# Michael Karnjanaprakorn

> Michael Karnjanaprakorn is a New York-based founder, investor and writer who co-founded Skillshare and founded Otis, the fractional art and collectibles platform acquired by Public in 2022. An early employee at Behance and Hot Potato, he later explored personal holding companies through Choop and documented his changing approach to work in essays, Tings and The Karnjanaprakorn Show. In 2026, his experiments with AI coding tools led to Ideal Day and the productivity app Slash.

- **Role:** Independent founder, investor and writer
- **Organizations:** Skillshare, Otis, Choop, Turing Capital, Behance, Hot Potato, The Feast, Collaborative Fund
- **Education:** B.A. in Economics, University of Virginia, M.S. in Advertising, VCU Brandcenter, Virginia Commonwealth University
- **Known for:** Co-founded Skillshare, a marketplace and online learning community for creative skills., Founded Otis, acquired by Public in March 2022., TED Fellow, 2012.

## Career timeline

- **2006** — Graduated from VCU Brandcenter.
- **2007** — Worked at Trumpet and volunteered at Idea Village in New Orleans.
- **2008** — Moved to New York, worked with Scott Belsky at Behance and helped launch 99%; co-founded The Feast with Jerri Chou.
- **2010** — Led product at Hot Potato, acquired by Facebook that year; began Skillshare with Malcolm Ong in November.
- **2011** — Skillshare went live in April.
- **2012** — Selected as a TED Fellow and included in Fast Company’s Most Creative People list.
- **2017** — Discussed handing Skillshare’s CEO role to an operator in his Mixergy interview.
- **2018** — Founded Otis; SEC disclosures date his CEO term from October 2018.
- **2022** — Public acquired Otis in March; subsequently took a sabbatical.
- **2023** — Launched The Karnjanaprakorn Show in October.
- **2024** — Published essays examining personal holding companies and the repeat founder cycle.
- **2025** — Described running Choop, a holding company for unusual ideas.
- **2026** — Described running a one-person company with AI agents; introduced Slash in October.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Skillshare, a marketplace and online learning community for creative skills.
- Founded Otis, acquired by Public in March 2022.
- TED Fellow, 2012.
- Listed at number 18 in Fast Company’s Most Creative People 2012.
- Early employee at Behance and Hot Potato, later acquired by Adobe and Facebook respectively.
- Co-founded The Feast conference with Jerri Chou.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — October 19: published Dead Zone, arguing for matching startup financing to the nature and ambition of the business.
- **2026-10** — October 16: introduced Slash, an experimental local-first productivity app he built around his own workflow.
- **2026-05** — May 24: described building Ideal Day for his wife and reported 425 GitHub commits in the preceding month.
- **2026-02** — February 28: described using OpenClaw and an agent named Igor to run a one-person company.

## Links

- Website: https://mikekarnj.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikekarnj/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/mikekarnj
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mikekarnj
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikekarnj/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/michael-karnjanaprakorn
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-26