Two Cape Town brothers, Sam and Rob Paddock, started online learning platform GetSmarter to help people who needed to upskill themselves when doing a university degree full-time is not an option.
The first university partnership deal for GetSmarter was with Stellenbosch University, which offered a course on wine evaluation. Soon after, UCT followed. As the company grew, so did their partners, now they are working with leading global universities such as MIT, the University of Cambridge and Harvard University.
The Design Indaba 2018 speakers also employ 400 people around the world.
They said that the key was to create creative disruption within the education system. "Rather than tearing down the structures that exist, it is far better to use the best of the old and the best of the new."
They describe the recipe of success as institutional will meets market demand when talking about what binds their company and the partnerships with those universities.
