Primary Contact: Ryan Van Wagoner
Other Team Members: John Cottam (non-student)
[other]
[undecided]
Using Skype-style video chat technology, students learning English in foreign countries will be able to have a live tutoring session with Americans for a fraction of the cost of hiring a professional tutor. Tutors will be average Americans (targeted to college-age students) who receive a brief training and whose pay increases as their positive rankings from those they tutor increase. With a small team of business and technology specialists, this idea will eventually be expanded to include other subjects, such as math and science.
Business Concept and Model
This company will create value by providing live video chat English tutoring to foreign students in the comfort of their own homes. Students will be allowed 10 free minutes at sign-up, whereupon they will be prompted to “fill up” their account. Different tutors will charge different amounts, depending on their level of experience and the number of positive ratings they have received, but the price for any tutor will lie roughly between $12 and $18 per hour (adjusted to a per-minute rate). The students will be able to search for tutors based on age, location, experience, price, or number of positive ratings received. Tutoring sessions will be automatically timed, and the student’s account balance will automatically decline until a refill is required.
Revenue will be generated by taking a percentage of the amount charged (approximately 50%). Thus, if the student is paying the equivalent of $12 per hour, the tutor will receive the equivalent of $8 per hour. In addition, tutors will have the option to advertise themselves on the site to generate more traffic, for which they will be charged a small amount.
A key aspect to this business is the tutor selection process. Because the price will be so much lower than other services, these tutors will not be professional or licensed tutors; instead, they will be average individuals who are briefly trained and tested in a similar manner to ChaCha’s guide recruitment process. Upon passing the short qualification test, they must complete a certain amount of free tutoring (i.e., 3 positive rankings) before they are eligible to be paid. They are then paid the minimum rate ($8 per hour) and are eligible for automatic pay raises when they hit certain milestones (i.e., number of positive ratings). Tutors will be able to work at their own schedule and in the comfort of their own home. In addition, the tutoring session will come on an as-needed basis; in other words, the tutors will log in to the site and can then do other tasks until a popup window informs them that a student wants to speak with them.
This business will be tested in the English tutoring market, targeting primarily English learners in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (due to Ryan’s personal familiarity with the language and culture) and American tutors. As the process becomes stable, additional languages and other subjects will be added. In other words, an experienced student who understands calculus will be able to tutor a less experienced student who is struggling in his lower-level calculus class (this will be more complicated and will most likely involve the use of tablet PCs so the student and tutor can work out problems together; however, with the rising popularity of tablet PCs, this could be a definite possibility in the near future). Although market research still needs to be performed to more accurately determine market demand and appropriate price points, the market is extremely large and potential for expansion is huge.
The initial customers will be individuals ages 18-30 in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland who are looking for English tutoring but don’t want to pay the high rates that most tutors charge. The market pain they are experiencing is the inability to receive English tutoring from an American at a price they can afford. They will buy because they are getting a better deal than if they were to pay for a professional tutor, yet they are getting more consistent language help than if it were a free “social network”-style model. Because this idea is taking an existing idea and modifying it to better fit a certain portion of the market, it can be considered an evolutionary idea. As mentioned, the concept will eventually be expanded to include other nations and other subject material.
Competitive Advantage/Differentiation
The competition in this area consists primarily of paid services (myngle.com and learnissimo.com) and free services (myhappyplanet.com and xlingo.com). The paid services offer access to professional tutors who normally charge a high price, and the free services normally have a “give and take” expectation; i.e., each novice typically spends an equal amount of time tutoring the other in his or her language.
This idea will fill a market need that is currently unfilled. First, the model’s attractiveness to potential tutors (earn easy money while working from home in your pajamas) will, in time, provide a much larger selection of tutors from which the students can choose and will increase the likelihood that more of these tutors will be online and available immediately for a chat. Second, the lower price will entice those students who are looking for help with their English (and eventually other subjects) but who are not willing to spend a large amount of money for that help. Third, because both the students and the tutors will typically be non-professionals, they will generally feel more comfortable with each other and will form a connection in a way that simply can’t be realized in a strictly professional setting. In other words, this system will more closely resemble “peer to peer” tutoring than “tutor to student” tutoring.
The company’s management team is still incomplete. Ideally, we would have three key players:
· Ryan Van Wagoner, CEO
o Responsibilities
§ Direction of company, penetration of new markets, recruitment of personnel, marketing, finance, etc.
o Qualifications
§ BS in Business Finance, BYU (2010)
§ Personal language tutoring experience, passion for entrepreneurship, internet marketing experience
· John Cottam, CTO
o Responsibilities
§ All aspects of web development and design, in coordination with the CEO
o Qualifications
§ BS in Computer Science, BYU (2004); MBA in Business Administration, U of U (2009)
§ Extensive experience in systems administration, web and software development, IT management, and IT analysis
· [Name], President? Other?
o Responsibilities
§ Smooth operation of site, public relations, customer service, anything else the CEO needs
o Qualifications
§ Must be an optimistic and exciting individual with excellent people skills
