| Type of business | Private |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Founded | March 22, 2011[1] |
| Headquarters | , U.S. |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Founder(s) | Ryan Carson, Alan Johnson |
| Industry | Internet |
| Services | Technology education |
| Employees | 110 |
| URL | Teamtreehouse |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Users | 50K+[2] |
| Current status | Active |
Treehouse or (Teamtreehouse) is an online technology school that offers beginner to advanced courses in web design, web development, mobile development and game development taught by team of expert teachers.[3] Its courses are aimed at beginners looking to learn coding skills for a career in the tech industry.
The Treehouse learning program includes videos combined with interactive quizzes and code challenges. Treehouse Tracks are guided curricula, composed of courses that train students in large topic areas. Treehouse Organizations is designed to assist businesses, organizations, schools and community programs in technology training. Companies including Simple and LivingSocial currently use Treehouse to recruit new employees based on their progress and achievements on Treehouse.[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] In May 2016, Treehouse launched the Techdegree Program, a learning program focused on helping people prepare for a tech career.
History
edit
Treehouse was founded by Ryan Carson, a computer science graduate from Colorado State University.[7] After graduating, Carson worked for Fingal, a design agency in London before moving to Bath, United Kingdom. In 2004, Ryan Carson and his wife Gillian Carson founded Carsonified, a company built towards training web designers and developers based in Bath, United Kingdom.[8] In addition to training designers and developers, Carsonified also created web applications and hosted web industry events, conferences and workshops. In 2008 Carsonified sold its file-sharing application DropSend to the Florida-based company Webminds.[9] In 2011, Ryan Carson sold Carsonified which is now named Future Insights and started working on his new project, Treehouse.
Ryan Carson founded Treehouse in 2011, a project that emerged from Carson's previous company, Carsonified, and its video-tutorial service Think Vitamin Membership.[10] Carson decided to redesign and rebrand the service as Treehouse because the name "reflects the wonder of learning as a child."[11] Treehouse's mission is to offer affordable technology education to users globally.[12] In 2011, Treehouse opened their first office in Orlando, Florida, In 2012 they opened their second office and moved Treehouse HQ to Portland, Oregon.[13] In July 2013, Treehouse released its first iPad app for accessing Treehouse's content.[14] Treehouse also released an Android application in 2014 and added a course for Apple's Swift programming language.[15] Carson is currently the active CEO of Treehouse.[12]
The Techdegree Program
editIn May 2016, Treehouse announced the launch of the Techdegree Program. The Techdegree program is a guided learning program that is designed to help students prepare for entry-level development jobs. The Techdegree program is available for six competencies: Android, front-end web development, Full Stack Javascript, iOS, Java, and Python.[16]
Program length varies by Techdegree. Below is a breakout of how much time it takes to complete a program, including courses and projects.
- Front End Web Development - 155–195 hours
- Full Stack JavaScript - 310–340 hours
- iOS - 235–275 hours
- Android - 175–215 hours
- Java Web Development - 180–220 hours
- Python Web Development - 160–200 hours[17]
Culture
editUp until 2015, Treehouse had a four-day work week and no managers,[18] and practiced open allocation.[19][20] In August 2015 the company introduced middle management[21] and temporarily stopped practicing the four-day work weeks to help its growing size (with about 100 employees). In early 2016, they resumed the four-day work week.
Later, during the lay-offs in 2016 Carson recognized that the 4-day workweek created a "lack of work ethic" in him that was "fundamentally detrimental" to the business and the company's mission.[22]
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.[23]
- ^ "TeamTreeHouse.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info - DomainTools". WHOIS. Retrieved 2016-08-20.
- ^ "Treehouse Site". Retrieved 17 February 2015.
- ^ "Treehouse". Treehouse Island Inc. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
- ^ Tsotsis, Alexia. "Web Design And Development Community Treehouse Wants To Teach You How To Code, Get You A Job". TechCrunch. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
- ^ Tsotis, Alexia. "Web Dev Education Startup Treehouse Raises $4.75M From Chamath And Greylock - TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
- ^ Empson, Rip. "Treehouse Lands $7M From Kaplan, Social+Capital To Help You Learn To Code". TechCrunch. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
- ^ "VP Profiles Ryan Carson". VB Profiles. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
- ^ "Startup Grind Hosted Ryan Carson (Treehouse)". Startup Grind. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
- ^ "Carsonified Sells Dropsend Web App To Boost Its Coffers". Gigaom. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
- ^ "Treehouse Blog". Treehouse Island inc. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
- ^ May, Tom. "Ryan Carson on Treehouse, FOWA, startups and more!". Creative Bloq. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
- ^ a b "Treehouse: About". Treehouse. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
- ^ Rogoway, Mike. "Online education startup Treehouse says it has raised $4.75 million and will move HQ to Portland". Oregon Live. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
- ^ Tomer, Caryn. "Treehouse Launches iPad App; Helps Programmers And Designers Be Job Ready". Techli. Retrieved 31 Jul 2013.
- ^ Williams, Owen. "Treehouse releases Android app, adds course for Apple's Swift programming language". The Next Web. Retrieved 17 Sep 2014.
- ^ "Treehouse Introduces Techdegree". Business Wire. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
- ^ "Start Your Techdegree | Treehouse". teamtreehouse.com. Retrieved 2017-08-17.
- ^ Jeff Meyerson (30 October 2015). "Treehouse with Ryan Carson". Retrieved 5 December 2015.
- ^ Ryan Carson (18 September 2013). "How to set priorities, create budgets and do project management in a #NoManager company". Retrieved 2 November 2013.
- ^ Mike Rogoway (19 December 2013). "Portland startup Treehouse eliminates the boss, tells workers to manage themselves". Retrieved 8 January 2014.
- ^ Feintzeig, Rachel. "Radical Idea at the Office: Middle Managers". wsj.com. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
- ^ Carson, Ryan (Aug 16, 2018). "GrowthLab Live: Ryan Carson on Work/Life Balance". Youtube. GrowthLab.
- ^ Fisher, Anne. "This startup thrives on a four-day workweek". CNN Money. Retrieved 23 April 2014.