Over the past 25 years, my co-founders and I have witnessed—and in small ways helped shape—the profound changes technology has brought to education. Here are a few lessons we’ve learned—ones that matter as you navigate the fast-moving world of elearning.

 

Education in the blood

Back in 2011, when George, Fanis, and I started building what would eventually become LearnWorlds, we weren't driven by business ambition or visions of startup grandeur. We were trying to scratch a very personal itch: “How could we use technology to help everyone teach and learn better?”

Why did we care so much about “boring” education when there were flashier tech problems and more lucrative opportunities out there? Because education is the family business.

My family’s relationship with education goes back to the early 1900s. Two of my great-grandfathers were teachers in a mountainous, war-torn part of Greece—then still under the crumbling Ottoman Empire. Teachers had the social standing of royalty, yet were paid like peasants, and education was the only ticket out of poverty.

A few decades later, my father became a teacher himself. He completed a postgraduate in special education, and developed new methods to help his students learn. George and Fanis had similar experiences—raised in families of educators, surrounded by books, lesson plans, and marked-up student papers. They lived the passion their parents had for teaching—and the hard work it demanded.

All our family friends were teachers. This was our tribe. For us, teaching and learning didn’t just shape our early years—they shaped our worldview, our value systems, and the products we would go on to build.

 

Our bootstrapping beginnings

I first met George and Fanis at university—we were studying computer science and experimenting early on with educational technology. In fact, we built our very first learning management system back in 1999, testing with a small group of students.

A couple of years later, when elearning was still in its infancy, we turned more seriously to educational technology. We built tools, published papers, and followed that predictable path toward academia.

Even then, it was clear to us that the future of learning wasn’t just about putting tech into the classroom—it was going to be online, mobile, and radically more accessible. The deeper we got into our PhDs,  the more we saw the potential to build something with real impact—something that could truly serve educators and trainers beyond the walls of university.

 

When LearnWorlds came to life

LearnWorlds began as an online academy for teaching web development to Greek learners. We started with zero funding—just some savings and family support—and even less marketing experience. What we did have was a burning desire to create interactive learning experiences—and a deep dissatisfaction with what was being marketed as state of the art elearning.

Back then, the top (read: very expensive, well marketed) LMSs were throwing PDFs and a bunch of multiple-choice questions at users and calling it elearning. Their main purpose was checking boxes for HR, while making trainees miserable and turning learning into a chore.

With a hefty dose of hope and naivete, we set out to build the best elearning platform we could imagine. We spent months in stealth mode, creating our own courses and recording videos in a makeshift studio—a storage shed on George’s tomato field, right next to a chicken coop. Let’s just say those early videos came with a soundtrack of roosters.

At the same time, we kept refining the platform: writing code, meticulously tweaking every screen, obsessing over every interaction. And all of it without a single customer in sight. Looking back, it sounds like insanity.

We had no money, no audience, and a financial crisis unfolding around us. But we kept going—because somewhere in that chaos, we knew we were building something that mattered.

We learned fast: building a product is one thing, but building a business is something else entirely.

 

A new model emerges

By 2014, LearnWorlds was taking shape as a real business. The platform was officially open to others, allowing educators to create and sell courses on their own websites.

At the time, most online courses were distributed through massive marketplaces—platforms like Coursera or Udemy—where creators gave up control, earned scraps of revenue, and with no insight into their customers or how their courses were used. They couldn’t even set their own prices.

Our approach was different. At its core was the empowerment of educators. Instead of renting some sliver of space in a marketplace, they could create their own online academy—with a fully branded website and complete ownership of their content, data, and revenue.

They weren’t digital serfs anymore. They were landowners, owning the means of production, the platform, and the profit. They weren’t just publishing courses—they were creating immersive, self-sustaining worlds of learning.

 

Learning from our customers

Our first customers included a pioneering artistic photographer in Greece, a cybersecurity training and accreditation business in the US, and a French certification programme for limo drivers.

We came from academia—trained to plan, model, and test. But our customers had other ideas—and we quickly realised they were right. So, we put the scientist in the back seat and listened. Really listened. Learned. And built—fast.

Some might call it customer-centric. For us, it was a continuation of what we were raised to believe: that everyone has something to teach you—if you’re willing to listen.

 

The best of both worlds

Every new LearnWorlds customer opens a window into a different world. Today, more than 11,000 customers in over 150 countries rely on the platform to power their learning businesses. Every day, we discover models and use cases we hadn’t imagined.

What started as a simple tool for selling standalone courses has grown into a powerful monetisation engine—supporting subscriptions, memberships, payments, and tax compliance.

At LearnWorlds, we’ve evolved what learning content can be: from simple videos and text to rich, interactive experiences—live sessions, communities, assessments, and certifications. Our basic text editors are now AI-powered authoring tools, helping any trainer or small team operate like an L&D powerhouse. And our website builder has grown into a full marketing engine—with mobile apps, personalisation, and automation.

Our customers are our secret sauce.

They serve as the long arm of our research—bringing us real problems, sharp insights, and unexpected use cases. Year after year, they’ve helped us stay ahead of global market shifts: from the chaos of COVID to the rise of generative AI.

We receive over 5,000 feature requests every quarter. Our response? You ask, we deliver. We’ve been able to build fast and adapt faster because our customers kept us close to what matters. 

Now, our customers range from solo trainers with a few hundred learners to global businesses training hundreds of thousands. Some sell courses at scale, generating over $1 billion in revenue, while others offer their programmes for free, using LearnWorlds to reach strategic goals. Collectively, they’ve reached over 23 million learners worldwide—giving us a front-row seat to what’s next in elearning.

 

What comes next

Ask yourself this—who do you want by your side? The legacy LMS built for a static, 9-to-5 world? Or a platform designed for today’s fast-moving, farflung digital workforce?

With SaaS costs rising and budgets shrinking, do you really need a bloated system with long setup cycles and hidden fees?

Or a platform that’s not only an order of magnitude more affordable, but enables you to monetise your content, and deliver ROI from day one?

When AI is actively redefining our reality, do you want a platform that updates twice a year—or one that moves with the pace of change?

For us, it’s never been about choosing between power and flexibility. LearnWorlds is built to give you the best of both worlds.

We bring you a platform with enterprise-grade LMS functionality—rigorous, reliable, and secure. And we pair it with unmatched flexibility, intelligent authoring, and the ability to monetise, distribute, and express your expertise.

The point is: you shouldn’t have to compromise. The right platform should adapt to your needs, scale with your ambitions, and help you build something that lasts.

We’ve spent 25 years learning from this space—and we’re still learning, every day. In a way, we’re back where we started. The family business, this time with better tools and AI by our side. My grandfathers believed education could change everything. I still do.

In fact, I believe learning is the one real superpower we possess.

 

Panos Siozos PhD

CEO & Co-Founder at LearnWorlds