Six years ago, we launched WintellectNOW with a just a handful of videos authored by me, Jeffrey Richter, and John Robbins. The goal was to make the same hard-core developer training that we were delivering in person at Microsoft offices all over the world available to everyone. We did so at the request of Microsoft, who said “We will be your first and largest customer.” They kept their promise, and they helped us design a platform that caters equally well to training managers and students.
Much has happened in the intervening years. As we continued to expand the library and enhance the platform, we received several acquisition and partnership offers and entertained numerous pitches from investors. None of them felt right. For us, it was never about building an empire. It was about focusing like a laser on software developers and providing best-in-class training at an affordable price. It was about recruiting the best authors and leveraging the world-class architects and engineers at Wintellect – experts who don’t just talk the talk, but spend all day every day building sophisticated software solutions for customers. And it was about retaining the autonomy we needed to build great course-ware without pressure from investors or shareholders. As one Fortune 100 L&D manager told me, “One of your competitors has 63 courses on Angular. I need ONE course on Angular. And I need it to be great.”
Our library has grown to more than 500 courses covering not just Microsoft platforms and tools, but open-source frameworks, modern Web programming, Azure, data science and AI, Blockchain, and more. And there is much more to come as we embark on an ambitious plan to expand our offerings.
We won’t be alone on the journey. Within hours of our first meeting with Skillsoft, we realized it was a marriage made in heaven: the opportunity to combine our deep offerings for software developers with an on-demand library boasting unparalleled technical content, a who’s-who of customers, and the rich Percipio learning platform. Moreover, we found a partner who shares our vision of how best to impart the skills that developers need in an industry that demands continual learning to remain relevant.
I could not be more excited as we begin this new chapter of WintellectNOW. Last week I received the following e-mail from a customer:
Your material is such high grade—it is head and shoulders above the rest. What an amazing treasure chest of insights!
My pledge to you is that we will maintain the high quality bar that our customers have come to expect. And as we grow our library to meet the needs of a larger and more diverse customer base, we will never produce 63 Angular courses when one great one will do. That’s the Wintellect way. It’s the Skillsoft way. And now it’s the Skillsoft + WintellectNOW way.
Join us on the journey and let us know what we can do to serve you.
Jeff Prosise is a co-founder of Wintellect.