CreativeLive is an online education platform that broadcasts live classes to an international audience. The company has dual headquarters in Seattle and San Francisco, with four in-house production studios. Since 2010, over two billion minutes of course instruction have been watched by millions of students. During that same timeframe the average number of students tuned in to each live broadcast ranged from 20,000 to 60,000 people, with the highest attended course being 150,000.
Overview
CreativeLive classes are broadcast live from four in-house production studios. A key aspect of CreativeLive's approach to online learning is interaction via online classroom, which is facilitated by a studio audience that also appears on camera. The in-studio students, usually ranging from three to 15 people, ask questions of the instructor during the class and act as a proxy for the viewers at home. CreativeLive broadcasts 24/7 across five channels: Photo & Video, Art & Design, Music & Audio, Maker & Craft, and Business & Money. Commenting on what inspired this type of user experience, CEO Chase Jarvis said, "Overall the education industry is the world's largest industry that has yet to see real disruption and meaningful innovation. It's ripe for change and what we're seeing is just the beginning." CreativeLive uses a freemium pricing model: All classes are free to stream while they are live, while prior aired classes were the same only some of the segments are free to watch, and can be purchased to watch at a later date. The classes are hosted by a team of on air hosts from both CreativeLive's Seattle and San Francisco studios, with hosts including John Kennedy O'Connor, Kenna Klosterman and Russ Andes. CreativeLive named Mika Salmi as CEO in October 2012. On April 14, 2014, it was announced that Jarvis would take over the day-to-day CEO-level position from previous CEO Salmi, who would move to CreativeLive's board of directors. Instructors include Reid Hoffman, Tim Ferriss and Anne Geddes.
History
The company was created by photographer, director and artist Chase Jarvis and entrepreneur Craig Swanson in Seattle in 2010. In 2012, CreativeLive raised $8 million in a Series A financing led by Greylock Ventures. Additional funding sources include Google Ventures, Creative Artists Agency, William Morris Endeavor, and CrunchFund. In November 2013, CreativeLive raised $21.5 million in Series B financing, led by Chamath Palihapitiya's venture capital fundThe Social+Capital Partnership. The round also included Greylock Partners and others. At the time, the company had over 2 million users participating from over 200 countries. In 2015, CreativeLive went on a multi-city bus tour starting in San Francisco and ending in Seattle. At stops along the way, including in Sacramento, Eugene, Portland and Olympia, live demonstrations and educational classes were broadcast, while those who attended in person were able learn directly from the instructors. The event was free of charge and attracted 20,000 attendees. The total funding received by CreativeLive, as of May 2017, is said to be $58.8 million.
Photoshop Week
CreativeLive holds an annual Photoshop Week in which experts and professionals in the graphics software provide tutorials for all levels of users. In 2013, 150,000 students from 178 countries combined to consume 460,000 viewing hours of education during Photoshop Week. For the 2015 Photoshop Week, which was held within a week of Adobe Photoshop's 25th anniversary, CreativeLive featured 49 classes taught over the course of the 6 days.
