On Building General Assembly and My Next Steps

Building General Assembly has been the most remarkable and inspiring professional experience of my life. We have helped more than 12,000 people pursue careers they love across 12 campuses worldwide and have been a part of some powerful stories along the way. When we set out to teach technology, business and design, we didn’t realize that we were going to create the first premium education brand to emerge in more than a century. That is truly humbling.

The GA team now comprises 400 of some of the smartest, most genuine people I know. We have seen incredible and talented individuals rise through our organization as first-time managers, while others have joined the senior team bringing decades of experience in education and leadership. I have immense faith in my co-founder Jake and the senior management team to guide GA through the next part of this journey.

Four and a half years after making the decision to start General Assembly with my co-founders Jake, Matt and Adam, I am excited to say that I am joining our lead investor Maveron as a venture partner and returning to my passion for early stage companies. I am not leaving entirely -- I will be staying on part-time to help build our Credentialing Network as we develop a team around that critical initiative.

Maveron has been the ideal partner since making a bet on us three years ago, and I'm thrilled to join their team. As I've gotten to know Jason, Dan and all of Maveron, I've been impressed with their vision of building a truly consumer-only venture firm with deep expertise in product development, brand, and customer acquisition. And they've been able to execute on that vision with early bets on Zulily, Julep, and General Assembly, among others. As the home of great brands and consumer-savvy entrepreneurs, New York is a wonderful place to expand the Maveron family.

For most of my life, I viewed the education system as an institution immune to change. After building General Assembly, I see the power of communities of individuals challenging established systems and building better outcomes. GA’s growth is not a black swan event but rather a story that we will see with increasing frequency as entrenched industries feel the impacts of technology and design. This shift will be an incredible force for good, as sectors that have been traditionally slow to embrace technology — such as education, healthcare, and finance — are the largest in the world and touch every individual.

I have had the privilege of spending my life so far enabling that story by being an entrepreneur, and I hope to continue to do so. My co-founders and I are doubly fortunate that General Assembly is not just another company, but an organization that has had a transformational positive impact on so many lives. For that, I am incredibly thankful but remain hungry for more.