One of my resolutions for this year is to create more videos and therefore I decided to reboot my KWVlog today. The general plan is to talk once or twice a week about what I’ve learned from my EDUKWEST interviews, blog posts and other talks.
So lets start with a recap of my latest EDUKWEST interview with Aaron Harris, co-founder and CEO of Tutorspree.
We already covered Tutorspree in a short blog post one week ago. The premise is simple: give parents the possibility to find great tutors for their kids. On the other hand Tutorspree wants to help tutors to earn more money. So, there are two pain points that Aaron and the team identified on the tutoring market today.
- Parents have actually not used the Internet a lot to find the best person to teach their kids due to issues of trust and lack of transparent evaluation norms.
- The market has been largely dominated by agencies in the US taking up to 80% of commission for the placement of tutors.
The solution: Tutorspree make sure that each individual educator passes their screening process before he/she is able to offer their services on the website in order to provide family with quality tutoring and having now worries about the person working with their kids. The tutors, on the other hand, can make a decent income on Tutorspree. I saw rates varying from around $40 up to $120 per hour depending on qualifications and location, of course and the commission the service take is significantly lower compared with the agency fees.
Most of the comments on TechCrunch which reported first about Tutorspree stated that neither the service was disruptive nor innovative and furthermore that there were already similar services that charge less or are available for free. That’s true but having said that, I believe the strengths of Tutorspree are really the clear and easy to use website and design that makes it possible to book a tutor in max 3 simple steps. The team really tried hard to minimize the hurdles in the online booking process even for non tech savvy parents. In my opinion, they succeeded and I think Alexia Tsotsis description of Tutorspree being the “airbnb” of online education.
I also dedicated part of the interview to Aaron’s experiences with the YCombinator programme and asked him in what way they got assistance and input from team and mentors over there.
I believe, this interview brings a lot to the table for my viewers as it shows you what a decent product & service you are able to build without having tons of money to invest into technology but by simply analyzing your market really well, by being smart and having the right founding team – and yes, the stress is on team!
Related Links:
- EDUKWEST #49 with Aaron Harris of Tutorspree
- Tutorspree
