Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

MasterClass CEO David Rogier's Top Four Tips for Hyper Growth

12/02/2019

In IVP's Hyper-Growth Podcast series, IVP investors talk with CEOs of the fastest growing companies and discuss the ins and outs of company building in the hyper-growth environment.

In our second episode, IVP investor, Roseanne Wincek, sits down with David Rogier, Founder and CEO of MasterClass. David talks at great length about the company, how he thinks about hiring during each stage of growth and scaling quickly - from board members to employees, and what all of this has taught him about being an effective leader for a company during its high growth phase. IVP led MasterClass's $35 million Series C in 2017 and their $85 million Series D in 2018.

It all started with a lesson from grandmother.

Starting with half a million dollars from a trusted VC to help David go think of a great idea, this entrepreneur-at-heart found inspiration from his family roots. His grandmother, who helped raise him, provided one piece of advice that's stuck with him since the third grade.

Education is the only thing that a person can't take away from you.

She was right. So much so, that David used this advice to take the $500K he raised to build an education platform to give the masses access to the expert advice they didn't know they'd longed to learn. Founded in 2013 to give everyone access to genius, MasterClass is a prime example of hyper-growth. Two years ago, when IVP invested, the company employed 30 people and had just released their 13th class. Today, the company has tripled in size, released its 50th class and launched an online subscription streaming service.

Intuition coupled with customer interviews helped David identify what would make people excited to learn online. He found one reoccurring theme: people would pay to learn from the best. If classes are taught by the best in the world, students know that they are getting real, relevant, battle-hardened learnings. To test his thesis, he built a fake website and found that students were clamoring to buy classes from the masters. MasterClass was off to the races.

Since the company's start in 2013, David and the team at MasterClass have built a brand that has attracted the world's best. Serena Williams teaches tennis, Carlos Santana demonstrates the art and soul of guitar, Spike Lee doles out the intricacies of independent filmmaking, Annie Leibovitz shows the art behind photography, and Steph Curry helps even the best ballplayer understand the precision needed to shoot and score.

David tackled attracting the masters but also had to grow his company from infancy to the growth stage in the crowded online learning market.

To do this, David shared a few of the lessons he learned along the way with Roseanne.

Recognize the fundraising process is like an art. Don't ever send a pitch deck before a meeting.

Unless you've got stats like Uber, David says, it's hard to explain your story to an investor who may fail to understand the company's full potential from a series of slides without verbal context. In the early stages of investment, investors look for team caliber and dynamics, market fit and hyper-growth potential - things that are hard to see in a pitch deck in isolation. Wait to send the deck until after the meeting, allowing the ability to highlight the story - and opportunity in person.

Plus, understand that each round is different. A founder story highlighting the genesis of a company may land at the early fundraising rounds but will not secure a growth investment, where illustrating key hires who understand growth and scale become more important to gain capital. Finding the right people to guide each phase of storytelling to investors is crucial - and iterate along the way.

Find board members that support you. Not ones that try to run the business. If you have a bad board member, you're in a world of pain.

A company grows through a robust network of board and investor support. As a leader or CEO, the choice of board members becomes more critical as the company grows. Do lots of homework. Talk to entrepreneurs who have worked with this investor in good outcomes and in bad. Figure out why a person would be additive to the company's culture and growth, as well as a support network and sounding board.

Find an outlet for the inevitable emotional rollercoaster ride of entrepreneurship. Have a great therapist.

With any entrepreneurial endeavor comes high and lows. David's trick combines routines like keeping a daily gratitude journal, talking with a trusted friend or advisor, and regularly speaking to his therapist. Why? Issues at work arise from people dynamics and decision making among them. While a therapist may not understand business goals or growth metrics, they do understand how people interact as well as their patterns of behavior. These can then help leaders predict how a team member may act or respond. This guidance and third-party sounding boards can reduce decision fatigue and ease the growing pains of a high-growth business.

Hiring right is better than hiring fast. If you hire too fast, your bar will drop, and you won't hire great people.

When a company hits the high-growth stage, recognize hiring the right people will take first priority. At this stage, roles and responsibilities change - and fast. Figure out how to remove the people or candidates who can't or don't have the ability to scale. Companies start off with a gaggle of original employees who build the business through blood, sweat, and tears. During a growth-stage hiring stint, however, it's vital to differentiate current employees who can grow into the next role, while also finding future A player new hires through an honest dose of reviews from all levels of staff during the hiring process.

As a company grows, the touch point from employee to CEO diminish. Putting trust i
LINK: https://www.ivp.com/news/podcast/masterclass-ceo-david-rogiers-top-fou...
See more stories from ivp

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

12/08/2026

Op-Ed: The Versioning Playbook - How Rights Holders are Getting More From Live Events

Traditional live sports production has focused on creating the best possible pro...

