Built on friendship. Driven by a Silicon Valley dream.
SkillSets Online was founded in 2005 by two college friends turned business partners. Brad Sadur and Ronik Kar met their freshman year at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). They quickly became good friends, and that friendship lasted well beyond college graduation. Brad and Ronik grew up in the Bay Area and watched Silicon Valley develop before their eyes. They watched new “startups” like Google, Tesla, Meta (Facebook), Twitter, VMware, and many others break ground right in their own backyard. It was very inspiring, and in 2005 SkillSets Online was born.
SkillSets Online headquarters
Our current headquarters is located in San Ramon, California, not far from where Brad and Ronik first watched the technology industry transform the Bay Area. The company has grown far beyond its original office, but the same energy, ambition, and customer focus remain at the heart of SkillSets Online.
Three principles from day one
Brad and Ronik agreed on day one to build SkillSets Online with three key principles, which still hold true today.
Deliver better value
Offer customers a better overall value than what others can provide.
Dream big
Always dream big, remain ambitious, and never give up.
Know the customer
All levels of management must engage daily with customers in one way or another. Knowing the customer is a top priority.
Getting in on the action
Becoming an online training company was a rather easy decision. Back in 2005, as it is still today, online training was the next growth area. Technology was booming. Everything from faster internet and smartphones to more powerful hardware and software made the idea of “getting in on the action” very exciting.
Where there is new technology, there are new training needs. By the end of 2005, SkillSets Online had its core team of about five people.
Our accounting system in 2005
A simple beginning for a company with very big plans.
Our leads source in 2005
Early customer acquisition looked very different from the systems used today.
Our first company sponsorship
In 2007, we felt like bigwigs.
From five people to a global team
From 2005 to 2020, SkillSets was centered on content development and new customer acquisition. The focus has always been a B2B model based on offering online training to organizations throughout the United States and Canada. During these years, SkillSets Online teamed up with SHI, CDW, and Insight to help make greater penetration into new organizations—and it worked.
During these 15 years, SkillSets Online grew from five people to over 200 employees worldwide. By the end of 2021, SkillSets Online had one of the largest menus of online training content in the world. In 2023, SkillSets made a major decision to massively expand its overall menu with even more premium online courses and the introduction of hands-on labs. As is typical of SkillSets Online, the goal was: “Do it right and do it big.” Today, SkillSets Online has thousands of customers and an overall menu of over 7,000 hours—and counting.
SkillSets Online is founded by Brad Sadur and Ronik Kar.
Content development, customer growth, and a focused B2B training model.
One of the world’s largest menus of online training content.
Major course expansion and the introduction of hands-on labs.
Thousands of customers, 200+ employees, and 7,000+ hours of content.
Leadership stays close to every customer
Keeping true to their basic core principles, it is not uncommon to see Ronik actively participating in new sales meetings or product demos. No job is too big or too small for anyone in leadership.
A humble note of thanks to all our customers, especially those who have been with us from the start: You believed in a bunch of young college kids who did not have much but a “Silicon Valley” dream. You stuck with us through the good times and the bad ones. Together, we went through the Great Recession of 2009. Together, we made it through the tough COVID years.
For all of that, we are truly grateful. We will continue to serve all our customers to the best of our ability and always give you the best overall product and value that we can. We owe this to all of you. Thank you from everyone here at SkillSets Online Corporation.
People, memories, and Lambo logic
