I used to work for Udacity and in a non-IC role. I worked there during the major layoffs and restructuring of the company.
What I will say is the company and management are very mission driven (I have never worked with people prior to Udacity that were honestly driven like that.. they truly wanted to educate the world and make education accessible to everyone).
With that being said, from a financial perspective the company was having a hard time. Key revenue was from enterprise partnerships and upskilling workers in companies. There was a partnership with Google that got cut (back stabbed) at the last minute as Google announced a competing service (Google Certificates, Grow with Google, etc). It was supposed to be Udacity's certificates.
The company had to shift focus on generating revenue and cutting costs to stay alive... a lot of free courses and new ideas were axed. A focus on smaller/higher quality content, more nanodegrees, a "subscription" based certificate instead of a one time fee/forever access, etc. Most importantly, a focus on enterprise upskilling activities (helping companies train their employees to retain/re-hire their employees).
What I will say is the company and management are very mission driven (I have never worked with people prior to Udacity that were honestly driven like that.. they truly wanted to educate the world and make education accessible to everyone).
With that being said, from a financial perspective the company was having a hard time. Key revenue was from enterprise partnerships and upskilling workers in companies. There was a partnership with Google that got cut (back stabbed) at the last minute as Google announced a competing service (Google Certificates, Grow with Google, etc). It was supposed to be Udacity's certificates.
The company had to shift focus on generating revenue and cutting costs to stay alive... a lot of free courses and new ideas were axed. A focus on smaller/higher quality content, more nanodegrees, a "subscription" based certificate instead of a one time fee/forever access, etc. Most importantly, a focus on enterprise upskilling activities (helping companies train their employees to retain/re-hire their employees).