

General Assembly raises $35M Series C - dja-io
http://blog.generalassemb.ly/seriesc/

======
lquist
So much money for such terrible([http://www.yelp.com/biz/general-assembly-san-
francisco](http://www.yelp.com/biz/general-assembly-san-francisco)) classes!

Some highlights from Yelp:

"Their web immersive is a joke, but you'll never hear anyone admit that
because they make you sign a waver/NDA that you promise not to tell anyone
anything truthful/negative about your GA experience."

"Most of the money goes towards the advertising and marketing team, they have
more marketers running around doing nothing all day than actual instructional
staff."

"Sup-par teaching conditions: we were in a kitchen with a loud fridge in the
back"

"Our teacher for our immersive was so underprepared and unenthusiastic and
unqualified that the students tried to get him fired."

"The tables were jammed so tight in the room that we used to joke if there was
a fire, no one would get out alive."

~~~
nickkthequick
That's not the case for the one in NYC: [http://www.yelp.com/biz/general-
assembly-manhattan](http://www.yelp.com/biz/general-assembly-manhattan)

~~~
dopamean
My sister did a back end web dev class in NYC this past fall and had a great
experience. She learned a ton that she has been able to apply to her position
doing QA at a startup. Just another anecdote to throw in the mix.

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ludicast
I liked them better when they were a gorgeous co-working and hackathon space.
They really had a "future of NYC tech" vibe.

Their pivot/focus on education seems to be unfortunate, not sure how they can
get money back for their investors when education's future is more likely
things like coursera (especially with their specialization tracks) udacity and
edx.

That said, I do hope they succeed, I never had a bad time sitting on their
couches.

~~~
inmygarage
I think the in-person element is crucial to the future of education. While
there are many people who live in rural areas or internationally who benefit
immensely from online platforms like Coursera, there are also a ton of people
who live close enough to a city that it's worth it to pay more for the
opportunity to learn in a physical environment. That's why GA is great - it
takes the best of both, and can provide online education that is greatly
bolstered by an in-person experience. Excited for them.

~~~
ludicast
Don't want to be "that guy" but compare these offerings:

GA Data Science (4000$ and taught by MBAs):
[https://generalassemb.ly/education/data-science/new-york-
cit...](https://generalassemb.ly/education/data-science/new-york-city)

Johns Hopkins Data Science via Coursera (490$, taught by Professors of
Biostatistics, and granting a cert with Hopkins' name on it):
[https://www.coursera.org/specialization/jhudatascience/1?utm...](https://www.coursera.org/specialization/jhudatascience/1?utm_medium=listingPage)

Now I'm not taking either class, but going to be very hard for GA to compete
with things like this (and not to mention the outrageous quality
codeschool.com pumps out). Let alone the rent they must pay for their awesome
spaces.

Spanish, Chemistry, EE, Woodworking, Gross Anatomy and other classes with a
serious lab component need an offline element for sure. But they are teaching
things that most people usually pick up better from blogs, coursera, etc.
(IMHO).

~~~
subpixel
To play devil's advocate, it's not all about the quality. It's about the
product, and to whom they are selling it.

GA is something like the University of Phoenix meets the Apple Store. In-
demand course offerings, aspirational customers, sexy downtown location.

Good luck earning all that money back though.

