Make School
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Make School was a San Francisco coding bootcamp founded in 2012 by Jeremy Rossmann and Ashu Desai, teaching computer science through project-based learning with tuition financed via income-share-style agreements. It partnered with Dominican University of California to offer an accredited applied computer science degree, and raised over $13 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz.
02 / Make School FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
By spring 2021 Make School's finances were in disarray. On July 1, 2021, dozens of students sued the school alleging predatory and deceptive marketing and lending practices, and regulators had already forced a settlement over misleading student financing contracts. When the school failed to secure independent accreditation from WSCUC, its leadership told Dominican University on July 13, 2021 that it planned to close. Students found themselves unable to enroll for the fall; the company filed for bankruptcy in 2021.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Bankruptcy
co-founder Jeremy Rossmann said Make School PBC was shutting down, had started an Assignment for Benefit of Creditors insolvency proceeding, cancelled its ISA program, and was winding down while handing the bachelor's program to a nonprofit/Dominican.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Founded 2012 in San Francisco by Jeremy Rossmann and Ashu Desai; project-based computer science bootcamp with income-share-style tuition financing.
- 02
Partnered with Dominican University of California to offer an accredited degree; raised over $13 million.
- 03
April 2021: California DFPI settlement over deceptive educational financing provisions in student contracts.
- 04
July 1, 2021: dozens of students filed a lawsuit alleging predatory and deceptive marketing and lending practices.
- 05
July 13, 2021: leadership told Dominican it planned to close after failing to secure WSCUC accreditation; students could not enroll for the fall.
- 06
Filed for bankruptcy in 2021; no reliable loss figure disclosed.