The archive · Education & Work · Operational decision · 2011–2012
Treehouse raised $4.75M while betting a 4-day week beats burnout
Online code school Treehouse hit profitability and a $4.75M round in 2012 while its 34-person team worked Monday to Thursday on full salaries.
Treehouse
What the business is
Treehouse sold monthly subscriptions to video courses teaching web design and development: example videos, online quizzes and badges aimed at people who wanted to build websites, web apps and iPhone apps, filmed in its own Orlando studio.
Starting capital：A $600K seed round in October 2011, then a $4.75M Series A announced 2012-04-18 from Chamath Palihapitiya's Social+Capital and Greylock's Discovery fund.
How it started
Ryan Carson co-founded Treehouse to teach web development and design; TechCrunch dated the company to late 2011, after a $600K seed round that October, with primary offices in Portland, Oregon, and an expanded film studio in Orlando, Florida, where it shot its video lessons.
What happened
By April 2012 Treehouse had 34 full-time staff, was profitable at a $3M+ annual revenue run rate and growing fast, while working Monday to Thursday, 9 to 6, on full salaries. Carson argued the four-day week made recruiting and retention easy — one employee courted by Facebook asked whether the suitor offered four days — boosted morale, and gave him three days a week with his children. On 2012-04-18 TechCrunch reported the $4.75M round from Chamath Palihapitiya's Social+Capital and Greylock's Discovery fund, joining seed angels Kevin Rose, Reid Hoffman and Mark Suster; the money was earmarked for content expansion, faster feature iteration and experiments with revenue models, with hiring teachers named as the biggest constraint.
How it ended up
The round closed and Treehouse stayed on its four-day week while scaling: 34 people, profitable at a $3M+ revenue run rate at announcement, planning to hire 10–15 more and expand content. Still live and growing as of 2012-04-24.
Background
Treehouse was Ryan Carson's online school for people learning to build websites, web apps and iPhone apps, taught through example videos, quizzes and badges and sold as a monthly subscription. TechCrunch dated the company to late 2011, after a $600K seed round that October, with offices in Portland, Oregon, and a film studio in Orlando, Florida, and placed it in the same edtech wave as Lynda, Codecademy and Udacity.
By April 2012 the company had 34 full-time staff, was profitable at a $3M+ annual revenue run rate and growing fast — while working Monday to Thursday, 9 to 6, at full salaries. Carson's argument was that information work is not manufacturing: another hour at a MacBook does not yield another $1,000 in profit, and smart people can do five days of work in four. He credited the schedule with easy recruiting, easier retention (one engineer kept turning down Facebook by asking whether it offered four days), higher morale and three days a week with his children.
On 2012-04-18 TechCrunch reported the $4.75M round from Chamath Palihapitiya's Social+Capital and Greylock's Discovery fund, on top of a star-studded seed that included Kevin Rose, Reid Hoffman and Mark Suster. The money was meant for content expansion, faster feature iteration and revenue-model experiments, and Carson named hiring teachers as the biggest constraint. His four-day-week post announcing the raise reached the HN front page with 452 points and 179 comments on 2012-04-24.
What has to be true
- The four-day week was a deliberate theory, not a perk: information work is not manufacturing, and Carson argued rested people would do five days of work in four.
- It worked as a recruiting and retention tool at a moment when Facebook was courting engineers — full salaries plus a three-day weekend beat a bigger name.
- The evidence matched the theory: profitable, a $3M+ run rate, 34 employees and a $4.75M round from Greylock and Social+Capital, all while the founder spent three days a week with his kids.
- The claim was testable and public: 452 points and 179 HN comments argued about whether four days really beats six, which is exactly why the story spread.
What can be applied
Treehouse made its four-day week a recruiting and retention weapon: full pay and results investors could see — profitability, a $3M run rate, a $4.75M round. Hours are not the product.
Aftermath
As of 2012-04-24 Treehouse had just announced the $4.75M round, was hiring 10–15 more people, and planned to expand content, iterate features and experiment with revenue models while keeping the four-day week. Nothing in this batch documents what happened after that date.
Sources
- Web Dev Education Startup Treehouse Raises $4.75M From Chamath And Greylock
- We work a 4-day week and just raised $4.75m
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