LinkedIn tests a school for would-be founders on 30 of its own staff
LinkedIn began a free 14-week course on starting a business in September, enrolling 30 of its own employees, Fortune reported. Because the students are LinkedIn staff, the pilot can test a syllabus but cannot yet show what outside workers will pay for it.
The Investor · Invest desk
About 97,000 workers annually gained opportunities from roles that removed degree requirements, out of 77 million yearly hires, a 2024 study by Harvard Business School and the Burning Glass Institute found.
- Opportunities created, about, claim 13 97,000 of 77,000,000 yearly hires 0.1% computed
Opportunities created, about The whole
| Share | Part | Whole | Percent | Claim |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opportunities created, about | 97,000 yearly hires | 77,000,000 yearly hires | 0.1% (computed) | 13 |
What happened
- Students meet three times a week and learn through simulations of PR crises, hiring decisions and investor pitches, with a session on building an app from scratch coming up.
- The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported employers added 29,000 jobs last month, against economists' expectation of 90,000.
- Chief product officer Hari Srinivasan wrote on Oct. 9 that profiles listing "Founder" rose nearly 23% over the past year.
- Srinivasan hopes to take the Academy international at an affordable price, but LinkedIn has not said when public enrollment opens or what it will charge.
Why it matters
- cost Price is the open variable: Harvard's AI-assisted boot camp costs $699, and Andreessen Horowitz's $42 million for 50 students is $840,000 a seat if one class absorbed all of it, a ceiling the source does not confirm.
- contradiction Srinivasan argues AI lets employers judge actual work in place of degrees, yet the hiring study Fortune cites found degree-free hiring reached a sliver of hires. A founder course is the route that needs no employer to accept the portfolio.
- exposure The 27.1% of unemployed Americans out of work six months or longer are the audience a weak hiring market pushes toward alternatives like this one, and nothing in the pilot measures whether they would enroll.
The case for demand is built from soft numbers. Srinivasan's count of "Founder" profile titles comes from his own LinkedIn post [5], and a title costs nothing to edit. Intuit QuickBooks, surveying 3,000 American adults, found a third planned to start a business or side hustle this year, up from 17% a year earlier [7]. That measures intent. Gusto's survey of 1,051 new owners measures motive among people who have already started: 51% cited building financial stability or a future asset, up from 42% in 2024, a gain of 9 points [8][16]. None of the three counts businesses actually formed.
The study Fortune cites on degree-free hiring is less encouraging than the Academy's pitch. "We've designed our program so students leave with real evidence of what they can do, not a degree," Srinivasan wrote [12]. In a 2024 study, Harvard Business School and the Burning Glass Institute found that where employers dropped degree requirements, the share of hires without bachelor's degrees rose by about 3.5 percentage points across 11,300 roles. But the requirement came off so few roles that the change opened opportunities to only about 97,000 workers a year, out of 77 million hires [13]. That is one hire in about 794 [17]. "For all its fanfare, the increased opportunity promised by Skills-Based Hiring has borne out in not even 1 in 700 hires," the authors wrote [14].
"There is not a current prerequisite for who can participate in this program," Srinivasan told Fortune [11]. The company did not disclose what the pilot costs to run.
In our view, the Academy is a product being designed before its buyer is known: no prerequisite, no stated price, no cost disclosed. The counter-thesis is that LinkedIn does not need the pilot to settle that, since it is the one party that can watch founder titles move across its own membership and could scale on that signal alone. We would change our view if the company opens enrollment at a stated price and fills it, or publishes how many of the 30 go on to start something.
What to watch
- LinkedIn announcing a public enrollment date and a price, to be read against Harvard's $699 boot camp.
- Any report of how many of the 30 pilot students start a business after the 14 weeks.
- The next BLS payroll report against the 29,000 reading and the 90,000 forecast.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence40
- Adoption
- Insufficient
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives
- Insufficient
- Confidence45
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
LinkedIn started the Academy of Economic Opportunity in September, enrolling 30 LinkedIn employees in a free 14-week training program.
- [2]
Students meet three times a week to learn through simulations such as handling PR crises, making hiring decisions and pitching investors; one of the pilot cohort's next sessions is on building an app from scratch.
- [3]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported employers added just 29,000 jobs last month, below economists' expectations of 90,000.
- [4]
More than a quarter (27.1%) of unemployed Americans have been out of work for six months or longer.
- [5]
Srinivasan wrote in an Oct. 9 LinkedIn post that the number of people putting 'Founder' in their LinkedIn profiles rose nearly 23% over the past year.
- [6]
Srinivasan hopes to scale the Academy internationally and at an affordable price to workers outside LinkedIn; the company has not announced when enrollment will open to the public or what it will charge.
- [7]
In a survey of 3,000 American adults, Intuit QuickBooks found that a third planned to start a business or side hustle this year, up from 17% who said the same a year earlier.
- [8]
A survey of 1,051 new business owners last year by payroll company Gusto found about half (51%) cited building financial stability or a future asset as a motivation for starting their businesses, up from 42% in 2024.
- [9]
Harvard Business School launched a $699 startup boot camp that lets entrepreneurs practice investor pitches, sales calls and board meetings with AI versions of Harvard professors, without earning degrees there.
- [10]
Andreessen Horowitz invested $42 million into the Horowitz Andreessen Academy, which will offer 50 students courses in San Francisco next year, without awarding degrees.
- [11]
"There is not a current prerequisite for who can participate in this program," Srinivasan told Fortune.
- [12]
"We've designed our program so students leave with real evidence of what they can do, not a degree," Srinivasan wrote.
- [13]
A 2024 study by Harvard Business School and the Burning Glass Institute found that removing degree requirements increased the share of workers hired without bachelor's degrees by about 3.5 percentage points in the 11,300 roles analyzed, but because so few roles dropped the requirements the change created opportunities for only about 97,000 workers annually, out of 77 million yearly hires.
- [14]
"For all its fanfare, the increased opportunity promised by Skills-Based Hiring has borne out in not even 1 in 700 hires," the authors wrote.
- [15]
Srinivasan wrote that AI is making it easier for employers to evaluate candidates' actual work, like portfolios, code and products they have built, rather than relying on college degrees as 'shorthand for talent'.
- [16]
The Gusto share citing financial stability or a future asset rose 9 percentage points, from 42% in 2024 to 51%.
- [17]
97,000 of 77 million yearly hires is about 0.13%, or roughly one hire in 794.
- [18]
$42 million across 50 students is $840,000 a seat, if the whole investment went to that single class (the source does not say it did).
Sources
1 independent publisher whose own reporting we read for this story.
- fortune.comLinkedIn is piloting a school to teach workers how to become their own bosses–no degree required
1 article · October 12, 2026
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