The Creative Divide

July 14, 2021

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You may have seen a recent headline or photo making the rounds on the Internet lately, one depicting restaurant employees walking out on their jobs, claiming harsh conditions and low pay as they drop the hairnets and aprons. But it’s not just the service industry experiencing what has been coined The Great Resignation. Bankers, customer service representatives, lawyers, and even tennis pros are reassessing what truly matters to them.

Today, we look at the private companies on both sides of the divide, those providing tools to train and retain employees, as well as the e-learning providers helping people striking out on their own.

Employee training is hot, hot, hot

In what world does a Series A bring in $1.5BN? In the world of employee training, apparently. Articulate Global lured private equity investors such as General Atlantic, The Blackstone Group, and Iconiq Capital with its popular apps for online training, used by 99 of the Fortune 100.

There's also 1Huddle, whose gamified employee training app has been scientifically shown to increase employee retention of information. Lessonly wants employee training to be less soul-crushing (Lessonly's words, not mine) and is seeing a 62% faster ramp time. Moth+Flame raised a $2.5MM seed round in June to build virtual reality training for the Air Force and to remove unconscious bias from interviewing.

Solopreneurs, self-taught moguls, & college-dropouts

For those striking out on their own or switching careers, there are many resources to learn literally any skill. Here’s a look at some of the highest-grossing private companies promising to turn interests into professions.

🤓 Masterclass: Video seminars for top industry professionals. Learn filmmaking from James Cameron, tv writing from Shonda Rhimes, or cooking from Gordon Ramsay. The company is valued at $2.75BN.

📚 Kajabi: Kajabi allows you to become a teacher, monetizing your skills through online courses. It's worth a cool $2BN.

👩‍🏫 Skillshare: A marketplace for creative skills like water coloring, photography, or building creative confidence, to name a few.

🐴 CourseHorse: Started by a few NYU alums, CourseHorse gathers all manner of online and in-person classes on their platform.

🎸 ArtistWorks: For anyone stuck at a day job but dreaming of rock stardom, there’s ArtistWorks, a membership-based music lesson marketplace.

👨‍🎤 E-Learning Brothers: This lively brand platform has every type of personalized learning, off-the-shelf topic-based learning, and course creation templates to help you become a ROCKSTAR in your business. The company has shown consistent year-over-year growth since 2010.