![]() It calls its programs "nanodegrees," and characterizes them as a supplement to traditional education, not a replacement.Įarlier this month, Udacity added new programs that allows people to pay by the month and take more time to complete each course, rather than the previous six-month plans. "We have trained more self-driving car engineers than all universities combined," says Thrun, the man known as the foremost expert in the industry.īut the site is also known for teaching people to code, to become data scientists, or to become AI and cloud computing engineers, among other skills. Not surprisingly, Udacity is known as one of the best places for engineers to get trained for the self-driving car industry, given the status of its founder in that world. The bets that didn't work out revolved around how Udacity staffed up its teachers as it grew. "The reason for the layoffs was that we took certain bets and it just didn't work out, and we wound up a little over-hired," he said, Last year, we hit $88 million," Thrum told us. The business model works very, very nicely. "It's not the business model that didn't work. Last month, Udacity restructured, laying off 20% of its workforce - though Thrum tells us it the layoffs wasn't a result of financial struggles, but rather a byproduct of a new strategy officially announced in early May. Its former CEO, Vishal Makhijani, left in October, at which point Thrun took over as interim CEO. Udacity has raised $163 million from VCs who valued it at $1 billion back in 2015, the last time it raised money. He founded Udacity, a for-profit MOOC, in 2011, where he serves as executive chairman and interim CEO. He also helped usher in the era of online schools known as massive open online courses (MOOCs). Plus, he's also the founding CEO of Kitty Hawk, the highly watched flying car startup funded by Larry Page. Thrun is the godfather of the self-driving car industry, who founded Google X and Waymo with Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Sebastian Thrun is a legend in Silicon Valley - but deep down, he still mostly thinks of himself as a teacher and professor, he told Business Insider. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.The change also came from his desire to make his startup profitable, he said - even though that goes against the way Silicon Valley likes to operate.He says the layoffs were not from financial struggle, but rather from a strategic change that made a good chunk of the full-time staff unnecessary.But founder, executive chairman and interim CEO Sebastian Thrun tells Business Insider that the business is on track to do $100 million in revenue this year, up from $88 million in 2018.Udacity seemed to stumble last month when it restructured and laid off about 20% of its workforce.Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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