Eren Bali's journey to building two "unicorns"
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Eren Bali’s first “unicorn,” online course marketplace Udemy, is readying an IPO. Meanwhile, Carbon Health, his other company, is helping people in the U.S. get vaccinated and tested for COVID-19 — on top of running 83 clinics in 12 states.
Why it matters: Bali isn't a household name, but he's quietly built two companies that were perfectly poised to fill in gaps created by the pandemic.
“I’m gonna start a company that believes that karma exists in business,” recalls Bali, referring to his plans to start Carbon Health in 2015.
- So far, Carbon — valued at $3.3 billion last year — has raised $538 million in funding from investors like BlackRock, Lux Capital, Silver Lake and Elad Gil.
Flashback: Bali’s realization of the internet's power goes back to his teenage years in a small village in Turkey, when his family finally bought a used computer (in part due to his “strong insistence”).
- One benefit: Bali was able to access new resources to boost his math competition skills.
- “Even though the internet doesn’t completely level out education, it does give people the chance to catch up,” he says.
Getting started: In 2009, Bali and longtime friend Oktay Caglar moved to the U.S. and enrolled in the Founder Institute, an incubator program in Silicon Valley.
- After linking up with third co-founder Gagan Biyani, they rode the startup train, raising funding for Udemy from angel investors like Keith Rabois and Naval Ravikant, and later from VCs like Lightbank.
- Then trouble emerged: Some employees complained about Biyani's rough management style.
Between the lines: “It’s when he went from being the CEO in title to actually being the guy who’s running a big company that’s growing,” recounts Russ Fradin, an early Udemy board member, of Bali’s tough decision in 2012 to fire Biyani.
- “Eren’s top priority at the time ... was to build a company that people wanted to work at,” explains Biyani.
- Biyani also emphasizes the respect he felt throughout his exit process. “That’s why we ended up building a relationship back a year or two later,” he adds.
- Bali remained CEO until April 2014, when he stepped back to become chairman, and is now just a member of the board.
The big picture: “I wanted to start an authentic company. At Udemy, we were mostly rookies, so we went with what was standard practice,” says Bali of his approach as CEO of Carbon Health.
- He founded the company after a three-month trip to Turkey in 2014 to help with his mother’s health issues. There he saw firsthand the inefficiencies in health care and doctors' tools.
- In 2017, he joined forces with former ER doctor Caesar Djavaherian (Carbon acquired his small chain of clinics). The two set out to build a company to make health care affordable to as many people as possible.
What to watch: Udemy is expected to go public in the coming weeks, reportedly seeking a valuation of at least $6 billion.
