The Path - A Telstra Ventures Show

Mar 24, 2021

The Funding Strategy Behind Springboard - The Airbnb of Learning

Episode 2: Gautum Tambay of Springboard THE PATH: An Entrepreneur’s View on When and How to Raise Capital Welcome to The Path, hosted by Gup Ghuiliani, Operating Partner at Telstra Ventures. In this videocast and podcast series, we uncover how successful entrepreneurs navigate the world of venture capital to scale rapidly. For each episode, we invite the founders of successful businesses to share their experiences and insights on what they’re going through and the changes they’ve made going forward. Today, we talk with Gautam Tambay, co-founder and CEO of Springboard, a mentor-led online education platform that provides upskilling and reskilling courses for people looking to learn in-demand skills. Watch the interview on video In this episode we ask Gautam: * What motivated you to start Springboard? * What challenges did you have in building the company? * What metrics do you use to measure early business success? * The pandemic has accelerated demand for alternate learning. How does Springboard ensure students stay engaged? Genuinely learn new skills? Get hired? * What challenges did you have in deciding whether to take VC capital or not? * Where are you on your funding path, and why did you need to raise capital? * How did you choose which path to follow? * What was your approach to selecting the right investors? * You raised your Series B last summer, despite social distancing. * How did your approach to raising venture investments change? * What advice would you offer young entrepreneurs looking to raise capital for their fast-growing businesses? * How did you develop your leadership style as a young entrepreneur? * What advice would you offer others? * Why You Started Springboard, Early Growth * Your Funding Path/Leadership: What’s Next? * Your goal is to educate 1m people in 10 years. How will you get there? (both internal and external drivers). * How will university partnerships play a role? * Building a network of mentors is core to Springboard. Are there other models that you look to in benchmarking this program going forward (consulting, university professors, Backroads travel company, etc.)? * How will student placement change? Will you link content and projects to more tailored placement (eg did well in this facet of data science as such marketing attribution would be a great career) Do you have an exit strategy? If so, what is it? If not, why not? Springboard Funding Info Springboard raised $31 million to expand its mentor-guided education platform to more geographies. Springboard, an online education platform that provides upskilling and reskilling training courses to people looking to learn in-demand roles, has raised $31 million in a new financing round as it looks to expand to more geographies. The Series B financing round for the San Francisco-headquartered startup was led by investment firm Telstra Ventures . Vulcan Capital and SJF Ventures, as well as existing investors Costanoa Ventures, Pearson Ventures, Reach Capital, International Finance Corporation (IFC), 500 Startups, Blue Fog Capital, and Learn Capital also participated in the round, said the seven-year-old startup, which has raised more than $50 million to date. https://www.springboard.com/

26 min