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Key people at Khan Academy.
Khan Academy is a Mountain View, California-based nonprofit organization that provides free online education through video lessons, interactive exercises, and progress tracking tools across various academic subjects. The platform features over 6,500 videos and 70,000 practice problems, aiming to deliver a world-class education with a mastery-based learning system. As of 2023, it has reached over 155 million registered users globally, accumulating billions of hours of student learning, and reported 30 million monthly students during peak periods. The organization is led by its founder, Sal Khan, who also established Khan Lab School and Schoolhouse.world. Khan Academy was formally incorporated in 2008. Its business model centers on nonprofit 501 organization funded through donations and grants, provides all content for free.
Khan Academy is a nonprofit educational organization providing free, world-class online learning resources to anyone, anywhere.[1][2][4] It offers thousands of bite-sized videos, interactive exercises, and progress-tracking tools covering subjects from math and science to history, art, finance, and humanities, serving over 155 million registered users with billions of hours of learning time as of 2023.[1][2][3] The platform targets students of all ages, teachers, and parents, solving the problem of access to high-quality, personalized education by enabling self-paced mastery learning without cost barriers or ads.[1][3][4]
Its growth momentum remains strong, with 20-30 million active monthly learners, content in 46 languages across 190+ countries, over 7,000 videos watched 1.7 billion times, and expansions like Khan Academy Kids for ages 2-8 and SAT prep partnerships.[2][3][5]
Khan Academy was founded in 2008 by Salman "Sal" Khan, born in 1976 in New Orleans to an Indian mother, who graduated from MIT with degrees in mathematics, electrical engineering/computer science, and a master's in electrical engineering, later earning an MBA from Harvard.[1][3][4] In 2004, while working as a financial analyst at a Boston hedge fund, Sal began tutoring his cousin Nadia remotely in math using phone calls and Yahoo Doodle, identifying "Swiss-cheese" knowledge gaps blocking her advanced track.[1][2][3]
As demand grew from other relatives and friends—reaching 15 students by 2006—Sal shifted to YouTube videos in 2006 for scalable, rewindable lessons, adding custom software for practice and progress tracking.[1][2][3][4] He incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2008, quit his job in late 2009 to go full-time (living off savings initially), secured key donations like from Ann Doerr, and received major grants from Google ($2M) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ($1.5M) in 2010.[1][3] That year, Sal recruited longtime friend Shantanu Sinha (MIT roommate, McKinsey alum) as President & COO, and early engineers from Fog Creek Software, moving into their first office.[1]
Khan Academy rides the edtech democratization wave, accelerating open educational resources (OER) amid rising online learning demand, especially post-pandemic with 30 million monthly users at peaks.[2] Its timing capitalized on YouTube's rise (2006 videos) and MOOC boom, proving video + interactivity scales tutoring globally without classrooms.[3] Market forces like smartphone penetration, AI personalization potential, and equity gaps in traditional education favor it, influencing ecosystems by freeing teachers for individualized support and partnering with boards/institutions.[1][3][4] It shapes trends like blended learning, inspiring competitors while maintaining nonprofit purity.
Khan Academy will likely expand AI-driven personalization, global content (e.g., more languages/subjects like English literature), and in-person extensions like Khan Lab School, building on billions of user hours.[3] Trends like generative AI tutors and lifelong learning will amplify its reach, potentially integrating adaptive tools for deeper mastery. Its influence may evolve as a backbone for public education systems worldwide, reinforcing the founding vision of equitable access—proving one tutor's videos can empower billions.
Key people at Khan Academy.
