Product School

We’ve Raised $25 Million to Keep Pushing Product Management Forward 🚀

Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia

Author: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia

January 9, 2023 - 3 min read

Updated: January 24, 2024 - 3 min read

This is the best time in history to build digital products.

I started Product School in 2014 with $0. Today, we’re announcing a $25 million investment by Leeds Illuminate, one of the best growth equity firms in education and the future of work.

It’s a huge win for our community, as we’ll be able to provide more resources to help you grow your Product Management career. We’ll also help more Fortune 500 companies accelerate their digital transformation and upskill their product teams.

The Power of Community

Carlos and coworkers sharing a desk in San Francisco

From day one, I started building a community of like-minded people to give away as much value as possible. I knew that something good would happen, but I’ll admit I had no idea we’d get over 1 million members that fast!

I taught the first courses myself, and I’m still in touch with our earlier students. However, I’m very proud that all of our current instructors are Product Leaders working at top Silicon Valley companies, including Google, Facebook, Netflix, Airbnb, PayPal, Uber, and Amazon.

During the last 7 years we’ve launched certifications, books, events, conferences, and more. Through the power of education, we are helping Product Management grow, and we’re growing alongside it.

Product Management is Here to Stay

We tripled our growth in the last year alone while remaining profitable and true to the bootstrapped values we’ve followed since our founding. Despite the incredible growth we have seen so far, we still have so much more to give to the world of Product Management.

Long gone are the days when Product Managers had to explain that they are not Project Managers, or that a product can be digital.

The market has proven that Product Management isn’t just for high-tech companies; it’s for every company in every single industry. For example, over 30% of the Fortune 500 have a Chief Product Officer and many companies even have CEOs with product backgrounds.

More companies are putting the customer experience at the core of their organization, and are leveraging their product as the primary source of growth. This strategy is called Product-Led Growth (PLG).

Thanks to the new wave of low-code/no-code tools that don’t require substantial technical expertise, PMs are more empowered than ever to create roadmaps, wireframes, and other deliverables without piggybacking on tools that haven’t been designed for them, such as PowerPoint or Photoshop.

This sea-change is still not reflected in education as traditional degrees and MBA programs simply don’t equip Product Managers with the skills they require on the job.

Why We Chose to Bring In an Investor Now…

Let me start by saying that I’m incredibly proud of who we are and how far we have come. Everything you like about our community and free resources is going to keep getting better!

Product School is the gold standard in Product Management certifications. We are now ready to significantly increase the scale of our operation so we can train more individuals and organizations on how to build better products.

We’re Just Getting Started!

Thanks to our students, instructors, team, partners and everyone in the community. Huge things are coming, and you bet that you’re going to be right at the center of it.

I’m more excited than ever to continue building the future of Product Management together.

Updated: January 24, 2024

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