Tutorspree (YC W11) Is An Airbnb For Tutoring

http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/26/tutorspree/

by razin • 15 years ago

148 63 15 years ago

danest2• 15 years ago

Any information on how the three founders met?

akharris15• 15 years ago

Sure: Josh and I have known each other for years through mutual friends. We started working on the idea that would become Tutorspree at the beginning of the summer, and as we realized we were onto something, started figuring out how to round out our team.

That led to a full on search for a technical co-founder back in NYC. It took a fair amount of doing (and if you want to know more about finding a great technical co-founder in NYC, happy to discuss some more). After a lot of work, we found Ryan, and it's been great ever since.

sachinag5• 15 years ago

Yes, the search for a technical co-founder is easily something that would interest, oh, about a million other people.

danest2• 15 years ago

Aaron how much of technical background did you and Josh have when you first started building the website and also when did you guys realize that you had something?

Also do you guys plan on staying in NYC or moving out to California?

milkshakes• 15 years ago

i'd like to know more about finding a tech co-founder in nyc, how can i reach you?

ryanb3• 15 years ago

I met aaron and josh through HN, actually

adelevie• 15 years ago

How does YC compare to DreamIt? ;)

chancho• 15 years ago

"Founded by ... the startup is disruptive in the sense that the tutoring space up until now has been monopolized by..."

Tech journalism bingo in one sentence!

rottencupcakes2• 15 years ago

A truly brilliant idea. The alternatives are essentially an unverified tutor off of craigslist or an agency that takes 50% of the tutor's money. With a good feedback system in place, I would be surprised if this doesn't become the standard way to find a tutor.

Good luck, guys!

akharris15• 15 years ago

That's what parents and tutors kept telling us, and they sounded unhappy. We decided to try to make them happier by building something for them.

kareemm• 15 years ago

When I was running eduFire, finding the tutors was easy - it was aggregating the students (and parents) that was the difficult part. If you can aggregate the demand in a two-sided market, the supply will come.

timr• 15 years ago

"The alternatives are essentially an unverified tutor off of craigslist or an agency that takes 50% of the tutor's money."

http://www.teachstreet.com/

Does the same thing, and it's been around since at least 2007. I'm not in any way affiliated (other than meeting the founder once at a party).

I'm not suggesting that the presences of established competition means that these guys won't succeed, but I think it's good to keep the hyperbole to a minimum -- this is not the only option. Heck...searching for "online tutor" brings up lots of similar sites.

lifestyleigni• 15 years ago

This is great! I had to trove through craigslist for a while before finding a quality French tutor. This solves the issues of:

Finding a quality tutor Ratings Weeding out spam Knowing exactly who they are (many french tutors were just french students! I wanted a native or near native speaker).

I wonder though for this business model, what stops people from going around Tutorspree for subsequent lessons to get around the $5 per lesson fee?

One thing that pops into mind is the ratings system. It would be beneficial to continue to do the tutoring through the site in order to build a good profile.

There's also the credit card payment through tutorspree which is nice. (I'm assuming most individual tutors can't process their own credit card payments).

However, there's still a risk that after the first session people will bypass the system.

I really like this though, and can't wait to see this take off. Just sent it out to my tutor.

akharris15• 15 years ago

Thanks! Looking forward to having your tutor.

The "jumping" problem you point out is one of the long term questions for us. You're absolutely right that the ratings system is the biggest carrot to keep tutors in. As you collect feedback, you move up in the rankings. The feedback is not evergreen - so logging lessons over time will help float you up.

On the other side, we believe that the payment and scheduling elements are worth the fee, especially in aggregate to the two sides.

At the end of the day, though, we look at that as a final funnel. We'll tweak and iterate to maximize that final, long term conversion in such a way that unlocks the most value for the folks in the system.

sachinag5• 15 years ago

I'm curious why you're doing actual subjects and not doing test prep. Did your customer development say that people prefer Kaplan et al for SAT, SSAT, PSAT, ACT, etc.?

