Imagine learning in a one-room schoolhouse, with a single teacher for five grades. That was Eren Bali’s reality in a remote Turkish village. He shared a one-room schoolhouse with kids from five different grades, taught by the same teacher—his mom.

But then a second-hand computer showed up in the house. It was meant for his sister. Eren “borrowed” it. That machine, paired with a shaky dial-up connection, turned out to be the first seed of what would become a global empire.

He taught himself advanced math through internet forums. He climbed from obscurity to winning international math medals—without a tutor, a coach, or a plan.

As a teenager, he saw the power of the internet to “give people the chance to catch up” on education. That spark set him on a mission: to make learning accessible to anyone, anywhere. 

Fast forward a few years: he pitches a startup idea to over 30 Silicon Valley investors. They all say no. But Eren had already learned how to navigate systems that weren’t built for him. And this time, he wasn’t backing down.

That’s how Udemy happened. Then Carbon Health. Two billion-dollar companies were built not from trends, but from truth.

Today, Udemy connects over 44 million learners to 183,000+ courses worldwide, while Carbon Health has grown into a multibillion-dollar force in primary care and telemedicine.

So, how did a boy from a small Turkish village end up building not one, but two category-defining companies? Let’s dive into the entrepreneurial journey of Eren Bali. 

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From Apricots to Algorithms

Eren Bali was born in 1984 in Durulova, Malatya, Turkey, an apricot-farming village with limited resources. His mother was the lone teacher in a one-room schoolhouse, which forced Eren and other kids to teach themselves from books when the teacher attended to other grades. 

He “never believed learning opportunities were finite,” Bali recalls. Fueled by curiosity and a love of math, he dove into online forums after his family got internet access. 

His self-study paid off and won him a gold medal in the Turkish Math Olympiad and a silver at the International Math Olympiad. He went on to study mathematics and computer engineering at Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, graduating in 2005.

After college, Bali still had the hunger for learning and impact. In 2008, he built an early livestream classroom called KnowBand in Turkey (a project that ultimately “didn’t take off”, he later acknowledged). 

Undeterred, Bali moved to Silicon Valley in 2009 and joined the Founder Institute incubator. There, he reconnected with childhood friend Oktay Çağlar, another Turkish software engineer, and began pitching a big idea: a global online education marketplace.

Founding Udemy – From Pitches to Product

In 2009–2010, Bali teamed up with Oktay Çağlar (engineering) and New Yorker Gagan Biyani (business) to launch Udemy. They envisioned “a world where anyone could learn anything – from any expert in the world”. 

In early trials, they even tested a live virtual classroom in Turkey for corporate clients. But the real vision was broader: to democratize education through self-published courses. Initially, it was launched as a 'virtual learning academy.'

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The founding wasn’t smooth. Bali and his team pitched their idea to countless investors (hundreds of slides and meetings, by one account) but got “rejected over and over”. They persisted, tweaking the platform and business model. 

By 2010, after landing seed funding from angels like Keith Rabois and Naval Ravikant, Bali officially launched Udemy in San Francisco. Bali quickly learned the hard way that startups are a rollercoaster: roadblocks and pivots were common, but “his idea finally began to take off” as users and instructors joined the platform.

From the Founder (Eren Bali): “Even though the internet doesn’t completely level out education, it does give people the chance to catch up.” – Bali on why he was driven to build Udemy.

Collaborators – Building the A-Team

Udemy’s growth was a team effort. The founding trio each brought something vital: Bali had vision and product skills, Oktay had deep technical expertise (they’d built platforms together before), and Gagan had go-to-market hustle. 

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Early investor Russ Fradin (who funded Udemy’s Series A) praised Bali’s focus, recalling that when Udemy grew, “Eren’s top priority at the time … was to build a company that people wanted to work at”. 

Cofounder Gagan echoed respect for Bali’s integrity even during their split, noting he “felt [he] had a lot of respect throughout his exit process”.

Other collaborators shaped Bali’s journey, too. At Udemy, early mentors and advisors (like Keith Rabois, Naval Ravikant, and others) provided guidance and capital. 

Later, at Carbon Health, Bali joined forces with former ER doctor Caesar Djavaherian and tech entrepreneur Tom Berry (and Dr. Greg Burrell) to launch the health startup. Each partnership played to Bali’s strengths and ambitions.

Udemy’s Rise – A Founding and Growth Saga

Udemy’s early years read like a gritty startup drama—equal parts exhilarating growth and tough decisions. After its 2010 launch in San Francisco, the platform rapidly attracted a diverse crowd of instructors—managers, chefs, farmers, artists—all eager to teach what they knew. It was a fresh take on learning, one that felt democratic, accessible, and driven by the people.

