Announcing's Leland's $4M Seed Round and Category Expansion

We are excited to announce Leland's $4M Seed round led by Contrary, with participation from FJ Labs, Peterson Ventures, Goodwater Capital, Next Play Ventures, executives/founders of leading consumer marketplaces, and dozens of supportive angels from our communities.

We are also thrilled to share that we've officially launched eight new coaching categories, laying the groundwork to make the world's expertise more accessible in a much deeper and powerful way. These new categories have been in high demand since launching last year, but are just the beginning when it comes to expertise you can find on Leland's platform.

Our Vision

At Leland, we believe in human potential. We believe that with the right expertise and opportunities, anyone is capable of achieving their most ambitious goals.

With the rise of the Expertise Economy, there have never been more creators, professionals, and influencers excited about monetizing and sharing their knowledge. Video courses, digital downloads, and massive cohort-based courses have enabled creators to share expertise in an incredibly efficient and scalable way. Problem is, static content can only do so much, especially for people from underrepresented or underprivileged backgrounds. At the end of the day, relationships and personalized help are the most effective tools in creating opportunities for others

At Leland, we believe (1) that no central group of people has a monopoly on valuable expertise, and (2) that being able to interact with expertise in a personalized way makes all the difference. If you were trying to improve your basketball shot, would it be more effective for you to watch a video of Steph Curry or work 1:1 with a collegiate shooting coach? Sure, Steph Curry is fun to watch, but the shooting coach could give you personalized feedback that dramatically improves results. Expertise + personalization leads to vastly better outcomes. We see this on Leland every day.

Our Progress

When we launched Leland last year, things took off quickly. Our goal was to start with a single category where we could build an active community and position ourselves to expand into new coaching verticals. The clear choice was MBA admissions.

Well, turns out, this was intentional. Starting with MBA allowed us to hone our product experience and build a world-class supply of coaches who are multi-dimensional. Today, we have over 100 coaches on Leland with expertise in various career paths, educational programs, and industries. They work at companies like McKinsey, Google, Meta, BCG, and Goldman Sachs, and have attended schools like Stanford, Harvard, Penn, and dozens of others. It was the perfect foundation to build on.

In the last nine months, young professionals have purchased over 2,500+ hours of coaching on Leland, leading to coaching orders growing 90% every quarter since launching. Best of all, with coach's help, customers are reaching their goals—breaking into the best schools and companies in the world.

Here's a screenshot from the #goplaces channel in Leland's free Slack community:

As exciting as this progress is, we know it's just the beginning. MBA was the right wedge, but customers and coaches have been asking us to expand for several months.

That's why we are so excited to be opening up our platform to several new categories.

Our Expansion

Leland's mission is to unlock human potential by making the world's expertise more accessible, and we're excited to use this funding to accelerate our pursuit towards this mission.

Today, we're announcing eight new coaching categories across three major goals.

These new categories highlight the wealth of experience available via Leland's coach base, and we couldn't be more grateful to be building the platform where they can create their independent brand and monetize their expertise.

In addition to the featured categories above, coaches on Leland have additional expertise and skills they are willing to share. If you are looking for help with any career or educational goal, sign up for Leland and we'll find someone who fits your budget, background, and goals.

The Future

Moving forward, you can expect more classes, coaches, and content geared towards helping you realize your greatest ambitions. We're also investing heavily into new product features and a robust community experience to ensure that customers have everything they need to achieve their goals.

This is just the beginning of Leland's evolution, and we couldn't be more excited for what's to come. If you want to help us build the future of the Expertise Economy, reach out or apply to join us here. If you have a skill you'd like to share (and monetize), then apply to be a coach. And most importantly, if you have an audacious goal, we'd love to help you reach it.

To going places,

The Leland Team