Company Ethos, The Rapidly Changing World of Content and Goosebump Moments; Our Entertaining Chat With David Rogier of MasterClass
When we sit down with thought leaders, founders and industry insiders, we glean the nuggets of knowledge that can be instructive for founders, and hand-select the most salient points for their benefit. Whether it’s personal experiences that altered their career trajectory; what they look for in founders and new hires; investment themes that are piquing their interest; or their views on capital market trends, our conversations are as dynamic as our guests.
We recently sat down with David Rogier, founder and CEO of MasterClass whose entertaining conversation touched on his (not so nefarious) ‘kidnapping’ by our founding partner Roseanne Wincek; how his Grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, taught him the importance of education; and the initial investment that funded his purpose. David launched MasterClass in 2015 with the goal of democratizing access to genius. The company has gone from strength to strength and recently entered a new phase of market dominance in content; a fully subscription-based business, over 100 classes and over 300 employees. Roseanne invested in MasterClass in 2017 and serves on its board.
With such strong growth and rapid change in the market, we also touched on the core values of the company, shifting the business model and David’s goosebump moments as CEO. Here are the highlights from our conversation:
MasterClass’s Ethos
To counter the common startup pitfalls of myopic perspective and “short termism,” David emphasizes a 100 Year Plan to his team. He wants them to “really zoom out” on the company’s ultimate goal: that somebody, who would have never otherwise had access to the world’s greatest practitioners, will take their classes and then return to MasterClass to teach as one of the world’s best in their own right. “That’s the dream,” he says.
David also leaves the possibility open for exceptional employees who may not fit a traditional career path. Their trick is that every job description can only have three must haves. Every hiring manager must lock those in beforehand. Having only three means you’re looking for skills and abilities rather than just qualifications.
How Content is Changing; Shifting the Company
Shifting the company from selling single classes to a subscription-based model was a major change for MasterClass. MasterClass is unique in that they own the entire chain from content development and creation to the direct relationships with the members consuming it. “That has huge advantages. We were, I think, one of the first to do that - end-to-end...and that’s seen as the gold standard in the subscription model.”
Constantly testing initiatives, particularly pricing, has informed every decision and every step of the company. When they landed on $180 a year for their membership and rolled it out, the subscription became the vast majority of their revenue. When it came to customer retention, “we did our forecast and planning and it came in way above that, which was really amazing.”
Learning from the Best
In the process of selecting and filming instructors, David has had many ’goosebump moments.’ The instructors often don’t see how masterful they are because it’s their native genius. For example, David recalls being on set with Christina Aguilera. Before they started rolling, she was casually doing her warm ups, which stopped him in his tracks, because even her warm ups are miraculous.