The Leadership Blueprint Behind Scaling HackerU: Ariel Cohen On Growing Cybersecurity Training From 400 To 6,000 Students

~Akanksha Harsh

Cybersecurity itself is a niche industry, and cybersecurity education, as a result, is still a burgeoning field. While the age of social media and artificial intelligence now demands cybersecurity to be catered towards the general public more, this wasn’t the case a decade ago. 

Looking back, few success stories exemplify the transformative leadership found in the cybersecurity education platform HackerU as vividly as its remarkable growth.

And a lot of that success is all thanks to one individual. Ariel Cohen, serving as HackerU’s VP of Sales and Marketing and later as CEO, skillfully orchestrated an explosive growth trajectory that redefined the company’s impact and reach.

Cohen knows his success, stating: “Over 12 years, thousands of students entered computer sciences and cybersecurity globally—changing lives and creating jobs. Testimonials from successful graduates sustained me in that role. The global sales strategy and model I built are still used in the U.S., Israel, India, Poland, Singapore, and Australia.”

After all, one has to imagine this situation to grasp his impact fully - here was the scenario: annual enrollments for the education platform sit at 400 students. Staff is small, and teams are numbered. 

But once Cohen took the lead, annual enrollments catapulted to 6,000 students by 2006. While initially just the 11th employee in 2009, Cohen’s leadership allowed them to expand to 150 employees. His strategies, both as VP and CEO, laid the groundwork for the company’s success and eventual evolution into ThriveDX. Eventually, Cohen led the company to dominate the Israeli market and became a global powerhouse in digital skills from 2009 onwards. 

So, how exactly did Cohen achieve this feat? 

The Story of Exponential Growth

Cohen joined HackerU back then as a regular employee. By 2009, he was the 11th employee ever to enter. At the time, HackerU was a small school offering only a handful of courses. The team handling everything was tiny, but it was proportionate to the number of students that they had in the first place. But HackerU realized there was still more room to grow, expand, and innovate. It was a nascent player, but it had the capacity to change everything. 

To succeed in this, it needed a leader. Cohen quickly rose through the ranks — he was, first and foremost, a good worker. His peers and colleagues admire this about him. For example, Amin Ben Ayoun, an investment banker specializing in Mergers and Acquisitions, remembers: “His most prominent business trait is his creativity and his unique ability to bridge significant gaps. In the complex world of Global Technology and Cybersecurity, the ability to find a creative middle ground is rare and invaluable.” It makes sense now that Cohen eventually transitioned into business. Even back in HackerU, he was known for spotting niches they could fill. 

This was mainly instrumental in becoming the VP of Sales and Marketing. He would identify gaps that HackerU could fill for potential clients and students, and market HackerU’s specific qualities and benefits to address those gaps. As a result, attention was grabbed. With eyes then on HackerU, Cohen knew he could do more.

He turned all the attention to proper consideration for enrolling in their courses, highlighting the best possible perks HackerU could offer. Cohen highlighted the need to gain expertise from experience, hands-on training, and industry knowledge, all of which HackerU could offer. 

If one were to prompt Cohen for things he was proud of, there’s no doubt that HackerU would come first in his mind. He states: “The best example is HackerU—it was my baby. I joined as the 11th employee in 2009. By the time I became CEO of the U.S. department that I founded, we had hundreds of employees in Israel, and it was the most successful cybersecurity and computer sciences school in the country. It was exhausting, long hours, but one of the best periods of my life—expanding globally and building something massive. 

Starting the U.S. operation showed me what I'm truly good at; before that, I was strong in sales, marketing, and business development, but international expansion elevated me.” Eventually, the surge that Cohen helped drive put HackerU on the map, transforming it from a small operation into a leader in the industry. 

Innovative Marketing and Sales Strategies

There would be no success without Cohen’s highly targeted marketing campaigns. All he did could be distilled into a singular question: what does HackerU have that people must become students for to gain? The answer must be straightforward in HackerU’s marketing campaigns to attract attention and potential clients as much as possible. The good thing is that Cohen was naturally skilled in building strategies, narratives, and marketing campaigns from the ground up. 

One of the first things Cohen did was to create a “sorting stage.” More than just seeing the gaps HackerU could fill, he realized potential students were deeply afraid. Generally, prospective students were fearful of three things: one, they wouldn’t be good at the subject; two, that they wouldn’t be able to find a job; and three, that they wouldn’t enjoy the work. 

Cohen went ahead and offered students who decided to try it out a whole month of studying with evaluations. With a money-back guarantee trial, they could opt out after the month was over, especially if the students didn’t like the course or deemed themselves unsuitable for it. 

