Andrew Barnes, cofounder Brisbane workplace learning platform Go1, is following in the footsteps of Atlassian’s Scott Farquhar and relinquishing the co-CEO role at the $3 billion business.
Barnes has shared the role with cofounder Chris Eigeland since 2021 and spent nearly a decade as CEO since founding the edtech unicorn in a Brisbane garage with school mates Vu Tran and Chris Hood in 2015. Their big break came in the same year when Go1 was accepted into US tech Y-Combinator accelerator.
Barnes praised Eigeland as co-CEO over the last three years.
“We’ve been incredibly lucky that our skillsets have been complementary, helping Go1 get to where it is today,” he said.
“And now, as we embark on the tenth year in the journey, it feels like the right time to look back at what has been achieved and to also think about what is going to help the company into this next decade and beyond.
In a LinkedIn post announcing the change, Barnes said building the business was “undeniably a marathon” that’s “also gone by in the blink of an eye”.
“We have gone from a small team in Australia to a team of almost 600 spanning 19 countries,” he said.
“Learners complete a course or other resource on Go1 about 3 times every second. We have customers covering every industry and every segment you can think of.”
More than 10,000 organisations use Go1 for staff training, with 50 million registered users having completed courses on the platform.

Go1 CEO Chris Eigeland
Eigeland led sales, marketing and customer teams as chief revenue officer in Go1’s early days with Barnes at the helm, before joining him as co-CEO. In late 2023, Eigeland took over the direct reporting line for the exec team.
“Chris has always been naturally adept at bringing a team or indeed any group together. Over the years, this skill has only been strengthened through practice,” Barnes said.
“My area of focus recently has been on the strategy and long-term steps we need to take to navigate the 4-dimensional chess that is running a business that spans so many different stakeholder groups.”
Barnes said the company, which is pondering an IPO, needs simplicity in its leadership and he will take some time off in the immediate future
“By having a single CEO, we will be able to move faster on the day-to-day decisions, and I will continue to be able to focus on the long-term landscape for the company,”
“Chris has my full support and I’m looking forward to supporting him be an even more successful leader and CEO.”
Go1’s online learning platform has ridden the tailwinds of the global pandemic, integrating with HR platforms and workplace apps, it’s widely used to help with employee engagement, as well as addressing the skills gap.
In June 2022, Go1’s $154 million raise placed the company’s valuation to more than US$2 billion, having become a ‘unicorn’ (worth $1bn) with a Softbank-led Series D raise in mid 2021.
After acquiring UK content curation startup Anders Pink at the start of 2023, Go1 topped up an undisclosed round in May that year, backed by Insight Partners, alongside acquiring German learning app Blinkist.
The company’s ambition is to have 1 billion learners largest market is currently North America, followed by Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. It has offices in the US, South Africa, Vietnam, the UK and Malaysia, as well as Australia.
Go1 was named Scaleup of the Year in the 2023 Startup Daily Best in Tech awards.
The finalists for Scaleup in the 2024 awards are: AssuranceLab, Hnry, Xemplo and Deputy.
The winners will be announced at a gala dinner in Sydney on September 4. Tickets are on sale via Humanitix now.
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