(Personally, I would really love to have a service that screened potential clients for me. I charge $150-200/hour for GMAT tutoring and I spend way too much time dealing with people bitching about my fees. If I was just given clients who had the ability and willingness to pay with no hassles, I'd be thrilled.)

akharris15• 15 years ago

It's a question we keep playing around with. Our customer dev work said that the subject matter market was, far and away, the most underserved/archaic - so that's where we decided to focus.

But, we don't want to restrict our tutors. They decide what they want to offer, and we'll list them for the subjects they want. I'm pretty sure that the community will grow and change over time, but we want to make sure we're hitting a defined problem first to get a full understanding of what works and what doesn't.

sachinag5• 15 years ago

That's cool - you may be onto something. I'd wager there's some overlap between subjects and SAT IIs, AP exams, and name-your-state equivalents of New York State's Regents exams, as well. I'd do some thinking and planning on your expansion vectors around those things.

As for me, I'm in Ann Arbor right now, so I don't think I'd be useful to you yet. :)

jmm• 15 years ago

I co-managed a SF/LA test prep company up until recently, so if you any questions specific to test prep, hit me up.

And a reaction... I'll be interested to see how well you're able to retain your better tutors. Tutoring clientele grows firstly by word of mouth, and if you're a good tutor, you'll inevitably get referrals. Yet from where I'm sitting there's not a great way to funnel these referrals through TutorSpree (we had a decent way of managing it in our SAT prep world). There's also nothing preventing a tutor from leaving TutorSpree after, say, a few first lessons with an initial cadre of clients. So all those $5 rings of the register are lost.

This, I think, is a distinguishing feature from Airbnb, as Airbnb efficiently connects a seller with a pool of distant buyers. The service itself gets primary credit for the connections rather than the individual venue or venue owners due to the nature of individual travel. Tutoring is a little different. A tutor produces one happy client, and that client serves as a connector (rather than Tutorspree) to a new pool of students.

Nevertheless, the level of support and the quality of the systems you provide to your tutors will play a role in overall retention (client acquisition and payment processing are certainly a start).

genieyclo• 15 years ago

Lots in the test prep online space already; Brightstorm, Knewton, Grockit,PrepMe, etc. Very lucrative still.

Education is ripe for innovation and has a huge market for the brave willing to weather lawsuits from entrenched historical players and slow-moving, bureaucratic administrations.

JoelMcCracken2• 15 years ago

I read that as "YC-Backed Torturspree is an Airbnb for Torturing"

mtogo• 15 years ago

Is there any difference?

JoelMcCracken2• 15 years ago

Aww guys, I just thought it was a funny misread

johnrob• 15 years ago

Wonderful idea. This could go way beyond grade school stuff. There are many topics I'd love to learn more about, if there were a good way to find an expert looking to give lessons. Piano, Surfing, Horseback Riding, etc etc.

euroclydon• 15 years ago

We homeschool our children. I want to find top quality tutors for languages like, French, Greek or Hebrew. Also grammar, math, and comp-sci. I'll keep an eye on Tutorspace. We're in Durham, NC.

akharris15• 15 years ago

We'd love to help out as soon as we get to Durham! Sign up for our mailing list, and when we show up, you'll know.

happy4crazy• 15 years ago

Awesome! I've been thinking about how much I miss tutoring, and was grumbling just the other day about how annoying it is to advertise your skills in any reasonable way.

Just signed up, so if anyone has kids who need math/science/cs help in Boston, look for Alan O'Donnell :)

ryanb3• 15 years ago

awesome, thanks for signing up alan.

pagliara• 15 years ago

Not YC-backed and no TechCrunch article, but WyzAnt (http://www.wyzant.com) is a similar service that's been around for 6 years already. Another recent one is Teachoo (http://www.teachoo.com). Tutorspree isn't the first and probably won't be the last start up in this space.

yarone• 15 years ago

Wyzant is growing steadily and gaining traction.

garylutes• 15 years ago

Add Tutor Matching Service (http://tutormatchingservicellc.com/) to the list--they recently won the Cade Prize for Innovation in Gainesville FL.

