Podcast Summary: Making It with Jon Davids
Episode 212 - "Here's How We Accidentally Made Millions Of Dollars"
Guest: Adam Miller, Founder of Cornerstone OnDemand
Date: September 16, 2025

Overview

In this captivating episode, Jon Davids sits down with Adam Miller, the founder behind Cornerstone OnDemand, the e-learning and enterprise SaaS powerhouse that sold for $5.2 billion. Miller shares the unlikely journey from a New York apartment and a whiteboard to building a cloud-based corporate training platform long before such terms existed. They dive into the perils and pivots of building early internet startups, the accidental multi-million dollar deals, the evolution of LA’s tech ecosystem, and Adam's current philanthropic mission to tackle some of society’s most intractable problems, such as homelessness.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Humble Beginnings of Cornerstone OnDemand

[01:06–07:49]

• Starting in New York: Adam Miller began what was then "Cyber U" in a Manhattan apartment, leveraging friends and colleagues as co-founders and initial investors.
  • “Started literally in a small apartment ... with nothing more than really a whiteboard and an idea.” – Adam [01:18]
• Early Vision: The initial vision was to use the internet for adult education, targeting those with the least access due to location, schedule, or cost.
• Content Focus: Early on, classes were mostly professional development, sourced from professors pioneering online education in the late ‘90s.
  • “For probably the first seven or eight years of the company, the answer was nobody. Nobody had ever taken an online class.” – Adam [02:31]

2. Navigating Pivots and Initial Growth

[07:49–13:42]

• 'Cyber U' Name and First Pivot: Adam expected broadband to be widespread in two years (off by a few), so they structured the business as a meta-mediary connecting content providers and learners.
• Product Approach: Chose to distribute (not create) education content, learning from the rapid evolution of the CD-ROM business.
• Market Shift Post-Dotcom Bust: The bursting of the dotcom bubble forced a pivot from consumer to enterprise sales.
  • “We realized hey, it’s going to be easier if we sell to companies... So literally every two weeks, we’d go to New York, talk to people at these big companies, get their feedback, fly back to LA, build it.” – Adam [07:49]
• First Clients Were Giants: Unexpectedly, their first deals were with Solomon Smith Barney, Aon, and Washington Mutual – all seven-figure contracts.
  • “Our very first deals ended up being seven figure deals.” – Adam [11:41]

3. Surviving in Advance of the Market

[13:42–19:14]

• Surviving While Being Early: Adam estimates it took seven years for the market to catch up to their vision.
  • “I’d say it took seven years.” – Adam [14:12]
• LA Tech Pioneering: It was challenging to find experienced tech talent and capital in LA at the time. East coast and Silicon Valley VCs were reluctant, which forced significant discipline and scrappiness.
• Seed Round Origin: Remarkably, Adam’s initial capital came from his finance colleagues and superiors after resigning.
  • “My seed money came from everybody I worked for.” – Adam [16:07]

4. Funding, IPO, and Holding to Principles

[19:14–27:14]

• Minimal Venture Capital Before IPO: Raised only $20 million before going public in 2011, despite a prolonged growth period.
• IPO Strategy and Timing: Adam rushed the IPO, believing the market could only support three public companies in their space. The company went public during the week of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear meltdown but succeeded nevertheless.
  • “We ended up pricing the deal on St. Patty’s Day ... at $13 a share and ended up opening at $18 a share. So it was considered very successful.” – Adam [24:37]
• Sticking to SaaS: Consistently refused to let clients install the software on-premises, insisting on 100% SaaS, even at the cost of losing large deals.
  • “If we ever do it even one time, we’re going to ruin the business ... so we never did it ... It was very risky, because we needed those deals early on and we did in fact lose a lot of those deals.” – Adam [24:57]

5. Building LA’s Tech Ecosystem

[28:03–31:32]

