How Khan Academy started: math tutoring for 1 cousin

Khan Academy grew out of math help its founder, Sal Khan, gave 1 cousin over the phone in August 2004. Which year counts as the start depends on what you count. Here’s how Khan Academy started, year by year, with the source behind each fact. Then copy his setup with the free screen recorder already on your computer.

How Khan Academy started: 1 cousin, a phone and Yahoo Doodle

In 2004, Khan was working at a hedge fund in Boston, says Khan Academy’s history page. His cousin lived in another city and was stuck on unit conversion. So in August 2004, he started tutoring her from far away, after work.

His tools were basic. He talked to her on the phone and drew on Doodle, a drawing feature in the chat app Yahoo Messenger. MIT’s student newspaper The Tech reported this in 2011. She was in seventh grade, so we leave her name out.

As she improved in math class, word got around the family. Soon he was tutoring a handful of cousins and other relatives, the history page says.

Why he started recording the lessons

Live lessons meant everyone had to be free at the same time. The history page says scheduling became a real problem. In 2006, he started posting recorded lessons on YouTube, so everyone could watch at their own pace.

He didn’t make the videos private. In his March 2011 TED talk, he said strangers began finding them and sending him comments and letters.

From side project to full-time job, year by year

When did Khan Academy start? It depends on what you count. The tutoring began in August 2004, the YouTube lessons in 2006 and the nonprofit in 2008, says Khan Academy’s history page.

Each row names its source and the source type, so you can see which facts come from Khan Academy itself.

The catch: what he had going for him

Khan didn’t start from zero. By 1998 he had 3 degrees from MIT, 2 bachelor’s and a master’s, The Tech reported. He went to Harvard Business School from 2001 to 2003, then worked as a hedge fund analyst.

He also kept a paying job. He worked on Khan Academy in his spare time until fall 2009, about 5 years after the first lesson, the history page says. After he quit, he lived on his savings for 9 months, until his first big donation, from a donor named Ann Doerr.

You may not have degrees like that, or savings to live on. You don’t need either to copy how he began: teach 1 person, then record it. For 3 podcasts that also had a head start, see is it too late to start a podcast?

What you can copy from how Khan Academy started

• Make it for 1 real person. Khan started with 1 cousin and 1 gap: unit conversion.
• Record it so they can rewatch. His cousins could pause and repeat him.
• Share it, then make it public. Use Unlisted while you practice: anyone with the link can watch. Then switch to Public, because public is how strangers found Khan’s videos.

Here’s his setup next to the free tools on your computer.

Want your face in the corner too? See how to record your screen and face at the same time on a Mac.

For: [friend's name], stuck on 3 feet = ? inches
Take 1: Write the problem
Take 2: 1 foot = 12 inches
Take 3: 3 × 12 = 36 inches

What we don’t know

• The first video’s exact date. Khan Academy says 2006, and the channel joined YouTube on November 16, 2006. We found no source for the first upload.
• Early view counts. We found no source for how many people watched the first videos.
• When he used each tool. Khan Academy’s help page lists his earlier and later tools but gives no years.
• Which year counts as the founding. The Tech says 2006. Khan Academy’s history page says it was started in 2008, the nonprofit year, though its account of how it started begins in August 2004.

What to do next

• Pick 1 person who asked you how to do something. Write their name and 3 steps, then record 1 take per step today.
• Follow the full steps, from planning to joining your takes, in how to make a tutorial video by recording your screen.
• Feel stiff talking on camera? Try a 7-day plan for getting comfortable talking to a camera.
• For another start, built on what its founder wished he had, read how Matt Wolfe turned an AI tools spreadsheet into Future Tools.