By 2011, Udemy had started to gain traction with investors. Early funding helped the team scale, and Eren Bali stepped fully into the CEO role. But with growth came friction. By 2012, internal tensions bubbled to the surface. Cofounder Gagan Biyani’s aggressive management style was creating waves among the team. 

In a defining moment of leadership, Bali made the painful decision to let Biyani go as president. It wasn’t easy, especially between friends, but for Bali, culture came first. As Gagan himself later admitted, Bali’s top priority was always to build a company people genuinely wanted to work for.

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Over the next two years, Udemy’s course catalog and global footprint expanded rapidly. By 2014, the platform had become one of the world’s go-to places for online education. Bali, having steered the ship through its crucial formative stages, stepped aside as CEO to become chairman while remaining actively involved on the board. 

Udemy’s momentum didn’t stop. By 2020, it boasted more than 18 million learners and 34,000 instructors. That number would only skyrocket to over 44 million learners engaging with more than 183,000 courses by 2021.

Between 2015 and 2021, Udemy evolved from a scrappy startup into a global education powerhouse. With fresh leadership at the helm, the company raised successive rounds of venture capital, expanded its team across continents, and ultimately filed to go public in late 2021. 

By the time of its IPO, Udemy had a multibillion-dollar valuation. Fast forward to today, and the company serves learners in over 180 countries—each course, each student, a small part of the dream Bali had once sketched in his head while teaching himself math in a remote Turkish village.

Today – Beyond Udemy: Carbon Health

After stepping aside at Udemy, Bali turned full-time to healthcare. In 2015 he founded Carbon Health (with Dr. Caesar Djavaherian and others) to “completely redesign” how clinics work. 

Carbon Health has since grown rapidly: by 2021, it boasted 83 clinics in 12 states and was valued at about $3.3B. It raised hundreds of millions (over $538M by 2021) and even built an electronic health record system of its own. 

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Bali describes Carbon’s mission as knocking down barriers to healthcare, similar to how Udemy knocked down barriers to education.

However, the startup world turned more sober after COVID. Carbon Health’s valuation later came down to roughly $1.4B by early 2023, and the company had to restructure some operations. 

Still, Bali’s leadership at Carbon has earned praise, and he remains Executive Chairman. In mid-2024, he announced he’d “return to Udemy” as Chief Technology Officer, since Udemy is his first baby.” 

He now splits his time between his two founding passions: scaling Carbon’s mission to make care affordable and ensuring Udemy continues its global learning mission.

Founder Fuel: What You Can Steal from Eren’s Playbook

His persistence showed early on, long before Udemy was a household name. In 2009, with nothing more than a prototype and a bold idea, Bali pitched Udemy to more than thirty investors—and heard “no” at nearly every door. 

Instead of folding, he sharpened his vision and pushed forward. That one eventual “yes” wasn’t just validation; it was fuel. It marked the turning point that allowed Udemy to officially launch and begin changing how the world learns.

But the struggles didn’t stop at funding. In 2012, internal tensions threatened to fracture the young company. Cofounder Gagan Biyani’s leadership style had begun to clash with the culture Bali envisioned. 

It was Bali who made the gut-wrenching call to part ways with him. The move wasn’t personal—it was principle. Bali believed that a company’s culture wasn’t a perk; it was the product. He chose long-term trust over short-term ease.

His mission-driven approach was never performative. It was personal. Udemy was born from his own experience growing up in a rural Turkish village with no access to quality education—learning through online math forums became his lifeline. 

Years later, when his mother struggled with basic healthcare access, he co-founded Carbon Health to reimagine what equitable, tech-driven care could look like. In both ventures, he wasn’t chasing markets; he was solving the very problems that shaped his life.

And then, there was his obsession with learning. The same curiosity that earned him a silver medal in the International Math Olympiad as a teen never dimmed. When he stepped back from Udemy’s CEO role, he didn’t retreat—he studied. 

He learned the ins and outs of the U.S. healthcare system, dove deep into electronic health records, and built Carbon Health’s tech stack from the ground up. It wasn’t enough for him to lead; he wanted to understand every layer.

Final Thoughts

The most remarkable thing about Eren Bali’s story isn’t the money. It’s the motive.

He didn’t set out to chase unicorns or headlines. He built Udemy because he knew what it felt like to be left out of the classroom. He started Carbon Health because he watched the healthcare system fail his own family.

These weren’t abstract pain points. They were personal. Lived. Real. As Bali himself reflects, the internet gave him a way to “catch up” with education, and he’s paid it forward by enabling millions of learners worldwide. 

And that’s the point: the strongest startups don’t come from brainstorming sessions or investor pitch decks. They come from the places where life bruises you. The places where the system doesn’t work, and you decide to fix it anyway.

So if you’re a founder, here’s the real question:
What problem have you lived… that no one else can solve like you?

Because that’s where your story starts.