12/08/2026

IBC 2026: FOR-A to Demonstrate Production and Processing Solutions

FOR-A will showcase a range of broadcast and production products at IBC2026 (Stand 2.B53, Amsterdam RAI, September 11-14), including software-based switching, A...

12/08/2026

IBC 2026: AMWA and EBU to Demo NMOS BCP-008 Multi-Vendor IP Status Reporting

The Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and EBU will host live demonstrations of NMOS BCP-008 Minimum Status Reporting at IBC2026 (September 11-14) on th...

12/08/2026

IBC 2026: Dalet Launches Solution Suites for Media Production and Archive Management

Dalet has announced Dalet Solution Suites, a portfolio of cloud-native solutions...

12/08/2026

Net Insight Enables Centralized Remote Production of Blinkfestivalen 2026 for NRK

Net Insight has announced that DMC Production Norway has selected its Open Live ...

12/08/2026

Zixi Appoints Alyson Stewart as Senior Director of Sales

Zixi has appointed Alyson Stewart as Senior Director of Sales. Stewart will be responsible for direct sales and partnerships, with a focus on broadcasters, medi...

12/08/2026

LiveU Powers Host Broadcast Operations at 2026 Glasgow Games

LiveU's LU900Q intelligent production unit was deployed as part of the host broadcast operation for the Games in Glasgow (July 23-August 2, 2026). Host broa...

12/08/2026

Disney+ and ESPN Acquire Multi-Year Formula E Rights Beginning 2026/27 Season

Disney , ESPN, and Formula E have announced a multi-year deal bringing all Formula E races to Disney and ESPN in the U.S. and to Disney in most international...

12/08/2026

PSSI Launches X-LIVE Managed Service for Live Event Transmission

PSSI has launched X-LIVE, a managed service offering dedicated engineering resources and Appear encoding infrastructure for live event signal processing and tra...

12/08/2026

MoonPay X Games League Draws 18.3 Million Viewers in Inaugural Summer Season

The inaugural MoonPay X Games League Summer Season reached 18.3 million unique live viewers across three stops on ABC and ESPN, a 78.5% increase compared to the...

12/08/2026

IBC 2026: BBright Adds RIST Support to IP-Gateway

BBright will showcase an expanded IP-Gateway at IBC2026, adding support for all RIST profiles to its existing support for MPEG Transport Stream over IP with SMP...

12/08/2026

IBC 2026: BBright Adds EBU OGraf Graphics Support to UHD and ST 2110 Playout Platform

BBright will demonstrate EBU OGraf animated graphics support in its software-bas...

12/08/2026

Interra Systems to Showcase QC and Monitoring Solutions at SET Expo 2026

Interra Systems will demonstrate its ORION, BATON, BATON Captions, and VEGA solutions at SET Expo 2026 (August 17-20, Distrito Anhembi, S o Paulo) at partner Li...

12/08/2026

DPA Microphones Appoints Raul Contreras as West Coast Regional Sales Manager

DPA Microphones has appointed Raul Contreras as West Coast Regional Sales Manager. In the role, Contreras will oversee sales and customer relationships througho...

12/08/2026

Save the Date: SVG LIVE! Returns to LA Nov. 10 to Spotlight Sports & Entertainment Production

Live spectacles ranging from the Super Bowl and FIFA World Cup to the Oscars and...

12/08/2026

Love, Separation, and the Cost of Comfort in How to Divorce During the War

Writer-Director Andrius Bla evi ius and crew attend the premiere of How to Divorce During the War at The Ray Theatre on January 26, 2026, in Park City, UT. (P...

12/08/2026

SSL 360 gets a major update

Enhanced DAW & plug-in control for the UC1, UF8 and UF1 The software that powers SSL's range of control surfaces has just received a major update that d...

12/08/2026

Triton Audio launch the Tilt EQ

In-line preamp features one-knob EQ In addition to their range of in-line preamps, Triton Audio recently managed to squeeze a compressor into an enclosure t...

12/08/2026

AudioRoute from Arvital Audio

Captures system audio with or without a DAW Depending on your setup, capturing system audio in a DAW can be a tedious process, so much so that Arvital Audio...

12/08/2026

2026 NATIONAL NAIDOC AWARDS TO BROADCAST ON NITV LIVE AND DIRECT FROM MPARNTWE

2026 NATIONAL NAIDOC AWARDS TO BROADCAST ON NITV LIVE AND DIRECT FROM MPARNTWE 12 August, 2026 Media releases First Nations excellence will be celebrated l...

12/08/2026

More than six million sports fans stay with SBS for Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes Avec Zwift

More than six million sports fans stay with SBS for Tour de France and Tour de F...

