Entrepreneur wants to bring education to the world
In Silicon Valley, self-described “nerds” like Sal Khan who create companies that affect millions of people are often billionaires.
Khan probably could have become rich off his idea for Khan Academy, a free, online learning platform serving 15 million people a month, but he didn’t want to charge for it. Based in Mountain View, the sole mission of the company, unchanged since its founding in 2008, is “a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere.”
Khan, 41, said he wrote that mission statement in about 20 minutes as he hurried to complete an Internal Revenue Service tax form to establish the nonprofit.
“We still haven’t delivered on it,” he noted. “It’s a big goal.”
He’s made a dent, though. In the past 10 years, the site has grown exponentially, with more than 62 million registered users as well as some who don’t register, and more than 1 billion video views. The academy is used in more than 190 countries and the content translated into 18 languages.
The online venture has an oft-repeated origin story. In 2004, Khan started helping his cousin in math, long-distance tutoring sessions that involved the telephone and an interactive notepad so she could see what he was writing.
It was a success and other family members and friends wanted in, so he started writing software for math practice and tracking each person’s progress. He also began creating videos, which he posted online, in which he would write on a digital scratchpad as his voice-over explained the problem.
He realized he had something as other viewers flocked to the videos.
With the general concept of making education accessible, he created Khan Academy and ultimately attracted big-money donors: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, Comcast, Bank of America, The Walt Disney company, the Broad Foundation, AT&T and Oracle, among others.
In addition to math, the subject areas include the sciences, history, economics, finance, grammar, preschool learning, SAT preparation, civics and more. Instruction and practice modules offer measurement and geometry for kindergartners and college-level multivariable calculus, art history, computer programming and global finance.
“They’ve made the world a smaller place,” said Ken McNeely, president of AT&T California. “He has really found a way of leveling the playing field and democratizing education around the globe.”
While the videos and practice problems were the foundation for Khan, his academy now includes SAT prep sponsored by the College Board and financial literacy sponsored by Bank of America. The companies get acknowledgments on the site, but there is no advertising.
Khan exemplifies a trend in tech, with investors and entrepreneurs interested in making a difference rather than just making money, said Nora Silver, founder of the Center for Social Sector Leadership at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.
Khan Academy “has really made learning new material, and even difficult material, accessible to everyone around the world,” she said. “Think about that.”
The nonprofit has recently expanded into the bricks-andmortar world, opening an independent private school in the downstairs space at its corporate headquarters. The Khan Lab School is developing a mixedage personalized learning model, inspired by Khan’s idea of education described in his book, “One World Schoolhouse.”
Tuition for the lab school ranges from $27,000 to $32,000, depending on the grade level. Two of Khan’s three children attend.
But the core of Khan Academy still resides to a large degree in the online site and specifically the instructional videos, including thousands Khan has made himself. In each, his voice is distinct and enthusiastic as he solves the infamous potato question on the 2017 AP Calculus test or describes early world history.
One of Khan’s favorite success stories is about an Afghan girl who secretly studied for the SAT on Khan Academy and then sneaked into Pakistan to take it. The young woman is now in college in the United States.
He hopes to see the academy become a significant resource to a billion children within his lifetime, Khan said.
“This is something I want to devote my life to,” he said.