• Community Building: Adam was instrumental in founding LA’s tech identity, from initiating a tech summit to mentoring and accelerating other startups.
• Evolution of LA Tech: LA shifted from a city where “it was uncool to be in tech” to being a top-tier tech center.
  • “Now everybody wants to be in tech. It’s the hot industry.” – Adam [31:04]

6. The Exit and Transition to Philanthropy

[32:15–37:02]

• Cornerstone Culmination: Acquired their largest rival and, after 20 years, sold the company to Clearlake Capital in a $5.2B all-cash deal.
  • “At the end, we were definitively number one ... delivered about 2 billion courses ... in 192 countries.” – Adam [33:29]
• Personal Transition: COVID coincided with Adam’s exit, leading to an abrupt halt in travel and a period of recalibration.

7. Act Two: Tackling Homelessness and Systemic Issues

[37:02–47:43]

• New Mission: Through the 1P Foundation and new ventures, Adam is addressing homelessness, climate change, gun violence, and broader societal issues.
• Approach to Homelessness: Treating the challenge like a startup, focusing on prevention, leveraging microloans, affordable housing funds, and building better technology for outreach.
  • “We treat it like a high-growth startup ... focused on prevention ... starting an affordable housing fund to prove that the private sector can make money in this part of the market.” – Adam [41:52]
• Role of Private vs. Public Sectors: Asserts the private sector is far more efficient at building affordable housing, while some aspects (such as prevention) should be government-led, with models proven by NGOs.
  • “An individual unit ... is costing $750,000 ... We believe [the private sector] can do that same unit for $250,000 in 18 to 24 months.” – Adam [44:15]
• Resistance and Reception: Nonprofits have been receptive, but bureaucratic resistance remains in parts of government.
  • “Where we’ve had a little bit of resistance is ... the legislative bureaucracies ... they want the credit for fixing the problem.” – Adam [45:17]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “If we ever do it even one time, we’re going to ruin the business because that one time is going to become 100 times.” – Adam Miller on maintaining SaaS purity [24:57]
• “I always say that to be a successful entrepreneur you need to have three things. You’ve got to have passion ... persistence ... perseverance ... and there’s a fourth P, too: persuasive.” [28:03]
• “It was not socially acceptable to be in tech in LA. Like, everybody was either in entertainment or real estate... Now everybody wants to be in tech.” [31:04]
• “At the end, we were definitively number one ... delivered about 2 billion courses ... in 192 countries.” [33:29]
• “Housing specifically ... needs to be a private sector solution ... the private sector, we believe, can do that same unit for $250,000 in 18 to 24 months.” [44:15]

Timestamps for Major Segments

• [01:06] – Adam Miller intro and founding story
• [07:49] – Product development, dotcom bust, moving to enterprise sales
• [11:18] – Landing multi-million contracts by accident
• [13:42] – Surviving seven years ahead of the market
• [16:07] – Origin of seed funding and impact of the dotcom bust
• [19:14] – Raising only $20M pre-IPO, discipline and capital efficiency
• [22:23] – The IPO coinciding with Fukushima disaster
• [24:57] – Refusing on-premise deals and sticking to SaaS
• [28:03] – Building the LA tech community
• [32:15] – Exit strategy, company sale, and Adam’s “second act”
• [37:02] – Mission-driven philanthropic work
• [41:52] – Tackling homelessness: approach and philosophy
• [44:15] – Private sector vs. government in solving housing
• [45:17] – Flying solo: bureaucratic resistance in solving homelessness
• [47:22] – Where to follow Adam’s philanthropic work (onep.org)

Final Thoughts

Adam Miller’s story is a masterclass in resilience, visionary thinking, and mission-driven entrepreneurship. His journey illustrates the value of sticking to your principles—even at significant short-term cost—and the often unseen power of being early to a market. As he moves into philanthropy, Miller is bringing a startup mentality to entrenched societal problems, demonstrating that the same disruptive approaches that shaped LA tech can potentially transform communities and lives.

Learn more about Adam Miller’s ongoing initiatives:

• onep.org – Philanthropy and "second act" work
• onepventures.com – For-profit ventures