We just came across a really interesting new EdTech Startup: TutStu. The company is still in private beta, but looks to open a public beta here in the next month or two. Anyhow, TutStu has a pretty unique platform. Essentially, it is sort of a ReverbNation for teachers. We had a chance to ask the team a few questions about their new platform:
TutStu
What is TutStu?
Our tagline is Knowledge Democracy. We want to amass Knowledge of the People, spread the Knowledge by the People and Knowledge for the People. Its a crowd-sourced Learning Marketplace & Platform.
Our website defines TutStu as – “TutStu is an open knowledge sharing platform for teachers and students, globally. It uses smart technological innovation to facilitate global knowledge exchange, democratically. Once a teacher registers with us, students from across the globe can find him/her, connect and start taking classes, seamlessly. Everything else is managed smartly and efficiently by our platform. Not just that, TutStu also does free online marketing for every registered teacher, to make sure teachers receive a steady flow of students.”
Though there are more features to come up once this is up & running.
Who are your target users>
Our Primary Customer are Teachers. The Secondary Customer are the Students. Both the Teacher and Student profiles can be very diverse. The teachers can use our platform for normal K-12 tutoring, Adult Learning, College Level subjects, Amatuer Subjects, Professional Mentoring, Language Learning etc.
The target of our product is to be global. every household, having a student or a teacher shoulld use it an contribute to the society.
We also want to make education more enjoyable. We want to implement Gamification, Machine Learning, Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality in Education in later stages.
What makes TutStu different than what is currently available?
The 3 greatest USPs would be:-
1. The optimum Social Media usage so teachers get more students and promote every teacher as an individual brand.
2. Freemium Monthly Subscription Plan.
3. Profile listing on Google.
Some others would include:-
1. Various rating & review systems to make informed choices
2. Direct money transfer to teacher’s paypal account
3. Control their Tutoring Rates, Schedule, etc
4. Control their ranking on the search results page
5. Teach & Learn individually or in Groups
Why did you get involved in the Ed-Tech space?
I am into Ed-Tech domain for the entire part of my career (8yrs now). From my personal experience I felt that teachers are being exploited by schools, tutoring institutions, training academies etc. Also, the knowledge is fragmented round the globe. I felt we needed a strong solution which will connect the students & teachers directly and also beyond local and geographical boundaries. In my quest for an answer, I found that both these problems can be solved via Virtual Classroom. Though there were other company’s involved, we recieved a lot of feedback that 1. Companies marketed for themselves, so teacher’s brand building wasnt happening 2. Teachers were not getting enough students 3. Companies withheld some part of the teacher’s payment made by the student 4. Teachers werent allowed group(1:many) sessions etc. With TutStu we are addressing these problems.
Tell us about your team and their backgrounds
We are two Founders:-
Subham – CEO – Into the Edtech domain since 2008. I have been an e-Tutor myself, for initial 2 yrs and then went on to the administrative & business development side of etutoring business. Worked with several startup ed-Tech companies in the past with sucess. Here is my complete profile:-? in.linkedin.com/in/dassubham/
Abhishek – CTO – He is Subham’s school friend and techie. He works in IBM. Keen Tech innovation follower, enthusiat, researcher and implementer. He drives the Technology & Product requirement in TutStu.
What is the next step? What do your current goals look like?
Awaiting Public-Beta Release. Likely to take 1 and half months more.
Where can people find out more
Website:- www.tutstu.com
Facebook:- https://www.facebook.com/
Twitter:- https://twitter.com/tutstuedu
Google+ :-https://plus.google.com/
LinkedIn:- https://www.linkedin.com/in/
YouTube:- https://www.youtube.com/
