To Studio.com and raises $50 million — Monthly rebrands
It had a good (but limiting) domain ahead of.
Significant funds have poured into the education industry in the past few years. Startups such as Subject have received hundreds of millions of dollars worth of collective funding to help move education into the digital age.
Alongside firms focusing on traditional education is a swathe of startups attracting the more casual learner, perhaps hoping to expand their creative skills or find out more regarding a specific hobby or past time.
MasterClass, for example, employs A-list instructors like Mariah Carey to host vocational classes. It’s a popular platform that has made international news, raising $461.4 million in the process.
Another startup is looking to muscle in on MasterClass’ territory, and it’s using an ultra-premium .com to help its cause.
Max Deutsch and Valentin Perez founded a creative learning firm, and it seems to have gone through a couple of iterations of brand names. As stated by Crunchbase, the firm has been known as Openmind Learning, Monthly, and now Studio.
As Monthly, a name that the firm adopted in 2019, its platform encouraged students to build skills in hands-on 30-day classes. This, in theory, means you could learn a fresh skill every month.
Monthly performed a domain name upgrade in late 2020, moving from LearnMonthly.com to simply Monthly.com. Under Monthly.com, the firm grew its brand, partnering with some famous faces to offer creative 30-day courses.
YouTuber Casey Neistat, for example, signed up to host a 30-day filmmaking class with an admission price of $249.
To move away from limitations attached to a 30-day course timespan, Monthly has again rebranded, and again, it has purchased a premium domain.
Recently, Monthly’s co-founders disclosed the firm had rebranded to Studio. In a blog post, the co-founders revealed,
“We’re changing our name from Monthly to Studio to reflect our evolution as we expand beyond our 30-day classes to create a destination to return to again and again”
The rebrand was revealed alongside details of a $50 million funding round led by Human Capital with contributions from the likes of Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia.
Ahead of the transition from Monthly to Studio, the firm secured the Studio.com domain name. As stated by Whois History, Studio likely purchased Studio.com in November 2021 when the domain transferred to GoDaddy under Whois privacy protection.
Studio.com was previously owned by Mrs. Jello, LLC, the firm managing the portfolio of popular domain investor Igal Lichtman, who passed away in 2013.
Transitioning to Studio allows this firm to offer a wider variety of courses to run for shorter or longer than a month. This puts it in competition with MasterClass, and with the right domain under its belt, Studio.com, it’s in a perfect position to compete.
