The competition in the business world is always tough. To keep up, businesses are adopting the latest technologies to get ahead. This infrastructure would require highly skilled and well-trained employees for their technical skills to ease complex operations.
The skills of these knowledgeable individuals that run operations smoothly are thanks to years of proper training and experience.
As such, education institutions now offer online courses to train candidates for tougher jobs in the new and competitive setting. Pluralsight is one of these online education companies that do so!
How does Pluralsight operate its business? How does the company generate profit? Take a look at the Pluralsight Business Model to get some interesting facts about its history and business model.
What is Pluralsight?
Pluralsight is a company serving businesses and institutions in search of exceptional technical training courses. It started as an online video training in 2007 and now operates as an online education company, tracing its beginnings as a classroom training company.
The company has developed a top-notch enterprise platform offering video training courses for IT administrators, software developers, data professionals, AI and machine learning, cloud computing, and creative professionals. Skill assessment modules and tools for enhancement of team skills are also provided.
Pluralsight’s headquarters is located in Farmington, Utah– with over 1500 authors and experts in the team to prepare courses for more than 7000 online training programs! Its expansion had begun in 2007 with the release of its first online course.
Pluralsight History
In 2004, founders Aaron Skonnard, Fritz Onion, Keith Brown, and Bill Williams established Pluralsight Company.
They aimed to offer training for software developers, IT administrators, and creative professionals. They started an online video training in 2007 since classroom training programs were popular.
The company has been growing excellently since 2011, allowing it to be ranked among other top education companies.
Pluralsight has served many small and medium-sized businesses to enhance their employees’ technical skills. This has attracted other firms to try Pluralsight’s training programs.
In April 2018, Pluralsight filed for the initial IPO. By the end of the first day, the share price grew to $20 from its initial share price of $15. It now serves roughly 75% of the Fortune 500 companies and over 18,000 corporate clients.
Vista Equity Partners acquired the firm for $3.5 billion. In April 2021, this acquisition was completed, and the share price was at $22.50! One of the founders, Aaron Skonnard, still serves as the CEO. He wants to see Pluralsight as the world’s biggest online education provider.
To be one, the company is eyeing adding more courses and training programs to accommodate a larger market!
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How Does Pluralsight Work?
Pluralsight has become one of the best e-learning platforms offering a range of technology courses. Self-paced courses, for example, let users learn at their own pace.
Courses are also frequently updated by adding the latest information which allows trainees to be updated with their field. They know what they need to learn to get promotions and to serve better.
It currently offers over 7000 courses and programs that subscribed users can choose from. Courses are also organized to facilitate easier learning by dividing them into different level learning programs– Novice, Proficient, and Expert.
Learners can study the critical topics of their respective courses. Complex concepts are simplified through video and online training prepared by seasoned tutors.
Pluralsight also offers labs, skill assessment, certification preparation programs, hands-on learning, and live classes to prepare trainees for the work demand of leading tech companies.
Users unable to attend institutions to learn advanced courses join Pluralsight, which gives them the opportunity to grow rapidly and train themselves as tech experts. This has greatly helped the company attract more knowledge seekers over time.
Pluralsight has expanded to over 150 countries as it competes with the best e-learning platforms worldwide.
Experts believe that Pluralsight’s courses are better than other similar platforms. With this, its user base is increasing exponentially.
How Does Pluralsight Make Money?
Pluralsight welcomes individual users and businesses organizations to pick their required training program. It adopts a subscription-based business model in providing online courses and training.
Its course authors receive a royalty fee whenever subscribers view their tutorial videos. Pluralsight has paid Scott Allen an astonishing amount of $1 million in royalties for his services! He is the first e-learning course author to receive such big pay.
Pluralsight’s services support businesses in improving the efficiency level of their employees. Over time, more companies chose its services.
In 2017, the company was serving almost 40% of the Fortune 500 companies. This grew rapidly in 2019, as the percentage of these companies using their training programs rose to approximately 75%!
More than 80% of Pluralsight’s annual revenue comes from business-to-business sales. It houses the best tutors and training courses to attract more clients.
A Premium subscription has a lot more features perfect for e-learning like interactive courses and exams that make it more cost-effective.
Users can choose from the monthly and annual subscription packages. The annual subscription, however, has a nice perk of offering free access to the entire library. Individual users can also access the Core Course Library along with the Skill Assessment Support.
Pluralsight has the best website that effectively converts leads into customers to encourage them to buy the expensive subscriptions. Thus, the company generates over $390 million annually.
