Udemy's co-founder and former president Gagan Biyani on why he was fired from the $2 billion startup in 2012
On June 18, American entrepreneur, Gagan Biyani, took to Twitter to share the story of how he was fired from his position as President and co-founder of the unicorn startup, Udemy, reportedly worth $2billion as of 2020. Udemy is an online learning platform that provides courses for professional adults as well as students. "This is a tough story to share, and I’ll try my best to be honest", he tweeted. "Fortunately this story ends on a positive note & I hope it’ll be useful to anyone who’s been laid off or fired," he shared in a series of tweets. At a time when the future of the employment market looks bleak because of a raging global pandemic, Biyani's revelation could lend hope for others who have lost their jobs.
Biyani met Eren Bali and Oktay Caglar, fellow co-founders of Udemy when he was 21 in 2009 at a time where he was going through a major financial crisis. "I was a nobody, my family was broke and I had never run a startup. They, too, weren’t hotshots. Fresh off the boat from Turkey and still proving themselves. They took a chance on me, and I on them," he wrote. And lucky for them, it all worked out. Bali had a clear vision in mind and they eventually raised enough money to build a team. He called it a "true underdog" story of how the group came together to establish Udemy. "Udemy almost died at least 5x. We got rejected by everyone in the Valley," Biyani tweeted, "Startups are never a straight line." It was extremely difficult because neither of them had any financial backing and neither did they have family money.
They were hard workers but were constantly put down as they faced rejections from over 100 investors. The thought of giving up plagued them and they agreed that if they couldn't raise the required amount in one month they would quit. However, hope shone on them when Keith Rabois, an entrepreneur and investor, agreed to invest in their start-up. “Finally, @rabois (who knew this but didn’t care) said yes. Then @naval put us on @angellist," Biyani said. “The famous names were great, but other investors - @rfradin and @msugarman - dug in. Taught us how to run a company. Russ insisted we create a board - so we put him on it! Starting a board at the seed stage was a company-defining decision.”
In his little twitter rant, Biyani spoke of his personal experience working as someone with zero experience in management and how he was dismissed from the company four years in. "My first year as a manager went well enough—I had a dozen interns and two direct reports", Biyani elaborated. "As a young child of divorced parents, I had a past of being “abrasive” and "confrontational" but Eren and Oktay accepted it. I thought: hmm, maybe I can do this management thing after all." When the company started facing problems, he began to feel a growing pressure and the added weight on his shoulders, he noted, "The pressure to perform. To prove that I was worthy of the job. To build the greatest company I could."
Just as between any individuals in the power position, Bali and Biyani clashed a bit, despite having gotten along well, all this time. By this time, the company had less than 15 employees. "But as the team grew, we grew apart. I questioned his ability to lead the team and he questioned my intensity," Biyani tweeted. "Retrospectively, challenging his authority was a stupid decision. He was a more mature leader and CEO." Inadvertently, he started projecting his own stress on the team and ended up becoming the taskmaster - "hyper-direct and critical without finesse. I’d practically yell at people when frustrated. I thought that was acceptable because that’s what my idols did—Gates, Jobs, Zuckerberg."
"What I thought was a “healthy” amount of pressure was unbearable for some. As my team grew to eight people, a few got fed up", he explained. The rankled employees filed a complaint against Biyani with Bali, and the latter was blindsided. Bali confronted him about it and relayed the employee feedback from his team who had been afraid to come to him about it directly. "It was devastating. I had no intention of making people feel small or hurt, and I didn’t realize the effects my words were having. He was visibly disappointed in me," he added. The two came to the conclusion that Biyani needed to get an executive coach, and from then on he started to see an improvement. The retrospection into his childhood made him realize a number of things. His team at the time hoped he would improve because although he had all good intentions, he could go too far at times.
Just as he thought things were finally improving, a member of his team rage-quit, and though it had nothing to do with him, it didn't matter because it had happened within his team. He and Bali had a serious chat over the incident, where he only defended himself and made matters worse. The following week, he got a text early Monday morning asking him to meet at a restaurant before going into work. "There was a massive pit in my stomach. This was extremely atypical," he recalled in the following tweet. "By the time I arrived at the restaurant, I was shaking nervously. I could barely keep it together. As soon as I saw his face, I knew. I was fired. Effective immediately," he added. "4 years of blood, sweat + tears finished. I’d watch the rest of this movie from the sidelines."
That was eight years ago. Today, Biyani and Bali are friends. They never let their egos get in the way. "My explanation will be biased, but I’ll try to share what I think happened since it is more nuanced than it appears," Biyani said, before breaking down his interpretation of what unfolded all those years ago. Both Bali and Biyani had the leadership streak in them, and coupled with strong opinions, they were born natural leaders. Biyani had a flair for sales and pitched investors, employees and instructors, while Bali was the visionary who hired the engineers and ran product. The duo co-ran marketing, and while the work seemed to be cut out for them in a healthy split, it created tension.
"I was 'President' and I completely managed all external comms. I ran board meetings. Eren was faced with a tough choice: either let me stay and hope I improve, or raise a Series B and perhaps lose control of the company," Biyani explained. "Eren made his choice. He thought it possible that I would continue to have trouble as a manager and it could reflect poorly on his company." In his time as manager and president, Biyani had become a controversial figure, which Bali had been aware of. "Being CEO is tough and I respected his call," he added. However, that led to some unintended consequences and the board insisted that they hire a replacement for Biyani, a COO. In time, the COO became the CEO and Bali also quit his position. "Luckily, our excellent team took Udemy to the promised land," Biyani commented. Nevertheless, he was grateful that he had his stock vested, and that Udemy became extremely successful as the years passed.
"The wake-up call helped me dig deep and learn to be more compassionate. I’ve led teams since w/ relatively good reviews. I've learned the art of 'Radical Candor'," Biyani said before laying down a few life-lessons that he learned from this experience. "1. You always lose a job for a reason. For me, managing was not natural. Get a coach and look inward. You'll learn!" he asserted. "2. Be classy on the way out. I left Udemy on good terms; I didn’t cause trouble. It paid off; I kept a good reputation and Udemy treats me well," he added. "3. Even if you feel you were treated unfairly, learn from it. Someone smart believed you needed to go. That's a lesson!" he continued. "4. This too shall pass. It felt like the world had ended when I was fired, but it actually opened the door for my next opportunity. I learned so much from this."
"If you were laid off, fired or rejected, ask yourself: what did I do to contribute to this situation? What can I do better next time?" Biyani writes. "Don’t change who you are, but evolve and be willing to see opportunities for improvement. You will get another bite at the apple."