuilding our education system. AI is about to trigger the largest upskilling need in modern history. The opportunity is massive — and this time, we can get it right. It may not seem like it, but I’m optimistic. Out from the ashes of Edtech 1.0 will rise Edtech 2.0. The new generation is going to deliver value, and make people believe again.