Florida Funders continues to strengthen its Venture Partner Program with the addition of Corey Hynes, a seasoned entrepreneur whose journey from IT trainer to successful EdTech CEO and Executive Chair brings valuable operational expertise to our portfolio companies.

Building a Legacy in EdTech and SaaS

With roots in IT training stretching back to 1995, Corey Hynes has evolved from a hands-on trainer to a leader in educational technology and IT certification. After decades of consulting work helping software giants with education certification assessments, running the speaker circuit, and publishing works related to the field, Corey started his own e-learning company that would eventually become Skillable, a work-from-home experiential learning platform that now serves 75% of Forbes Global Top 20 Tech Companies.

As CEO, he led remarkable growth, merging the company with a competitor as it gained traction and scaling it from a 20-person operation to achieving nearly $30 million in revenue. Under Corey’s leadership, the company that now operates as Skillable maintained an impressive 30%+ annual growth rate for seven consecutive years, all within a 100% remote work environment.

From Operator to Advisor

After successfully scaling Skillable through private equity investment rounds and rebuilding its executive leadership team, Corey made a strategic pivot out of an operator position to allow his expertise in product and innovation to shine. Now serving as Executive Board Chair, he focuses on mentoring the executive team while driving product and platform strategy.

In addition to his work with Skillable, Corey currently serves as a board member for other EdTech companies, supports PE firms in their due diligence process as they look for new investments, and mentors young CEOs, many of whom are handling first-time institutional money—experience that directly translates to his role as a Florida Funders Venture Partner.

Corey’s Threefold Value Proposition

Corey brings three distinct areas of expertise to our EdTech and SaaS Fund 3 portfolio companies:

1. Product Strategy and Market Entry: Drawing from his experience building and scaling Skillable’s platform and using his product and operational lens to support PE firms in vetting potential new investments
2. Operational Excellence: Sharing insights on establishing effective day-to-day company management and operating cadence
3. Institutional Investment Navigation: Helping founders adapt to the dynamics of working with institutional investors for the first time, manage their transition from pure founder to having owners, and bridge the gap of understanding between founders and investors

His experience holding both operational and board-level responsibilities will allow him to serve as an independent voice and listening ear for founders, helping them vent, grow, and learn.

“Many investors don’t do a perfect job of articulating why they need what they need. A lot of them have never run companies,” he notes. “It’s important to help the management team bridge the gap, make the transition, and understand the investor perspective so they can better respond to and anticipate it.”

A Balanced Approach to Due Diligence

Corey brings a comprehensive perspective to evaluating potential investments, allowing him to cut through the hype and pinpoint startups with all the winning keys to success.

“A great founder with a crap product is probably going to fail. You need both to be great,” he emphasizes. “You have to have a thing that people want to buy and want to buy at scale.”

From his perspective, a successful startup also needs the right operational cadence, an evolving technology stack, a strong strategy, and an org chart that reflects that strategy.

This technical and operational scrutiny complements Florida Funders’ investment approach, ensuring portfolio companies have the star-level leadership, essential product-market fit, and strategy needed for sustainable growth.

Looking Ahead

As Florida Funders’ newest Venture Partner, Corey is particularly excited about the portfolio’s diversity of companies. He sees the current market conditions as an opportunity for exceptional companies to stand out, noting that while cash is hard to find and competition among startups seeking funding is high, these conditions mean investors can be more selective, taking advantage of the “A+ assets that can bubble up to the surface more easily.”

His enthusiasm for helping other founders learn from his own past mistakes and his depth of operational experience makes him an ideal addition to the Florida Funders Venture Partner Program. As we continue to build the Southeast’s most promising tech ecosystem, leaders like Corey Hynes exemplify our commitment to providing founders with the strategic guidance and expertise needed to scale successfully in addition to funding.

We look forward to seeing how Corey helps our Fund 3 portfolio companies level up and seize their full potential.