Profile

In 2002, Adam Schwartz used his life savings to start a company called Articulate. Although it began as a plug-in for PowerPoint, today the company has more than 300 employees focused on changing the way the world learns online. Articulate actually has two main products. One is a set of tools for companies building training solutions that connects to an enterprise learning management system. The other product is aimed at small and midsize businesses (SMB) or departments in an enterprise. The company’s platform allows users to develop custom, interactive courses that work on every device without any manual tweaking, enabling clients to create e-learning courses for their learning management system.

This approach seems to be working with the company, as it reports 106,000 customers across 161 countries. This includes every single one of the Fortune 100. Naturally, Articulate has started attracting suitors from the financial sector. In July 2021 the company announced a $1.5 billion investment on a $3.75 billion valuation. Considering that the business had been bootstrapped by its founder since the beginning, the new funds make for one of the largest Series A rounds of the year. Articulate plans to use the cash to expand hiring, while trying to grow its sales both in the U.S. and internationally.

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Key Products

Articulate is a market-leading SaaS provider of creator platforms for online training. The company’s products make it easy for companies to develop, deliver, and analyze online training that is both engaging and effective. Articulate serves both enterprise companies and small-to-medium sized businesses through two offerings.

Articulate 360

Articulate 360 is a creator platform for corporate learning that was named the 7th most loved product in the world 2021 by TrustRadius. Articulate 360 is for enterprises that need to develop content for their learning management systems (LMSs) and is widely recognized as the top course authoring product, as noted in the Learning Guild’s Authoring Tools 2021. Articulate 360 includes the course creation apps Storyline 360 and Rise 360; a content library of more than eight million multimedia assets; an app for collecting stakeholder feedback during course creation; and live and on-demand training on course development skills. 96% of Articulate customers say it’s easier to create more engaging courses that deliver better outcomes with Articulate 360 and 71% of customers have reduced the cost of training by switching to Articulate 360.

Rise.com

Rise.com is an all-in-one training system built specifically for SMBs and departments in the enterprise who need an easy, affordable way to create, deliver, and track online training. Historically, SMBs haven’t had a way to create and deliver training; they cannot afford to cobble together and administer the many disparate systems that enterprises use and thus have been left to train their employees using PDFs, PowerPoints, and instructor-led training. Rise.com makes online training easy to create, enjoyable to take, and simple to manage and it’s affordable for SMBs. Rise.com is especially important to small businesses, who now have access to a full training system with hundreds of editable courses that makes online training delightful, easy, and effective.

Articulate product offerings democratize training, helping companies foster a culture of learning where every line of business is empowered to create engaging courses that improve employee engagement and drive professional growth. This ensures that employees have more opportunities to build critical skills and drive impact for the business for years to come.

To support the work of course creators, Articulate invests millions every year into its E-Learning Heroes community (www.elearningheroes.com). With more than 1 million members, E-Learning Heroes offers a friendly space for course creators to connect and learn from their peers, get inspired, and find help when they need it. The community features how-to articles and free downloads that anyone can use, whether they use Articulate software or not. And the community is fully staffed and moderated daily by Articulate team members, including their award-winning support team.

Corporate Responsibility

Named one of Inc. Magazine’s Best Workplaces 2020 Articulate has been blazing a trail for remote work for nearly two decades and in recent years has established an industry-leading human-centered framework to guide the way it operates internally and externally.

Articulate is guided by a commitment to provide the best value to customers and do right by employees. The company is deeply focused on sustaining a workplace where everyone feels empowered, valued, and safe to be their whole selves at work.

Articulate has expanded its diversity, inclusion, and belonging programs in several key ways. The company has re-imagined major people processes using a design thinking framework that solicits participation from every level of the organization. People in every department and at every level of the company have helped craft new hiring practices focused on diversity, equity, and a positive candidate experience and new onboarding processes focused on integrating new employees into our human-centered organization quickly and empowering them to contribute their unique skills and perspectives.

Once onboard, all new employees participate in the “I’m Not a Racist Am I” experience based on the documentary film of the same name. The program pairs 7+ hours of training with facilitated group conversations targeted at understanding and tackling structural systematic racism. Articulate has support for employee resource groups (ERGs), the company added four additional ERGs and started paying ERG leaders for their important work creating thriving supportive spaces for people with marginalized identities. Articulate has established a service sabbatical program to support volunteerism in social and environmental justice, and a matching employee donation program to organizations promoting social and environmental justice. Articulate also began rolling out an intensive resilient manager training program to managers that’s focused on supporting all of our humanity at work and building connected, empowered teams with healthy interpersonal dynamics.

Articulate also has established employee benefits designed to address structural economic and social disparities and support the whole human at work. These include student debt repayment, tuition reimbursement, child care assistance, medical coverage and time off for gender-affirming surgeries, mental health services, life coaching services, flexible PTO, baby bonding time off, 3% of salary to a 401k, and best-in-class medical, dental, and vision coverage.

Articulate has also contributed to external communities by developing and giving away timely training courses on a variety of topics made pressing by COVID-19 and the racial reckoning in the U.S, including:

• Understanding COVID-19


• Coping with Stress During COVID-19


• Leading through Difficult Times


• Transitioning to Remote Work


• Creating Social Change

Customer Insights

Articulate 360 Customer Quotes

“Finally! A multifaceted approach to address the everyday needs of e-learning designers and developers! Articulate 360 hits the nail on the head.” – Kimberly Bourque Valliere, E-Learning Developer

“I’m just dipping my toes in the water of Articulate 360, but I love the way that every piece streamlines in together—everything you need for instructional design and amazing courses is truly at your fingertips. It’s such a seamless experience!” – Jason Pafford, Training and Development Specialist

“Please tell the powers that be at Articulate how invaluable you and your team are. Having the E-learning Heroes community with staff input is the most genius idea I’ve seen in the tech world… My colleagues were quite impressed that I was able to receive such assistance from a software company. As I am still learning and growing in this field, I feel empowered knowing that I have this wealth of knowledge in my arsenal.” – New York Public Library

Rise Customer Quotes

“Rise has changed the way we think about training development. The detailed reporting is amazing. I love the prebuilt training content. And I can create professional-looking training in less time.” – Rebecca Fritzson, Frito-Lay North America

“Rise makes it easy for us to build new engaging training modules FAST. And, we’ve received great feedback (and great results) from our learners!” – Jana Williams, Walmart Intelligent Retail Lab

Company Insights

“Overall, our human-centered framework compels us to provide training and other structural support that allows us to learn, evolve, and heal as human beings so that we’re improving the ways we relate to ourselves and each other, even as we tackle our core job responsibilities,” said Lucy Suros, president of Articulate. “We hope that other organizations will join us in this quest.”