David Rogier
Founder & CEO, MasterClass. On 2 shows, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveinvestor@drogier ↗LinkedIn ↗masterclass.com ↗
David Rogier founded MasterClass in 2015, scaling it into an online education platform featuring video classes taught by renowned experts. He has raised hundreds of millions in venture capital and also serves as an active angel investor.
2shows
2appearances
25statements
10resolved
9supported
1contradicted
90%fully supported
15said about them ↓ Everything David Rogier said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
MasterClass will be in every American home within five years
“It will be in every home in America. And then after that, we will go more internationally and broad.”
Michael Deering invested $500K in David Rogier before he had an idea
“And he basically invested half a million and told me to go think of an idea.”
A founder's single job is preventing cash exhaustion
“I have one job, and that job is to make sure that we never run out of money. The only thing that can kill a startup is running out of cash.”
Early-stage startups should rely on a single advisor to preserve speed
“One of the most important things at early stage is speed, and by asking five people for their thoughts and advice, they aren't going to give the same advice, so then you're going to spend a whole bunch of time, and you're going to have to debate it and think a…”
Pre-sending pitch decks has never yielded an investment for MasterClass
“I can't think of one case where I sent out a pitch deck before the pitch, and the person then wanted to actually invest.”
Rogier: MasterClass instructors teach out of desire, not for the money
“If the instructors want to earn a lot of money, there are tons of options for them to go do. The instructors are teaching and doing this because they actually want to teach.”
Founders should double milestone cost and time estimates in startup planning
“And then I always times it by two, because however fast and efficient you think you're going to be, everything, when you actually work on it, just takes more time and just costs more.”
Rogier validated MasterClass demand using a fake website with 100 courses
“So what I decided to do was I created a fake website that had a hundred different online classes that I did not have. I paid a firm in Argentina, I think like I actually helped build the site. I hired some people on TaskRabbit to help write the class text inst…”
Founders should spend 5% of their time building VC relationships
“I think it is always smart to be spending five percent of your time on the relationship side.”
Rick Yang rejected MasterClass's Series A before leading Series B
“Rick Yang, who led our B round and is in a fantastic board member I actually pitched him for the A, and Rick passed.”
Investor Michael Dearing gave Rogier $500,000 to find a business idea
“Michael wrote me a check for about half a million bucks and told me to go think of an idea”
Rogier: Serena Williams reviewed student video submissions at home for MasterClass
“I'll give you an example with her, for example, I mean, she had people in her class upload clips of them playing and she sat at home, watch it and gave notes to people in, in, In, inside her class.”
MasterClass raised $5 million prior to its public launch
“We had raised approximately five million before launch.”
Signing early MasterClass instructors took up to 12 months
“That was hard. That probably took like eight to 12 months, and it was only possible because of that first half million.”
Dustin Hoffman was MasterClass's first signed instructor
“And then I remember the first time that we got our first yes was from Dustin Hoffman.”
Rogier: Every MasterClass course costs a flat rate of $90
“Every class costs the exact same at 90 dollars.”
Rogier: MasterClass has raised at least approximately $50M in capital
“Approximately at least fifty million.”
MasterClass was instantly profitable on a user's first purchase at launch
“It made it so that on the first per, when somebody buys a class, we are able to make money on the first.”
Rogier: James Patterson selected a MasterClass student as his next co-author
“He was so impressed by the students in this class that he actually picked one student to be his next co-author.”
Rogier: 50% to 80% of MasterClass students are first-time online learners
“About half to 80% of our students have never taken an online class before.”
Rogier: MasterClass customers receive lifetime access to purchased courses
“They choose what they want, and they have access forever to it.”
The other half of the tape: David Rogier's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 15 times in 6 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Joseph Gordon-Levitt 5Harry Stebbings 5Nathan Latka 3Roy Bahat 1Roseanne Wincek 1
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 12
Top Founders 3
2022 3 mentions in 1 episode
2019 8 mentions in 2 episodes 4 per episode
- 20VC: HitRecord's Joseph Gordon-Levitt on How Show Business Prepared Him For Life As An Entrepreneur, What Founders Should Look For Most In Their Investor Base & Why The Current Ad Model of Social Is Harming The World's Creative Spirit
- 20VC Exclusive: Roy Bahat on Bloomberg Beta's New Fund, The Truth About Valuation That Very Few VCs Will Tell You & Why Founders of Venture Backed Startups Make The Best Angels
- every mention in 2019, scene by scene →
2017 4 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
- 778: SaaS: With $80M Raised, He Left Salesforce to Bring Finance Departments to The Cloud
- 776: TextingBase Shares Margins, Cap Table, Valuation, More
- 20VC: The Blurring of Early & Late Stage, Why Your Go To Market Strategy Is More Important Now Than Ever & Why Venture Is The Academia Of Tech with Roseanne Wincek @ IVP
- every mention in 2017, scene by scene →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens David's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TOP FOUNDERSLEDGER | Founder & CEO, MasterClass | 1 | 13 | 100% 6/6 | full record on Top Founders → |
| 20VCLEDGER | Founder & CEO, MasterClass | 1 | 12 | 75% 3/4 | full record on 20VC → |