Mountain View online education startup Coursera just nabbed two new hires from Facebook Inc. and Netflix Inc., according to a company spokesperson, the Silcon Valley Business Journal reports.
The additions to the executive team come just months after the Stanford-bred purveyor of Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, landed a $43 million series B funding round led by Silicon Valley venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and NEA.
Despite a total $65 million in funding, Coursera remains in the experimentation phase when it comes to rolling out products that actually generate revenue. Most users sign up for the signature free courses, although in September Coursera did report $1 million in revenue for a certificate program. That’s on top of contracts with universities and other pilot programs for new fees.
The startup’s two new hires, John Ciancutti and Tom Willerer, will jointly lead the product and design teams, according to the hiring announcement. The pair will focus on new product development and user experience, as well as “talent on the Coursera team.” The company is currently advertising more than a dozen job openings.
Prior to joining Coursera, Willerer was vice president of product innovation at Netflix. In addition to leading project management, he concentrated on developing social recommendations.
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