How Learneo Leveraged M&A to Build a $3.6B EdTech Empire

Andrew Grauer is the CEO of Learneo, a holding company valued at $3.6 billion that owns multiple learning and productivity businesses including Course Hero, QuillBot, CliffsNotes, Scribbr, LitCharts, LanguageTool, and Symbolab. After cofounding Course Hero in 2006 when he was a sophomore at Cornell, Andrew spent 15 years growing it into one of the world’s largest EdTech businesses before folding it into Learneo. Over the last few years since Learneo acquired QuillBot, Andrew has been focused on transforming that product into a multimodal generative AI platform for students and professionals.

Key Takeaways:

• Andrew started Course Hero in 2006 when he was a sophomore at Cornell because he wanted a platform that could help student like him find and study academic materials that were highly course-specific.
• Course Hero developed an elegant model where students could access content either by uploading their own course materials, which made the entire platform more valuable, or by paying for a subscription, which generated revenue.
• As more students contributed content to Course Hero, the platform became more valuable for other students, leading to more sign ups and even more content. The company accelerated this core growth loop by investing in on-campus marketing, search engine optimization, and other user acquisition channels.
• From 2020 and 2023, Course Hero formed a parent company called Learneo and expanded into math, literature, and writing through its acquisitions of Symbolab, LitCharts, CliffNotes, QuillBot, Scribbr, and Language Tool. This strategy allowed Learneo to expand horizontally while keeping each of its portfolio companies narrowly focused on building great products within their respective verticals.
• Now, as generative AI unlocks new opportunities for learning and productivity, Learneo is focused on leveraging its existing assets and capabilities to build new multimodal creation tools, starting in the writing space with QuillBot.

Andrew Grauer:

• Website: https://www.learneo.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewtategrauer/
• X: https://x.com/atgrauer

Phil Carter:

• Website: https://www.philgcarter.com/
• Substack: https://philgcarter.substack.com
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/philgcarter
• X: https://x.com/philgcarter

Podcast Production by Podders: https://podders.io

Chapters

• 2:07 Why Andrew started Course Hero as a sophomore in college
• 4:51 What differentiated Course Hero early on
• 7:55 Cultural principles that have defined Course Hero and Learneo
• 11:47 The organic loops that drove Course Hero’s growth
• 16:35 How Course Hero found product/market fit
• 18:53 The importance of building a product that students loved
• 24:13 The decision to form Learneo and grow through M&A
• 30:54 Why most acquisitions fail and how Learneo overcame this
• 36:14 Why Learneo decided to acquire QuillBot
• 39:19 QuillBot’s growth strategy and key growth loops
• 42:46 Andrew’s vision for QuillBot’s future
• 46:53 Lightning round