Treehouse (company)

Treehouse Island, Inc.
Type Private
Founded 2011
Headquarters Orlando, United States
Area served Worldwide
Founder(s) Ryan Carson, Alan Johnson
Industry Internet
Services Technology education
Employees 75
Website Treehouse
Users 200,000 [1]
Current status Active

Treehouse (officially Treehouse Island, Inc.) is an online interactive education platform that offers courses in web, mobile and business development.[2] Its courses on web development and programming are aimed at beginners looking to start a new career, while its courses in business education and marketing teach students how to start and market a business in the technology industry.[3]

The site uses short videos, interactive code challenges, quizzes and badges located on a user's profile to teach students. Companies such as Simple and LivingSocial use the site to recruit new employees based on the badges they have earned.[4] In April 2012, Treehouse raised $4.75M in funding.[5] In April 2013, Treehouse closed a US$7 million Series-B fundraising round led by Social+Capital and Kaplan bringing its total raised capital to $12.6 million.[6]

History

Ryan Carson in 2013

Treehouse was founded by Ryan Carson (born 1977) who is currently its CEO. Carson was born in Colorado Springs and graduated from Colorado State University with a Computer Science degree. After graduating, he worked for Fingal, a design agency in London before moving to Bath, United Kingdom. In 2004, Ryan and Gillian Carson founded Carsonified, a company built towards training web designers and developers. It also created web applications and hosted web industry events, conferences and workshops. Carsonified's Headquarters were located in Bath, United Kingdom. In 2008 DropSend, a product created by Carson's company Carsonified, was sold.[7] In 2011, Ryan sold the company which is now named Future Insights and started working on his new project, Treehouse.

In 2013, Treehouse was founded, with Ryan as Founder and CEO. The purpose of the project was to offer affordable technology education to people all around the world.[8] In 2012 he moved with his family to Portland, Oregon.[9] The company emerged from Carson's previous company, Carsonified, and its video-tutorial service known as Think Vitamin Membership. Ryan Carson decided to redesign and rebrand the site as Treehouse because the name "reflects the wonder of learning as a child."[10] In July 2013, Treehouse released its first iPad app for accessing Treehouse's content.[11] They also released (in 2014) an Android app and added a course for Apple’s Swift programming language.[12]

Culture

Up until 2015, Treehouse had a 4-day work week and no managers,[13] and practiced open allocation.[14][15] In August 2015 the company introduced middle management[16] and stopped practicing 4-day work weeks to help its growing size (with about 100 employees).

Originally, Co-founder Ryan Carson established the short work week in an effort to prevent burnout and reward employees by limiting the number of hours they worked.[17]

Treehouse employees are trained to think like owners. Each day an email is sent to all employees highlighting new projects that have begun. Employees are able to add who is needed for the project and then those individuals can decide whether they want to join the project or not, creating a dynamic that employees choose what they do, rather than being told what to do. The employees communicate using an internal forum-style platform, called Convoy.[18][19]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Treehouse Site". Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  2. ↑ "Treehouse". Treehouse Island Inc. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
  3. ↑ "Treehouse Business". Treehouse Island Inc. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
  4. ↑ Tsotsis, Alexia. "Web Design And Development Community Treehouse Wants To Teach You How To Code, Get You A Job". TechCrunch. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
  5. ↑ Tsotis, Alexia. "Web Dev Education Startup Treehouse Raises $4.75M From Chamath And Greylock - TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
  6. ↑ Empson, Rip. "Treehouse Lands $7M From Kaplan, Social+Capital To Help You Learn To Code". TechCrunch. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
  7. ↑ Andrews, Robert (Sep 29, 2008). "Carsonified Sells Dropsend Web App To Boost Its Coffers".
  8. ↑ "Treehouse Blog". Treehouse Island inc. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
  9. ↑ Butcher, Mike. End Of An Era As ‘The Geekfather’ Ryan Carson Departs For New Shores, n.d, http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/07/end-of-an-era-as-the-geekfather-ryan-carson-departs-for-new-shores/
  10. ↑ May, Tom. "Ryan Carson on Treehouse, FOWA, startups and more!". Creative Bloq. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
  11. ↑ Tomer, Caryn. "Treehouse Launches iPad App; Helps Programmers And Designers Be Job Ready". Techli. Retrieved 31 Jul 2013.
  12. ↑ Williams, Owen. "Treehouse releases Android app, adds course for Apple’s Swift programming language". The Next Web. Retrieved 17 Sep 2014.
  13. ↑ Jeff Meyerson (30 October 2015). "Treehouse with Ryan Carson". Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  14. ↑ Ryan Carson (18 September 2013). "How to set priorities, create budgets and do project management in a #NoManager company". Retrieved 2 November 2013.
  15. ↑ Mike Rogoway (19 December 2013). "Portland startup Treehouse eliminates the boss, tells workers to manage themselves". Retrieved 8 January 2014.
  16. ↑ Feintzeig, Rachel. "Radical Idea at the Office: Middle Managers". wsj.com. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  17. ↑ Fisher, Anne. "This startup thrives on a four-day workweek". CNN Money. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
  18. ↑ Siu, Eric. "Ep09: How Treehouse, An $8 Million Revenue Company Operates On A 4-Day Work Week And No Managers – Interview with Ryan Carson". Growth Everywhere. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  19. ↑ Carson, Ryan. "No Managers: Why We Removed Bosses at Treehouse". ryancarson.com. Retrieved 17 October 2014.

External links

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