Pros
The idea that the guild was built upon is truly amazing. Bring people from diverse backgrounds together and build a community of mutual learning and teaching. In a guild there aren't really teachers, but members with varying experience. The members share knowledge and in effect "teach" each other. This, combined with a few talented senior level engineers to oversee members' progress revived an older style of educational community that hasn't been seen for generations. I learned so much just from being immersed in a community of people with similar passions for technology.
Cons
The majority of the people that flocked to Learners Guild seemed to not understand what a guild actually is. And most of the people who enrolled had little to no previous experience. There was a requirement for 50+ hours of minimum experience, but I don't believe half of the people had that. The guild went from a great idea that needed a few tweaks, to being completely over hauled into a coding school for the people who went into a panic when the familiar structure of an American school wasn't there. There was a lot of entitlement in the learners there, people wanted to sign up and walk out with a job without really considering the reality of it all. It isn't easy to teach a bunch of people who didn't know what http was how to be capable developers while also paying them money to sustain themselves. It's even harder to maintain a business and continue to get money from investors for a business idea that is more about creating something for people to change their lives than it is for one strictly about draining money from people. I personally had a hard time with the members who had a sense of entitlement and inability to look at reality.