326: How Skillshare Co-Founder Malcolm Ong Has Transformed Multiple Industries—From Education To Media

The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

Nathan Chan

Marketing, Business, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 662 Ratings

🗓️ 29 September 2020

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Malcolm Ong has never shied away from change. In fact, his ability to adapt is what has given him a front-row seat to multiple business transformations—first as the co-founder of education platform Skillshare to now as the Head of Product at South China Morning Post. After launching Skillshare in 2010, Ong led the business through a significant pivot—from being a completely offline, in-person model to one that’s now membership-based and 100% online. In the process, he also witnessed the massive growth of the online education industry, which has only been sped up by the Covid-19 pandemic. After leaving Skillshare, Ong joined South China Morning Post, a global, English-language news media company owned by Alibaba. His job has been to transform this company from a traditional, local newspaper into a more modern, global media empire. A task that he has exceeded, as he’s grown their number of monthly active users from 4 million to over 50 million and significantly expanded the outlet’s readership beyond Asia. In this conversation, Ong gives us a deeper dive into these milestones throughout his fascinating career and shares his best recommendations on how to transform a business. If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at [email protected]. Key Takeaways Why Ong decided to tackle the education industry How Skillshare launched as a 100% offline education platform What contributed to Skillshare’s success The scalability issues that Skillshare faced, and how this led to the company transitioning online Ong’s advice when it comes to pivoting your business Why Ong eventually left Skillshare in 2016 What intrigued Ong about the job offer from South China Morning Post (SCMP) Ong’s experience living in Hong Kong, and how it has given him the front seat to many historical events How Ong has helped SCMP transform from being a traditional media company to a cutting-edge product and customer-focused business Ong’s advice to entrepreneurs about trying on different hats Key Resources From Our Interview With Malcom Ong Visit the SCMP website Follow Ong on LinkedIn and Twitter

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is episode number 326 with Malcolm Ong of the Founder Podcast.
0:07.6	What you need is thirst.
0:09.4	You need to be a thirsty human who is intent on learning.
0:13.1	It's a really fascinating exploration of human potential.
0:19.3	The Founder Podcast.
0:22.3	Even the greatest entrepreneurs had help.
0:25.2	If you want to learn from the most successful founders on the planet, you are in the
0:29.5	right place.
0:30.9	Branson, Mark Cuban, Tony Robbins, Tim Ferriss, Ariana Huffington, SEPCO, Steve Case,
0:34.8	Gary V.
0:35.3	Sophia Amorosa, Barbara Corcoran, Damon John.
0:38.0	Learn from the greatest minds in business today with interviews hosted by Nathan Chan.
0:42.5	This is not your average entrepreneur podcast.
0:46.4	The Founder Podcast.
0:53.3	Hey guys, thank you so much for tuning in. Before we start today's episode, I just want to let
0:59.3	you know that our goal at founder is to help entrepreneurs succeed however we can by giving
1:05.0	away high quality content in the form of interviews, blog posts, podcasts, YouTube videos,
1:11.8	you name it.
1:13.9	We put out so much content to help you.
1:19.1	And another interesting project that we're working on right now is partnering with world-class founders like Damon John, Alexa von Tobel, Greta Van Riel, and so many more to teach crucial
1:25.1	skills like negotiation, finance, e-commerce, and so much more.
1:31.3	So if you'd like to get access to these free trainings with founders like this, which is 100% free,
	...

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