Overview
Reforge began as a professional education business for experienced technology workers. Brian Balfour and Andrew Chen created its first Growth Series in 2016. The company later combined expert-led courses with product-development software for teams.[1]
Miro agreed to acquire Reforge in March 2026, including its people, learning platform, and products. A later Miro job listing described the acquisition as complete. Reforge Learning continues as a separate brand, while its product tools are planned for integration into Miro.[2] [3] [1]
Image 1 / 1
Founding Story
Balfour had worked as a startup founder and as vice president of growth at HubSpot. He and Chen, then an operator and writer on growth, collaborated on the first Growth Series. The program addressed a gap they saw in practical education for people already working in technology, where job requirements changed faster than traditional executive education.[4] [1]
Rather than begin with a large course catalog, Reforge built around contributions from practitioners and a community of experienced members. a16z described its programs as multi-week and designed for people to apply lessons while working. That combination made the instructor network part of the product: the company needed experts willing to turn their experience into material, and members willing to pay for it.[4]
Timeline
- 2016: Balfour and Chen created the first Growth Series.[1]
- February 2021: a16z announced it was leading a Series A. Balfour said Reforge had bootstrapped for five years and was profitable with eight-figure revenue at the time.[4] [5]
- 2022–2024: Class Central reported several rounds of layoffs as Reforge’s business changed.[6]
- March 2026: Miro announced an agreement to acquire Reforge. A later Miro listing described Reforge as acquired by June.[2] [3]
What They Built
Reforge sold access to courses, guides, examples, and a professional community. Early programs focused on growth and product management. The company later added more topics and made its learning available through annual membership. The current individual plan includes live and on-demand courses, guides, and artifacts; teams can buy multiple seats.[4] [7]
The company also built software for product teams. Balfour identified three products, Insights, Research, and Build, as joining Miro’s platform. Their planned integration joined learning about product work with tools used to conduct it. The sources do not establish how much each product contributed to revenue.[1]
Market Position
Target Customers
Reforge initially addressed experienced product, growth, marketing, and engineering professionals. Individual membership served practitioners; team plans gave employers a way to buy and administer access for groups.[4] [7]
Market Size
The available evidence does not establish a defensible market size for Reforge’s specific combination of expert-led professional education and product software. General corporate-training spending would overstate the immediate customer pool.
Competition
Reforge competed for learning budgets and attention against online courses, employer training, free practitioner writing, and communities. Its paid proposition rested on curated practitioner expertise, materials, and cohort access. Its product tools also entered a separate software market, where Miro and other product-workflow platforms already served teams.[4] [1]
Business Model
Membership provided recurring access to educational materials. In 2021 Balfour said the company had reached eight-figure revenue and profitability before raising $21 million. Those were founder-reported figures for that point in time; they do not establish later margins. The current pricing page lists an individual subscription at $1,995 per year and team packages with more seats.[5] [7]
Outcome and evolution
Funding changed the growth options
Reforge used customer revenue to fund its early years. Balfour said the 2021 financing was a choice made after the business had become profitable, rather than a requirement to keep operating. That distinction matters when assessing its later changes: raising money expanded the resources available, but the public record does not show that funding alone caused the product expansion or layoffs.[5]
Learning and software joined a larger platform
Class Central reported layoffs in 2022, 2023, and 2024. The same account says the smaller team subsequently shipped several AI products. Those events describe a change in operating scale, but the sources do not establish the financial contribution of each product or a single cause for the sale.[6]
Miro’s March 2026 announcement named Reforge’s people, learning platform, and products in the agreement. Balfour said Learning would remain at Reforge.com without a Miro account, while Insights, Research, and Build would join Miro’s product offering. Miro initially described the transaction as subject to closing conditions; a later job listing called Reforge acquired. Financial terms and the exact closing day were not established.[2] [1] [3]
Key Lessons
- Start with a specific professional job. The Growth Series gave Reforge a focused audience before it broadened its subjects.
- Funding is a choice with consequences. Balfour reported a profitable business before the Series A, giving the company options about how to finance expansion.
- A brand can survive integration. Miro planned to retain Reforge Learning separately while integrating its software products. The two parts of a deal can take different paths.