Mountain Goat Software

What Mountain Goat Software does

Mountain Goat Software is an Agile and Scrum training and consulting firm founded in 1998 by Mike Cohn, co-founder of the Scrum Alliance and Agile Alliance. The company delivers professional agile training to enterprise and mid-market organizations across SaaS, Healthcare, Government, Financial Services, Energy, Aerospace, and other verticals, with 50,000+ professionals trained over its operating history. Its service portfolio spans private team workshops, public certification courses (Certified ScrumMaster, Certified Scrum Product Owner, Certified Scrum Developer), skills courses in user stories and agile planning, and on-demand video learning.

The company has built proprietary technology infrastructure to support training delivery, including the Team Home collaboration platform optimized for live online courses and the MGS AI Toolkit containing NLP-powered tools such as the Story Critic skill (which coaches teams on backlog item readiness) and the Lumberjack story-splitting tool. Physical products include the registered Planning Poker card deck, and a free MGS Essentials membership provides access to AI tools including the newly launched Plan Visualizer forecasting tool. Mike Cohn's three published books (User Stories Applied, Agile Estimating & Planning, Succeeding with Agile) anchor the content library and serve as foundational references in the agile community.

Revenue is generated primarily through per-seat and course-based pricing on professional training services, supplemented by physical product sales and an emerging portfolio of free and potentially monetizable AI tools. The go-to-market combines a discovery-call-led enterprise sales motion, inside sales for public scheduled courses, self-serve on-demand video, and community-led demand generation through the Agile Mentors Podcast, YouTube channel, weekly email tips newsletter, and blog. The company remains privately held with no disclosed external funding.

Name

Mountain Goat Software

Legal name

Mountain Goat Software, LLC

Website

http://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Mountain Goat Software is an Agile and Scrum training firm founded in 1998 by Mike Cohn, delivering certification courses, private workshops, and proprietary AI-enabled tools to enterprise and mid-market teams adopting agile practices.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Agile and Scrum Training Services

NAICS

Professional and Management Development Training (611430), Computer Training (611420)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Tools & Platforms Training (Jira, Azure DevOps, MS Project, Smartsheet, etc.) (EDABAHAH)

Keywords

• Agile training
• Scrum certification
• Agile consulting
• Scrum coaching
• Agile workshops

Headquarters

HQ city

Broomfield

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Professional Training Services: Mountain Goat Software generates revenue through professional agile and Scrum training services including private team workshops, public certification courses, and on-demand video learning. Training covers certifications (Certified ScrumMaster, Certified Scrum Product Owner) and skills courses (user stories, agile planning, backlog refinement). Revenue is primarily service-based with per-seat and course-based pricing.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Mountain Goat Software provides professional Agile and Scrum training and consulting services for organizations and individuals. The core offering includes private team workshops, public certification courses (CSM, CSPO, CSD), and skills courses on user stories, estimation, and planning, delivered live online or on-site. Supporting the training business are proprietary tools including the Team Home collaboration platform, the MGS AI Toolkit (Story Critic, Plan Visualizer), and physical Planning Poker card products.

Product overview

Mountain Goat Software is a training and education company specializing in Agile and Scrum methodologies. Founded by Mike Cohn, co-founder of the Scrum Alliance and Agile Alliance, the company offers a multi-format learning portfolio including live online courses, on-demand video training, private workshops, and certification preparation programs. The product line spans Certified ScrumMaster, Certified Scrum Product Owner, Certified Scrum Developer, Better User Stories, Mastering User Stories, and Agile Estimating and Planning courses. The company has expanded into AI-powered tools, most notably the Story Critic AI Skill for ChatGPT and Claude platforms that coaches teams on backlog item quality and refinement. Supporting infrastructure includes the proprietary Team Home collaboration platform for live online training, the MGS Essentials free membership program providing access to AI tools and the Plan Visualizer forecasting tool, physical Planning Poker card products, and the Agile Mentors Podcast. Mike Cohn's published books (User Stories Applied, Agile Estimating and Planning, Succeeding with Agile) serve as foundational reference materials for the training curriculum.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• Teams achieve shared language and consistent practices within 90 days of training
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers11 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

AI capability3 records

Feature4 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• ICAgile: ICAgile provides an independent agile certification track (ICAgile Certified Professional, ICP) and accredits training providers. It overlaps with MGS's certification offerings and competes for the same enterprise buyers seeking recognized agile credentials.
• Scrum.org: Founded by Ken Schwaber, co-creator of Scrum, Scrum.org offers Professional Scrum Master (PSM), Product Owner (PSPO), and Developer certifications that directly compete with Mountain Goat Software's CSM, CSPO, and CSD courses. Both firms serve enterprise agile training buyers with comparable certifications, courseware, and trainer networks.
• Scaled Agile: Scaled Agile offers the SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) certification and training portfolio—the dominant enterprise agile scaling framework. SAFe competes with Mountain Goat Software for enterprise agile training budgets, particularly at Fortune 500 companies scaling Scrum across large programs.

Others

• Scrum Alliance: The Scrum certification body co-founded by Mike Cohn; it licenses the Certified ScrumMaster and CSPO programs that Mountain Goat Software teaches. While not a direct competitor in delivery, it is the certifying organization whose curriculum and trainer network shape the market in which MGS operates.

Emerging players

• Agile Coaching Institute: Agile Coaching Institute provides Certified Agile Coach training and team coaching workshops focused on agile transformation. It overlaps with MGS's advanced training offerings and serves a similar enterprise and mid-market buyer seeking agile coaching depth.
• Radical Focus: Radical Focus, founded by Johanna Rothman, offers agile and product management workshops and consulting for software teams. It is a smaller, niche competitor in the agile/product training space with comparable workshop-based delivery for enterprise teams.
• BigVisible: BigVisible is a U.S.-based agile coaching and transformation consultancy that provides enterprise Scrum adoption and team coaching services. It competes with MGS in the private team training and agile coaching segment, though at smaller scale and with a narrower brand footprint.

Broad incumbents

• Pluralsight: Pluralsight is a large-scale technology skills platform offering on-demand courses across software development, agile, and project management. It overlaps with Mountain Goat Software's on-demand video learning and MGS Essentials membership for individual practitioner buyers, though it lacks MGS's instructor-led enterprise workshops.
• Atlassian University: Atlassian University offers certifications and training for Jira, Confluence, and agile practices built on Atlassian tools. It competes with MGS for enterprise agile training budgets at organizations standardizing on Atlassian's stack, particularly in the backlog management and sprint planning categories.
• LinkedIn Learning: LinkedIn Learning offers broad professional development video courses including agile and Scrum content. It competes with Mountain Goat Software's on-demand video and individual certification prep tracks, particularly for self-directed individual practitioners.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@MountainGoatSoftware
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/mikewcohn
• Xx.com/mikewcohn
• Facebookfacebook.com/MountainGoatSoftware

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Mountain Goat Software