We're seeing an exciting new era of online education companies emerge — a mix of CBCs and executive memberships focused on specific niches We're already seeing it: 👩‍💼 Chief — for female executives (~0.45% of the US pop) • valued at $1B+ 💡 On Deck — for idea-stage founders (<0.1% of the US) • valued at $650M+ 👩‍💻 Reforge — for tech talent (~7% of US pop) • valued at $300M+ 📈 Hampton — for VC-backed founders • newly launched by @thesamparr & @jspeiser 🌎 @Climatebase Fellowship — for climate-focused talent Factors: • COVID spurred an unprecedented acceleration of people embracing live online education and community • Proliferation of tools and infrastructure for community and social experiences (Zoom, Slack, Mighty, Circle, etc) • Proliferation of AI and tools like Canva, etc, lowering barrier for high-quality content creation • General unbundling of broad social networks; the social internet continues to skew niche overtime • Best practices (the "playbook") for these models becoming solidified • The more these kinds of models succeed and grow, demand for them grows due to awareness (WoW marketing), fomo, and desire for belonging Some of these players are still very much in the "figuring it out" stage. On Deck made some big missteps by hiring too quick and trying to do too many things, and recently laid off over 50% of staff. Word on the street is that Chief has had some issues with scaling. But this is just the beginning, and I believe these players will work out the kinks. IMO: The ultimate challenge they will grapple with isn't the scalability or value of their products; but rather, their ability to attract customers without relying on expensive paid acquisition. Exciting times!