Pluralsight Subscription Plans
Pluralsight offers monthly and annual subscription packages for individuals and teams. Users may also enjoy a 10-day free trial to test its courses first, then pay for their chosen subscription package.
Individual users may choose from the Standard and Premium subscription packages. A standard plan offers all features associated with the Core Library and Assessment. While the premium package provides other premium features like the Core Library, Assessments, and interactive courses.
Pluralsight’s B2B packages can be extensive with different packages to choose from: Starter, Professional, and Enterprise. The Enterprise package gives businesses access to everything the platform offers.
While the starter package may be good for SMBs, larger business organizations need the Professional or Enterprise packages to provide employees with better training programs.
While it may charge a considerable amount of money for the Team subscription plans, these packages are cheaper compared to the training costs of other leading institutions.
Pluralsight provides courses and skill training programs that extensively cover related technical topics. It houses the best tutors and authors, who are in charge of preparing programs.
These authors definitely earn way better than any institution can offer. Therefore, the platform has been successful in preparing premium training courses for tech professionals.
What Features Help Pluralsight Attract More Customers?
Pluralsight is still a company, even if it offers online learning opportunities. It generates more profit by consistently improving its services and hiring the best tutors. The following features have helped the company attract and retain more clients than its competitors:
1. Free trial
Most people surely prefer taking trial classes before joining any institute or e-learning platform. Thus, Pluralsight gives potential subscribers a free 10-day trial to test the features of the program: Core Library, Assessment, and other Premium features. Users can also access its content for 200 minutes.
Once the trial is over, users need to pay for the chosen package. If the user is unsatisfied, the subscription can be freely eliminated during the trial period.
Such trials assure users that they will receive the best education to accelerate their careers forward. Luckily, Pluralsight sees impressive conversion rates and Premium members are increasing rapidly on this e-learning platform. This signifies satisfaction with the content its premium packages offer.
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2. A wide range of courses
Pluralsight is the best learning platform for techie people, with over 7000 courses to choose from for the improvement of their technical skills.
It hires only expert authors to devise training programs. A program will be available in Pluralsight’s course library once it is ready.
The company adds new courses regularly to draw in more clients and individuals. It has a selection of different training modules for teams and employees.
A wide range of new training programs is revealed wherever it is approached by a company for training
3. Support all devices
Multi-device support means that users can learn anytime and anywhere they prefer to! Users can use Pluralsight’s official website or mobile apps, for both Android and iOS, to access its services and make learning easier.
Laptop and desktop users can simply log in on the official website and start training.
Several enterprises have the facility to train new employees at home. Therefore, the top-skilled workers perform technical operations and innovations.
4. Comprehensive assessment guide
Pluralsight has devised methods to determine a user’s Sill IQ and Role IQ. Users can test their IQ level through a five-minute test. Although not mandatory, it helps users improve their IQ levels and reasoning.
The Role IQ test allows candidates to assess if they have the required skills for their chosen job. The assessment tells candidates what they lack or can improve on to get to the next level.
For progress assessment, a trainee can take tests and self-paced quizzes on the platform. These tests are prepared by the authors for self-assessment.
Weekly tests are also available for trainees to track their growth and to try harder courses.
5. Satisfying customer service
Pluralsight offers 24/7 support to settle any sort of issue clients may experience. They may contact the customer support team via email.
Users can also use the available ticket for their concerns and queries which allows them to get fast solutions to their problems. However, every user has only limited tickets.
Pluralsight Challenges
Pluralsight offers online courses, video tutorials, and assessment support. Thus, one of its major challenges is piracy since there are people who steal and publish its content on other platforms.
Despite this, the company still provides tutorial videos and online classes for honest learners to advance forward.
Customer retention can also be a major challenge for the company. Other e-learning platforms lose subscribers when members find better training courses on other platforms.
But CEO Aaron Skonnard is confident that people only leave Pluralsight when they have no more new courses. Thus, customer retention is not a major challenge for him!
Lastly, producing enough content to tackle the latest inventions and research is also a major challenge.
Fortunately, Pluralsight has seasoned authors to add new content for sharing new information. This helps them earn more royalty fees and for Pluralsight to interest more clients.
Conclusion
Pluralsight currently competes with the leading e-learning platforms worldwide like Udemy, CBT Nuggets, LinkedIn Learning, etc. Individual users rate it as the best e-learning platform and the world’s leading business organizations also trust the company for training their professionals.
Thus, Pluralsight is definitely successful in today’s highly competitive market!
