General Assembly (GA) is an education company that offers courses in coding, data, design, and business. Founded in New York in 2011 by Jake Schwartz, 📝Adam Pritzker, Matthew Brimer, and Brad Hargreaves, it combines online and in-person instruction with a network of alumni and hiring partners that connects graduates to jobs.
General Assembly grew from a New York coworking and events space into a global network of campuses teaching web development, user experience design, digital marketing, and data science. By 2017 it had reached roughly $100 million in revenue with about 30% three-year compound growth. In 2018, staffing firm The Adecco Group acquired General Assembly for $412.5 million in cash, with Schwartz continuing to lead it as a division. GA positions itself as a source for training, staffing, and career transitions in in-demand skills.
📝Jill McGuire-Ward introduced me to General Assembly in 2011. I spent a day with Jake in San Francisco in May 2012 and kicked off their 📝Integrated Financial Model (IFM); that fall I became their CFO advisor, and I joined full-time in summer 2013. Once all the data lived in one model, we could manage each campus on a handful of weekly metrics. As the company grew toward $100M in revenue, we hired a CFO in NYC to replace me and I went full-time with 📝Assembled Brands.