1 hour ago
4
Indian-origin entrepreneur Gagan Biyani launches Horowitz Andreessen Academy, an alternative to the traditional college for future founders.
Silicon Valley entrepreneur Gagan Biyani, best known as a co-founder of online learning platform Udemy, is now taking on an unusual education venture: a new San Francisco academy backed by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z.
Biyani is the CEO of the newly launched Horowitz Andreessen Academy, a private, for-profit school designed as an alternative to the traditional college route for young people interested in technology, entrepreneurship and artificial intelligence.The academy has raised $42 million, including $35 million from Andreessen Horowitz, according to reports. Its first programme, beginning in September 2027, will be a one-year, tuition-free programme for about 50 students.
The academy is not currently accredited and will not award degrees or transferable college credits.It will neither guarantee a job nor a paid partnership. For the first year, it will remain tuition-free and every student will get $50,000 in compute credits and a $5,000 travel budget, Forbes reported.Then, the academy will seek regulatory approval for a two-year program starting in 2028. If approved, the program will charge in the range of $60,000 to $90,000 a year.
Who is Gagan Biyani?
Biyani is a technology entrepreneur and education-industry executive who has spent much of his career building companies around learning and professional development.He is best known as one of the co-founders of Udemy, the online learning platform he launched with Eren Bali and Oktay Caglar. Udemy grew into a major ed-tech company, offering online courses to learners around the world. Udemy's own history identifies Biyani as one of the three co-founders.Biyani later co-founded Maven, an online platform focused on cohort-based courses and learning communities, and Sprig, a consumer research company. His personal website describes him as a co-founder of Maven, Udemy and Sprig.Born to Indian parents in California, Gagan studied Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He began his career working at Accenture before transitioning into technology entrepreneurship and journalism.
He worked as a tech journalist before venturing into entrepreneurship and in 2009, he co-founded Udemy.
Why is Biyani building a college alternative?
In the Forbes interview, Biyani said that the idea of an elite academy is not to reject conventional college. The academy rather rejects the idea that 18-year-olds in San Francisco are valuable insofar as they have a startup idea to dedicate a decade to. The academy is looking for brightest high schoolers and calling them pre-idea founders.
Sam Altman, Jensen Huang Satya Nadella to teach
Sam Altman, Jensen Huang, Satya Nadella, Mira Murati, Fei-Fei Li and Travis Kalanick will take guest classes. They will come in for a talk or a fireside chat, Biyani said.Teaching is not the primary focus of the academy, Biyani said. “The primary thing we’re offering is the ability for students to pursue their own objectives.”The year is split three ways: September through April on campus in San Francisco, May travelling abroad, and June through August spent in a “co-op” at a partner company. There is no minimum age and all students have to arrange their own housing.
