The archive · Business Models · Strategic decision · 2015–2020
MasterClass: celebrities teach online — $90-a-class becomes a $180-a-year subscription
MasterClass films the world's best performers teaching their craft as video lessons — $90 per class at launch, then an all-access $180-a-year subscription.
MasterClass
What it had to solve
Co-founders David Rogier and Aaron Rasmussen were electrified by a small dinner with computing pioneer Alan Kay — a perspective-changing conversation that reached only ten people. They wondered whether a person could be placed into an intimate teaching moment with the most skilled people in the world, at scale, and began filming masters in 2013 from a borrowed office space.
How it works
MasterClass began with an observation: a single dinner conversation with computing pioneer Alan Kay changed the co-founders' thinking, but it 'only happened for 10 people.' David Rogier and Aaron Rasmussen set out to scale that moment — to put a viewer into an intimate teaching relationship with the most skilled people in the world. From a borrowed office they started filming in 2013, using Rogier's friendship with Dustin Hoffman's daughter to land the first master.
The first classes were filmed like documentaries and sold like courses: five hours of acting from Dustin Hoffman, directed by Jay Roach; tennis from Serena Williams; writing from James Patterson; performance from Usher. Each class cost $90 for lifetime access — an 'insiders-only' premise sold to anyone with a credit card, and a roster picked on the test that people would still want to take the class in 100 years.
In 2018, with 39 classes on the platform, MasterClass switched the emphasis from selling single classes to selling access: a $180-a-year subscription opened the entire library, otherwise $90 per class. The subscription quickly delivered 80% of revenue, sales had doubled from 2016 to 2017 and were on track to double again, and the company released its first mobile app.
By May 2020 MasterClass had produced 85 classes — Anna Wintour on business, Gordon Ramsay on cooking, David Sedaris on humor — and the subscription was responsible for 100% of revenue. A $100M Series E led by Fidelity at a reported $800M valuation funded production toward one new class a week and experiments in audio-only, short-form and augmented-reality formats.
Why it lands
- It reframed education as an entertainment product: documentary-grade video of famous practitioners, not talking-head lectures.
- Celebrity became the syllabus — the master's reputation recruited students and justified premium pricing without academic credentials.
- Moving from $90-per-class to a single annual subscription made each new class increase the value of the entire catalog.
- The pricing shift was measurable: subscriptions jumped from 80% of revenue in 2018 to 100% by 2020 while sales kept doubling.
- Recording craft also became preservation — a digital record of a master's way of working that outlives live access.
What it did
The catalog grew from five classes in early 2016 to 39 by September 2018 and 85 by May 2020, with sales doubling from 2016 to 2017 and again the next year. MasterClass raised an $80M Series D in 2018 and a $100M Series E at a reported $800M valuation in 2020, when a quarter of students said a class had transformed their life.
What you can take
Wrap expertise in entertainment-grade production and let the biggest name carry the syllabus — then sell access to the library, so every new class compounds the subscription's value.
Since then
MasterClass kept scaling through 2020: 85 classes, mobile and connected-TV apps, and production toward one new class a week, with experiments in audio-only, short-form and augmented-reality lessons. Rogier positioned the company at the intersection of entertainment and education — selling a window into how famous people think and work rather than live interaction. The subscription-first structure made the business grow with its library: after the 2020 Series E at a reported $800M valuation, the company continued raising and moved into corporate subscriptions.
Sources
- MasterClass Raises $15 Million For Online Classes Taught By Celebrities
- Who is MasterClass for? Talking to the people who take online classes with big-name celebs
- MasterClass raises $80M after doubling sales last year
- MasterClass just raised $100 million for celebrity-fueled content
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