Sal Khan on why Khan Academy is a non-profit

what factors led you to take this to in into the nonprofit space as opposed to the for-profit world was a perfect question obviously you would be maybe not sitting with us today I guess because here's the thing people would buy this content now you may not have known that on day one but on day a hundred you probably saw this is catching on even for a nominal cost yeah it would it would be a successful potentially successful for-profit dose yeah and I might be dressed a little bit better you know when I was when all this was happening I mean I had my day job it was a very for-profit day job I was an analyst at a hedge fund and but when I was doing this I was getting like letter you know obviously I saw my cousin's how much in fact it took you five years before you quit the hedge fund yeah I was I was doing this as a sigh you know from 2004 is when I start to drink not in 2006 made the first video 2009 when I quit the my hedge fund job a 2008 was when I set it up as a not-for-profit but that the thinking was in 2008 and there were some venture capitalists who wanted to fund this they were ready to write the check it was tempting because okay maybe have-your-cake- and-eat-it-too type of thing but I just I literally I mean I was getting letters every day from people all over the planet about how much it was helping them and in my brain and it wasn't that coherent it was actually an emotional decision it was much more of like this feels like we're at an inflection point in history as big as Andy as big as the Industrial Revolution or the you know the Enlightenment or bigger and it feels like we need something like this to be an institution for this inflection point just a public good and I kind of just thought about well let's let's imagine a you know put my science fiction let's imagine a home run in either use case as a for-profit it may be it turns into a multi-billion dollar organization and even look you can still have a lot of scale and impact and do good things there but you know who knows what happens in next generation what happens when it becomes public and you know I used to study these companies also you're going to be suspect if it's for profit right somehow make your decisions exactly enrich you as opposed to enrich exactly what's your motivation is there versus well what if it's a home run as a not-for-profit there's a lot of ways it's harder but what if it could be the next Smithsonian what if it could be it was delusional for a guy operating out of a closet uh but but it's it's less delusional now uh and and and you know just felt epic I'm a big fan of Isaac Asimov in the foundation series and you know here you know he writes about Harry Selden creates a foundation to have the the galaxy the galactic empires knowledge to keep the the impending Dark Ages instead of being ten thousand years to be one thousand years and when you read a book like that you say how come we don't think on that scale how come we don't think on like look like you know we only live once why don't we at least try and that was kind of the you know swing for the fences thank you

Channel: Overheard with Evan Smith

Views: 77,596

Keywords: klru, overheard with evan smith, evan smith, pbs, interview, Khan Academy (Nonprofit Organization), edtech, Salman Khan (Organization Leader)

Id: LI7UOuX9Qjs

Length: 2min 57sec (177 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 13 2015