tech
The CEO of $1.2 billion learning platform Preply says it all started with his online search for an English tutor
Behind the glitz of multimillion-dollar funding rounds that define today’s unicorns are often years of founder sacrifices and barely-there paychecks. Kirill Bigai, the cofounder and CEO of online education marketplace Preply, paid himself virtually nothing for an entire year while getting his now $1.2 billion business off the ground.
TL;DR
- Preply cofounder and CEO Kirill Bigai paid himself virtually nothing for the first year of the company's operation.
- The founders worked side jobs to support themselves while dedicating 60 hours a week to Preply in its initial scaling phase.
- Preply started in Kyiv, Ukraine, with founders earning only $100 monthly salaries after six months, eventually increasing to $500, allowing them to quit their jobs.
- The idea for Preply stemmed from Bigai's personal difficulty in finding a remote English tutor in the internet era.
- The platform has expanded beyond language learning to include subjects like math, computer science, and chess.
- In January, Preply raised $150 million in a Series D round, achieving a $1.2 billion valuation and planning to develop AI tools and expand its engineering department.