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20100612/articles/6121010

qeorge• 15 years ago

I'd love to sponsor tutoring for someone who can't afford it. Maybe that's a feature you could add later? Great job!

akharris15• 15 years ago

Thats a great idea. We've had thoughts in the same direction. Stick with us.

cmer• 15 years ago

This is a good idea. However, I think applying the same concept to babysitters would have much better potential. It's a much bigger market and problem in my opinion.

revorad• 15 years ago

Looks interesting. You guys should do a grubwithus for tutors and students!

simonista• 15 years ago

Very cool. I'm torn on the strict requirements to be listed as a tutor. On the one hand I totally understand the need to filter for quality, and if you still have enough tutors, you've probably set the bar at the right place. On the other hand I am a graduate student and a Teaching Assistant and enjoy helping people learn, although it's not something I'm pursuing professionally.

Small bug: the last two questions in the FAQ under the For Parents And Students section are duplicates.

akharris15• 15 years ago

You should definitely sign up. You'll notice a lot of high quality grad students with TA experience in our community. We use our requirements as guidelines for making decisions - not intransigent rules - and we're always refining them and making them better.

Thanks for pointing out that bug. We'll fix it.

colanderman• 15 years ago

Some feedback:

* My picture got stretched vertically when I submitted it. Not a lot, but enough to make me look goofy.

* Can I suggest sorting teaching experience by year? Mine's in a goofy order and I can't see how to fix it.

* It would be nice to have a way to charge a "travel fee" under circumstances determined by the tutor (e.g. to meet at the student's home, or to meet more than 1/2 hour away)

I love the 50% cut once / 5$ thereafter scheme. The 50% cut forever scheme that is prevalent drove me to look for clients on my own, especially since I tend to form lasting relationships with clients.

akharris15• 15 years ago

Great feedback. Consider it added to our stack.

zaidf• 15 years ago

the screening process favors people who have experience teaching kids in front of a classroom

Interesting.

Some of the best tutors I had in my life had no classroom experience but were exceptional tutors who knew their stuff and knew how to teach it one on one. They were hands down better than the teacher in the classroom--as sometimes the case when students need tutors.

ImperatorLunae2• 15 years ago

From the FAQ: "...only experienced educators - PhD's, high school teachers, special education instructors, and professors with real classroom experience - can list themselves on Tutorspree."

Really? This seems a little stringent. High school teachers are busy teaching high school; PhD's are busy conducting research or teaching their own classes. Of course, some of them are going to pick up tutoring on the side for some extra money, but you're screening out huge portions of the available pool of tutors.

Consider my position; I have a BS in Physics and currently tutor a few students--mostly in calculus and geometry. Of course, I don't have "classroom experience," but I've been tutoring students for a while. I know my stuff, and I know when my students don't. I know how to read their math, catch mistakes, and work through their errors with them. I know how to identify recurring mistakes students make and prescribe problems to remedy those errors. I'm not an educator, but I know the subjects I'm teaching. That's as good as any grad student working as a TA, and they're teaching at the university level.

Why the high requirements? I understand the need for quality, but I sense, more often than not, students are looking for someone who knows the material to correct and guide them. You don't need a PhD to do that.

makmanalp• 15 years ago

Yeah, reviews and ratings should be indicative of quality. The best and largest tutoring market imho is middle / highschool students and is mostly satisfied by college students.

rottencupcakes2• 15 years ago

You gotta start somewhere. High education is probably a decent signal of quality, and thus a good, cheap way to verify quality early on. They could then increase the size of the tutor pool after they have enough highly rating, vouched for tutors to guarantee a quality experience.

jacquesm2• 15 years ago

Personally I like the Karate method: everybody teaches what they know all the time.