The results were outstanding. Through this strategy, Cohen was able to eliminate multiple fears at once. There were guaranteed jobs for graduates, and it turned education sales meetings up to 80%, especially for same-day deal closings from interviews. From then forward, the company grew successfully. In the end, Cohen dramatically boosted conversion rates, fueling demand in a competitive landscape. Due to the various programs he launched, HackerU stands today as an institution to vie for. 

Fostering a Culture of Collaboration and Continuous Improvement

But it isn’t just sales and marketing that Cohen excels in. After years in the VP of Sales and Marketing role at HackerU, he led the expansion into the United States, where he served as CEO. 

More than marketing strategies, Cohen is also a skilled leader. His leadership is more than just metrics — he actively contributes to a high-performance culture. He’s experienced in talent acquisition and collaboration, and he always believes in relentless improvement. He manages sales, marketing, and business development, all the while building teams that thrived on data-driven decisions and innovation. 

Cohen stands out as a hard worker. Despite being at the top of the company, he never forgets his hands-on approach. He’s meticulous and extremely thorough, making sure that everything started gets a success in the end. His work ethic is astounding, and he takes pride in it, confidently saying, “I finish every day with a clean inbox and completed tasks, no matter the hour.” 

But one thing about Cohen is that he doesn’t work alone. In fact, he highly prefers to harness his skills in a collaborative setting. When asked about aspects of his professional life that he loved, he reveals: “First, I love working with people. I prefer daily face-to-face or Teams meetings over solitary work like coding or AI development. Second, I love mobility and international work. For the past nine years, my career has involved frequent global travel, especially to the United States, and has changed my routines and sense of adventure. Third, I enjoy success and the ability to help others along the way—finding jobs, raising money, and selling companies. The positive impact feels great, regardless of financial reward.” 

One can see how anchored Cohen is in doing good with and for other people. Even with offices often setting workers up in work-from-home or hybrid setups, he fosters a culture of collaboration rather than letting such arrangements erode work relationships and chemistry. He fits in well wherever he’s assigned in the country to do his job, and best of all, he prioritizes helping other people. More than financial success, he’s dedicated to leaving a good impact wherever he goes. He, as he puts it, leads from the front — he’s up for any task at all, especially if it involves being able to be with his team. He cleaned floors as a CEO, and there’s no doubt that he’s down to make sure even the most minor, mundane tasks are done, even if he has to do it himself. 

Gerry Stoch, Director of the New York State and State of Iowa Representative Offices in Israel, praises this expertise of Cohen’s: “He sells his expertise – he does not pretend to know something he is not familiar with.” Cohen knows where to help out and where to let other people shine. Whatever it is, you’ll be sure to find Cohen doing the work. 

Finally, Cohen values his word and ethics highly.  He highlights: “I'm always helping others—jobs, connections, business growth—purely for good karma. Today, I even connected two separate meetings because I saw potential synergy.” Anyone can see that this hands-on approach to leadership not only scaled operations but also prepared both Cohen and HackerU for their international ventures. 

Setting the Stage for Global Expansion

Cohen focused relentlessly on student commitment and operational excellence. He continued to bring students in, but he made sure they stayed — and graduated with the best skills HackerU had to offer. As HackerU rose to become Israel’s dominant provider, it paved the way for its 2021 rebranding as ThriveDX. Today, the education platform doesn’t just provide education; it also works with non-profits globally, sponsoring student scholarships, developing training programs, and offering talent placement services. 

Best of all, Cohen was skilled in choosing the right places to expand to: “I'm also exceptional at helping companies penetrate international markets—choosing locations, building workforce pipelines, and launching sales efficiently. I currently advise multiple companies on this while working on M&A and Crack It.” 

Gil Adani, one of the founders of HackerU, highlights how Cohen changed their entire company, remembering: “Our field in Israel has a lot of competition, he always knew how to make the best sales system, and the marketing was the finest in Israel for a college. He knew how to penetrate new markets, and his work helped us a lot in raising millions of dollars to expand the company.”

Ido Steinberger, another peer of Cohen — the CEO of Ewave Mobile Ltd — agrees: “He is very talented, brokering M&A deals, knows how to solve issues without letting emotions disrupt the deal flow, and is a deal maker. Also, even as a consultant, some people in the office looked at him as a leader on the US expansion.”

Cohen has his own blueprint for success. With his unique expertise, he combined strategic innovation and barrier removal that highlighted tech education. His journey from employee to VP to CEO is an example of how a visionary like Cohen can scale HackerU through exemplary leadership. 

About the Author: Aakanksha Harsh is a business and technology writer covering digital innovation, startups, and industry trends.