Today I walk with Gagan Biyani, founder and CEO of the Horowitz Andreessen Academy. Gagan co-founded Udemy, which grew into a multibillion-dollar public company, built Sprig, co-founded Maven, and started his first profitable business at 13, and now he's building a16z's new school for young builders, backed by $42 million. He gets into the $60M company he had to shut down, why his investors backed him again anyway, and why a Harvard dropout means nothing to him.
We get into:
-Starting a debate camp at 13 that ran 50% EBITDA margins, and landing in the principal's office for it
-Sprig: $60M raised, 1,300 employees, a shutdown, and investors who backed his next company anyway
-Why the Academy flips college around, with students building instead of attending class
-The call from Andrew Chen and ten meetings with Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz that became the Academy
-Why he tells 18-year-olds that raising VC is a ten-year commitment
so much more!
𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
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00:00) Trailer
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01:01) Gagan Biyani, Founder & CEO, Horowitz Andreessen Academy
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02:23) A one-year fellowship built around building, not class
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03:55) The three skills that are AI proof
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08:16) Grandparents from Rajasthan who never finished high school
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09:31) Starting a debate camp at 13 with 50% margins
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12:59) Why schools are afraid of student agency
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18:33) Seven jobs, three years, and rarely going to class
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18:46) Why most professors don't care about teaching
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25:41) What Udemy and Maven taught him
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33:32) Raising $60M at Sprig, shutting down, and getting backed again
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38:16) Why raising VC at 18 is a ten-year commitment
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39:21) The call from Andrew Chen that started the Academy
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41:18) Why the best builders will pick a16z over MIT or Harvard
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43:17) 50 founding students, tuition-free
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45:46) Why a Harvard dropout means nothing to him
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51:42) Outro
Follow Gagan
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gaganbiyani/
X: https://x.com/gaganbiyani
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