12/08/2026

Nielsen Introduces Groundbreaking Streaming Ad Measurement in Brazil

Nielsen is cementing Digital Ad Intel as the new go-to currency for digital ad intelligence in Brazil-now with streaming monitoring in the mix. S o Paulo, Augu...

12/08/2026

LPTV Advocates Petition FCC for Voluntary 5G Broadcasts

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/08/2026

Tubi Media Group Inks Content Discovery Deal with Gracenote

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/08/2026

Matrox Video Showcases IP-Based and Software-Defined Tech...

As Matrox Video celebrates 50 years of trusted innovation, the company will showcase its portfolio of interoperable IP technologies and software-defined innovat...

12/08/2026

SMPTE Showcases AI and Open Media Workflows and Industry...

SMPTE, the home of media professionals, technologists and engineers, today announced a program of expert-led sessions, professional workshops and networking eve...

12/08/2026

Berklee Announces Full Details for Inaugural Block Party, a Music Festival Next to Fenway Park

Berklee Announces Full Details for Inaugural Block Party, a Music Festival Next ...

12/08/2026

ACLU Requests ABC Station Probe Documents from FCC

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/08/2026

Roger Keating To Retire from Hearst Television

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/08/2026

Netflix Closes U.S. Upfronts, Nearly Doubles Ad Commitments

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/08/2026

CBS Pittsburgh Debuts New AR/VR News Studio

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/08/2026

Matthews Intros T-Go Extreme Rigging Solutions

Matthews Studio Equipment introduces T-Go Mounting Solutions extreme camera rigging systems, engineered for the most demanding environments in motion picture pr...

12/08/2026

Anton Bauers EDEN Becomes Only Mobile Power Station in it...

Anton/Bauer, a Videndum brand and the industry leader in mobile power solutions for broadcast and cinematic production, announces that the EDEN Mobile Power Sta...

12/08/2026

TAG Video Systems Cuts Hardware Costs for Customers with...

TAG Video Systems, the global leader in software-based IP monitoring and multiviewer solutions, today announced a memory usage optimization that lowers the tota...

12/08/2026

Unified Streaming Launches Trusted Media - C2PA in Dynami...

Unified Streaming announces Trusted Media, a new solution that enables broadcasters, streaming platforms, and premium content owners to attach verifiable authen...

12/08/2026

Tedial Powers the AI-Driven Media Supply Chain at IBC 202...

Combining intelligent automation, composable business services and user-centric experiences The media industry is entering a new phase where AI intelligence is...

12/08/2026

DPA Microphones Appoints Raul Contreras as West Coast Reg...

DPA Microphones welcomes Raul Contreras as its new West Coast Regional Sales Manager. In this role, Contreras will oversee sales and customer relationships thro...

12/08/2026

Weather is Not a Factor for Marshall Electronics New CV57...

Marshall Electronics' first all-weather, all-IP 4K POV camera, the CV574-WP, makes its European debut at IBC 2026 (Stand 10.C11). Built for the elements, th...

12/08/2026

A double off-switch helps cells respond to stress

LA JOLLA, CA-Scientists at Scripps Research have discovered that two seemingly unrelated cellular enzymes become locked together during times of stress, simulta...

12/08/2026

New Bookshop opening in London that offers new identities, not books, with free cover stories for all

NEW BOOKSHOP OPENING IN LONDON THAT OFFERS NEW IDENTITIES, NOT BOOKS, WITH FREE ...

12/08/2026

Live from London, its Saturday night! Saturday Night Live UK returns on 12 September

Brand-new trailer unveiled as Sky announces SNL UK ticket ballot will open on 14...

12/08/2026

Sky Sports agrees deal to show Laver Cup from Londons O2

Wednesday 12 August 2026 Sky Sports agrees deal to show Laver Cup from London's O2 Sky Sports has agreed a deal with Trident8 to show all three days of th...

12/08/2026

Pre-order the new Google Pixel 11 range from today and save up to 937 on Sky Mobile

Wednesday 12 August 2026 Pre-order the new Google Pixel 11 range from today and...

12/08/2026

NVIDIA CEO Tops Glassdoor's 2026 List of Best CEOs

NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang is ranked No. 1 on Glassdoor's Best CEOs list for 2026. In the just-released ranking, recognition is earned directly fr...

11/08/2026

Apple To Bring Friday Night Baseball Live to Apple Immersive on Vision Pro Beginning Aug. 28

Weekly immersive broadcasts will feature 8K 3D video, a 180-degree field of view...

11/08/2026

Looking for a New Cameraperson? ProductionHUB Guide Lays Out Considerations, Pitfalls

By Briana Brady, Social Media Manager, Production Hub Sports content is having ...

11/08/2026

SVG Sit-Down: Backlight CEO Kathleen Barrett on Building Media Infrastructure for a Global, AI-Driven Sports Landscape

She addresses why media organizations need more than asset storage, how sports t...