~~~
toomuchtodo
> GA is something like the University of Phoenix

Show me one person who takes a University of Phoenix degree seriously.

~~~
markkanof
I think the key to this is what University of Phoenix directly illustrates in
their commercials. They claim to have a huge alumni network which will help
you get a job. So basically if they are able to get enough people to go
through their program early on, they can turn around and leverage that to
recruit new students. All of the previous graduates have to take the degree
seriously when looking to hire. Otherwise they would be admitting that their
own degree is a joke, which they are unlikely to do.

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mgadams3
They're pretty good at marketing... that's about it. The lowest quality start-
ups in this training/education space (at least from my experience) are not
coincidentally some of the most funded.

[http://www.crunchbase.com/company/general-
assembly](http://www.crunchbase.com/company/general-assembly)
[http://www.crunchbase.com/company/skillshare](http://www.crunchbase.com/company/skillshare)

Once the focus becomes the return for investors instead of the quality of
instruction/training, it's a bad alignment of incentives. It seems in these
cases there was a rush to expand before they'd really figured out the long
lasting recipe of what actually works beyond marketing gimmicks. They're the
"cool" version of DeVry and University of Phoenix, dumping more $$ into
marketing than into their product.

Contrast this with codeschool.com that has raised $0 to date and is a much
better way to learn. Or with some of the better in-person learn to code,
design, etc programs, none of the good ones have raised any money. From my
experience with all of these, and there seems to be a significantly negative
correlation between taking large amounts of VC money and quality. FWIW.

Obviously GA would have the advantage of a theoretical community, but at least
in SF... that doesn't exist for them anyway.

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jsherry
In NYC, GA conducts nighttime Meet & Greets with their "graduating" classes.
As an employer, this is an efficient way to recruit. I attended one a couple
weeks ago and thought it was fairly well organized. If GA can help people get
placed into companies, then that's a huge advantage / differentiator for them
versus online-only course providers.

So without speaking the quality of the classes themselves - GA specifically,
or the concept of online v. in-person - this is a perspective worth
considering before slamming the in-person education model altogether.
Execution of the actually classes is obviously a separate discussion, but as I
said one I'm not prepared to address.

~~~
JPKab
The one here in DC is already doing an excellent job of matching people up
with start-ups and non-profits. We've also got NGO's like the World Bank
showing up.

My view is this: if a class has good teachers, a difficult, portfolio driven
curriculum, and a decently high-bar of entry (my DBA coworker struggled to be
admitted to the course because he was rusty in his programming skills. He
ended up having to put in a lot of time just to be able to pass their test to
gain admission into the course), then it will probably be a good course to
take.

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MtAuburn
I took an html/css workshop with Dustin Coates in Boston and it was excellent.
I learned many things which I implemented very next week at work. Indeed, the
boss referred to my work as the best front end piece yet created.

I subsequently signed up for a longer front end course after that. True, a bit
pricey, but I like a classroom setting and committing myself to a regular
learning block each week.

------
mathattack
_We want to build General Assembly to still be thriving 75 years from now_

There's a lot of negativity here on their pivot and marketing. I just like
that they're talking about building a company to last. (Of course the VCs will
want their money back well before 75 years)

~~~
jmathai
I don't really know anything about GA but I do know you can't really trust
much of anything you read.

~~~
mathattack
Even if it's on the internet? :-)

I hear you though.

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jknightco
Slightly off-topic: does anyone have any experience with GA's courses? I'm
considering taking one now, but I don't know anyone else who has.

If so, would you recommend them?

~~~
mgadams3
I took several of their classes about a year and a half ago, one of which was
a long-form evening class. I never had a good experience... I get more out of
watching a good meetup presentation on youtube. GA is defined by over
promising and under delivering. At least all of their operations out in San
Francisco have been terrible, i hear they are better in NYC where they
started.

~~~
jaydz
So they're the modern tech version of University of Phoenix? I wouldn't
surprise if GA gets acquire by a for-profit.

~~~
AJ007
This is probably a good indicator of what Apollo is interested in:

[http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405270230458500...](http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304585004579417411487177766)

"Apollo Education Group Inc., APOL +1.38% best known for its University of
Phoenix for-profit college, is expected to launch an "online marketplace"
dubbed Balloon on Tuesday. It will start with a catalogue of nearly 15,000
technology classes from big-name course providers including Microsoft Corp.
MSFT -0.84% , Adobe Systems Inc., ADBE -0.89% Coursera and Udacity, and
explicitly link them to job opportunities."

They will try to acquire some company in this area, GA or other.

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crsmithdev
Wonderful, now they can send me even more spam.

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aaronchriscohen
so theyre university of phoenix now? btw, if anyone wants to pay me $10,000 to
read php.net aloud, i will do so.

