Founded at the dawn of the dot-com era, entrepreneur Adam Miller’s original concept for Cornerstone was a kind of Netflix for adult education: training courses through CD-ROMs. Migrating to online offerings for major corporate clients, Adam steered the company through tough times, including an encounter with a loan shark, markets collapsing, and global crises. By the time he sold the company two decades later – for more than $5.2 billion – Adam learned essential lessons about how to scale during uncertainty.
Chapters:
00:00 Introducing Cornerstone & Adam Miller
4:14 From CD-ROMs to the Web
7:13 How Adam Miller raised money for Cornerstone
10:28 The original idea for Cornerstone
13:10 Why LA instead of Silicon Valley?
17:46 Turning down the deal of a lifetime
23:45 Applying lessons from big companies for small businesses
29:58 Navigating crisis #1: How 9/11 impacted Cornerstone
42:09 Accepting money from a loanshark
50:19 Navigating crisis #2: The 2007–2008 financial crisis
55:02 Inside Cornerstone’s IPO
1:01:00 Scaling Cornerstone
1:04:22 Navigating crisis #3: Finding success during the pandemic
1:06:22 Lessons from Adam’s journey