Featured Startup Pitch: Tutors App – Connecting students with nearby tutors for on-the-fly sessions

Tutors-App-On-Demand-Tutoring-Screenshot

ELEVATOR PITCH

Work smarter, not harder.

PRODUCT/SERVICE DESCRIPTION

Tutors is an iPhone application that connects students with nearby tutors to book sessions on the fly, or for later. It saves students and parents time and money by matching students with a qualified tutor on the first session, for 50-to-80 percent less than with a typical company like Sylvan.

Students signup and can immediately browse qualified tutors in their area on the Tutors iPhone app. Search results are based on course requirements and personal preferences, and most tutors are students themselves right on campus. Tutors set their own rates, students can request in-person sessions or online via Skype, and sessions can be on-demand or scheduled in advance.

Tutors first launched in Los Angeles at USC and is expanding to UCLA and other campuses across SoCal. The Tutors App can be found in the Apple App Store under the title ‘Tutors.’

DIFFERENTIATORS VS. THE COMPETITION

All online tutoring services are pretty confusing and take a lot of time to find what you’re looking for. Tutors is different from the competition because it enables parents and students to quickly find who they need and schedule them for on demand service, or schedule for a later time right from their phone. Tutors also differentiates itself by doing in-person sessions as opposed to online sessions (although we do have a flow that allows for Skype sessions).

Sesh – Our closest competitor that connects students with tutors for on demand and scheduled sessions. The biggest difference is that Sesh standardizes rates across all tutors and subjects, and matches students and tutors directly. They charge students $25 per hour, while paying all tutors $20 per hour. Our company gives tutors complete control over how much they charge, and students complete control over which tutor they work with. Each tutor (especially student tutors) has varying levels of experience and expertise, so why would they each cost the same? Tutors also caters to both high-school and college markets, while Sesh only focuses on college students.

Wyzant – Allows you to search online for tutors in your area, but doesn’t let you refine your search to just student-tutors on your campus, who know your classes. Wyzant caters to the student/parent who has time to search through hundreds of tutors, and wait hours for responses. Tutors caters to the busy lifestyle and constantly changing schedules of college students, and focuses on creating a smaller, more on demand community of tutors.

Chegg/InstaEDU – These companies (now fused into one) aim to connect students with tutors but only online. Students can choose from a huge range of tutors and subjects, but can’t choose based on a particular class or assignment they’re trying to tackle. Chegg definitely accommodates students looking for help on demand, but the quality of that help is much lower (and more expensive) than if you were to meet a student on campus who already knows your class material.

FOUNDERS

Tutors was founded by two high-school students, Dillon Rosenblatt and Tyler Makhani, after they saw an opportunity to connect students with students, instead of students with high-profile, high-cost, ‘professional’ tutors.

But their story doesn’t sound like that of your typical 17 year-old kids. Dillon, CEO, secured $500,000 in funding with just an idea and a vision. Now the company has a full-time dev team, marketing team, and over 1,000 brand ambassadors across SoCal ready to spread the word and earn cash by recruiting new users.

Dillon Rosenblatt (CEO) – Current high-school senior at Harvard-Westlake, and dedicated entrepreneur.

Tyler Makhani – Current high-school senior at Harvard-Westlake.

BUSINESS MODEL

Free download, pay-per-hour private tutoring.