High requirements are a good way to get started though, that way you can set the bar high, guarantee good reviews and happy customers, then slowly relax the rules. The other way around wouldn't work nearly as well.

I'd say being a college student should allow you to help out high schoolers in the subject of your studies though, likely you are aware of the problems the high schoolers face better than anybody else, likewise high schoolers should be allowed to tutor grade schoolers.

There might be a nice 'certification' gig hidden in here somewhere.

akharris15• 15 years ago

The certification question is a really interesting one. We looked at a lot of other sites focused on various kinds of tutoring while building. We found that the ones that offered online "tests" for certification were producing false positives as to legitimate quality.

If I see a high schooler with certifications in 58 subjects, those certifications tend to lose their meaning. Likewise, if I have a friend with a Masters in English who taught writing at the college level fail your writing certification, it seems a little funny. That's part of the reason we took a different route.

gawker2• 15 years ago

How will they verify these qualifications are completely accurate? If they can prove that their tutors are of actual quality then maybe. I can see something like an Elance test happening to try and control the quality of listings.

akharris15• 15 years ago

We personally check up on qualifications. It's something we take really seriously.

akharris15• 15 years ago

The requirements are a direct function of our ongoing customer dev work. You're gist is absolutely right - there are a ton of great tutors out there who have never taught a class. However, when you look at the overall hitrate of good tutors amongst populations of educators relative to others, you get a sense for why we are starting where we're starting.

That may change over time as our community grows, but our goal here isn't to create a system that is everything to every tutor. We're focused on a specific problem, and are working on a specific solution to that problem. We'll analyze data along the way and modify our assumptions as necessary.

ImperatorLunae2• 15 years ago

Alright then. I'll keep an eye on you guys. I like the payment system you've got set up; the service I currently use takes a rather large cut, and I need all the cash I can get right now.

EGreg4• 15 years ago

Funny, I had this idea back in 2006 when I discovered web development. This was before AJAX, I was pretty proud of having invented dynamic checking myself. Hopefully the site still works -- it was one of my first attempts at PHP

http://thetutorbase.com (used to be dailytutor.com)

I abandoned that project because although tutors were easy to get, the marketing to students didn't scale well, and a paywall didn't work well (you could pay with paypal for up to 3 tutors' names).

I thought up a better business plan, involving an online tutoring service, but at the time no one would invest into anything. Similar idea, I'd say ... that's how I know that raising money and doing joint ventures is about relationships!

PS: Paul Graham where were you in 2006! :)

EGreg4• 15 years ago

Wow, this might seem arrogant to say -- but I haven't seen this site in a long time, and I have to say I am pretty impressed ... by my past self, considering that this was my first website made with PHP ... I didn't know much back then. All the ajax was done with iframes. Try signing up as "Greg" (the username's taken).

It even had cool security protection (even by today's standards) like this:

http://www.thetutorbase.com/startover.php?err_desc=You+did+n...!

Okay self-gratification moment is done :)

bvi• 15 years ago

Sorry to break it to you, sport, but nobody cares about your "ideas" if you don't execute.

EGreg4• 15 years ago

but I did execute. The website is there, and I signed up 100 tutors and got a bunch of students. I got those 100 tutors in a week without any expenses. Even after I abandoned it, the tutors kept signing up for a while afterward. That showed traction on the tutor side.

I couldn't convince anyone to invest into it because I only asked family and friends.

how do you figure?

yequalsx• 15 years ago

Some feedback. I teach mathematics at a community college. Using a Tablet PC and services like Adobe Connect I could tutor anyone in the world who speaks English well enough. Your service appears to be location based. With the rise of online education it seems to me that limiting yourself to location based tutoring is too limiting. Online tutoring can be done well (it can also be done poorly).

jacquesm2• 15 years ago

What is your start-up the airbnb of?

Tutorspree (YC W11) Is An Airbnb For Tutoring

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