Leland has a special place in Contrary lore. Just one month after Eric Tarczynski started Contrary, he and I met and talked about who the sharpest rising stars were in Utah at the time. My first and only answer was John Koelliker.
Core to the Contrary model is finding people before anyone else realizes they’re special and then building relationships for the long run. John worked with Contrary as a founding venture partner before heading off to one success after another – bootstrapping a consumer product, building products at Uber and Linkedin, and attending Stanford’s GSB. After spending five years getting to know John, choosing to invest in his new company, Leland, was just a question of where to sign.
In October 2021, Contrary led Leland’s pre-seed round. Just seven months later, we doubled down, leading its seed round. Today, we’re excited to share that we are once again investing in Leland’s $12 million Series A, led by Forerunner. As part of the round, I’ll also be joining as a board observer to support the company.
John is a relentless operator who has built an incredibly efficient business, getting to cash flow positive within just three years In the short time since it was founded in 2021, Leland has facilitated tens of thousands of hours of coaching across things like school admissions, career development, upskilling, test prep, and dozens more, all supported by 750+ coaches.
But this is just the first step in Leland’s mission to “make the world’s expertise more accessible.” Every profession, skill, and accreditation is a pocket of knowledge that Leland is going to unlock.
Leland is poised to rip and is hiring like crazy. If you’re interested in working with a coach or coaching the next generation, then the Leland community was built for you!
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