Stormwind Studios review: Don't Trust Them 15

Wow, you're way off on this. I'm not saying Graunke is perfect, but I do have information on this. Did you know that the investors got 95% of their money back when most dot coms lost all of it? The VC investors got $70 million back. That's pretty good. Are you one of the people that got laid off or fired from KnowledgeNet during the dot com crash? You seem a bit bitter and are throwing him under the bus.

I also know that stormwind ventures has lots of investments. Some are doing ok and some were hurt due to the economy. Don't know a lot about stormwind studios other than I hear they are doing really well. The founder of Insight, Tim Crown, is one of the big backers. They are a Fortune 500 company. He has a great reputation.

This guy David Leshin seems to be a professional complainer. He is all over the web here in Arizona complaining about everything from the lottery to a local school system to how badly someone made his sandwich. Get a life dude. He blasted my old company a few years ago and distorted the hard work of hundreds of my team members. Sad that some goofball who has a bone to pick can't pick up the phone or send an email and handle his issues like a man.

Connect the dots with the companies he complains about by googling them and you will find one Arizona profile on linkedin that most likely tells you who behind "david leshin."

DId you know that Tom Graunke almost sent a small business that he took over out of business until someone came to the rescue of Hot Stix Golf? Tom is good at running companies into the ground but making off with millions while others try to put things back together.

DO NOT SIGN UP WITH STORMWINDS!
I signed up for Stormwinds last February for the Cisco training and had trouble with the live classes from the start. They would stop and start over and over and freeze the screen. I only had the option of watching the recorded classes. The purpose of me taking these courses was to interact with the live instructor with I could not do. I callled the customer service support line and they tried to help and had me try changing some browzer settings but still would not work. Also about April timeframe they launched a new website with was supposed to improve everything and it did not. I emailed the customer support center at least 3 times and did get some help but nothing to correct the screen freezing up. I stopped payment for there services around July... The original rep I signed up with after contacting him this week said they had no record of me calling in or anything. I forwarded him the emails from earlier this year. I said I would like to try and resume training from the start and pay them the rest of the money owed if they could start me up again and see if the screen freezing up issue would be resolved and if it was I would pay them the remainder. He said I would just have to start over and pay the whole amount about 2500.00 before I could get started. I had already paid in access of 1500.00 dollars.. I would not recommend signing up with this company for anything to anyone DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!
Dave from Charlotte, NC

I bought into the whole "hollywood meets business" aspect. Turns out the "live" classes are just basic powerpoint with instructor audio and an occasional animation that is really not very beneficial or helpful. Yes there are some camera angle changes but how is that helping me learn? The screen share parts of the class are nearly impossible to see. Seems that the "hollywood" part only exisit in the marketing videos used to sell you the class as they make it seem like the classes are visually engaging but they are NOT. Overall the classes and content are not clearly presented, the instructors often make speaking errors and I found many of the visuals are not relevant to what is being taught (this was very confusing)

An expensive lesson no doubt. I'll be going back to real classes from now on.

There elearning is a joke. Instructor Ryan Lindfield is a total incompadent and thinks he knows everything and talks down to you. If you answer any of his questions and get it right he changes the question to tell you how your wrong. This guy needs to stop teaching. I have taken class there before and never had an instructor like him.

28th of Apr, 2015 by VPIT_Person -- Wondering how it went with the Stormwind for your IT Team?

came across this old post. I'm not sure where the guy got his info that claims that 95% of investors got there money back, because I happen to know that none of the employees who had shares got a dime back. all their shares were worth a big fat $0. even Jim Buckley, former knowledgenet board member and former ceo of smart force got $0 for his shares. and he was pissed. The only ones that got any money back were cisco and finance companies. anyone who had common share got 0. only preferred shareholder got anything back. employees had common shares. so the ones who worked hard based on promises, got zip. and now tom graunke is at it again as my gf works for his new company.

searching "tom graunke" and found this old post. i'm not sure what quickr is talking about because all the old knowledgenet employees that bought their shares of knowledgenet stock got a big fat ZERO return on their investments. it's easy to verify by finding old knet employees on linkedin and ask them how much their stock was worth when it was sold. lots of us stayed because we were told there would be a big payout. but when the company was sold it was sold at a loss so we got ZERO. even jim buckley who was on the board got ZERO. so I have a hard time trusting graunke's promises at his new company.

Never trust anyone who presses or encourages you to sign up for anything. If you want something, do your research, and spend the time to choose what works for you. Never underestimate the power of hard selling and persuasion. If E-Learning is what you want, seek creditable universities and community colleges. The credits transfer and you can begin a undergraduate degree that will last you a lifetime. Certificates of e-learning will get you nowhere in the real world hiring of the corporate world, unless you are completing courses for certifications testing (A++, Cisco, MCSE, CompTIA Security+, etc.). Then they may help you pass the test, but all that knowledge is also in books. Remember the book? its a processed natural wood product that for centuries had been the standard for record keeping and communications. Happy Fishing!- and tight lines. :)

Regards,
Retired -MSChE '93, PhD '96

"StormWind Studios " "Scottsdale Arizona Virtual IT Training
Phoenix, Arizona Online Training" IT PMP Cisco Microsoft Rip
"Hollywood Meets IT businesss" my butt...Holloywood meets IV training after they suck your blood from your lifeless body...

"Never trust a Company that pulls your moderate salary and commission after dominating and initiating a substantial portion of their program. Greedy mother F

I don't quite understand the paid-training issue. I'm nearly 6 months into my unlimited subscription and have attended 7+ live classes and watched some pre-recorded ones. I renewed certifications via Stormwindstudios live classes, bosen virtual labs, and measure-up software which were all included in my subscription. There are limits to how much a live-online-classroom can do; and this one doesn't incorporate hands-on labs during the live sessions mainly because the classes are approximately 2-hours each day (several classes running throughout the day). Instructors have answered my live-class chat questions during the sessions and were quick to respond to email, and they are actively seeking user feedback on their website & delivery upgrades. I used to pay for CBT Nuggets once they went to an unlimited monthly subscription, and have Pluralsight and Lynda.com (LinkedIn Learning) premium subscriptions in addition to SkillSoft Books 24x7 and Safari Books Online. Having used these multiple platforms, I can say with insider-knowledge that StormwindStudios provides me a better learning experience than Pluralsight, but the CBT Nuggets presentations are the highest grade I've experienced... That being said, the extra class materials from SS makes it my first choice provider when looking to learn something.