Learnskillz: pairing the best teachers and tutors to students

Please tell us more about your role and / or your startup

I am the founder and CEO of Learnskillz. I founded Learnskillz because I am passionate about learning without borders. The ability to find the best teacher/tutor to learn anything , without geography being a constraint is very important to me.Learnskillz is a versatile platform to bring teachers and students together for either face to face local or online lessons ! We at Learnskillz act as the middle man and help both sides. Angie's List and Uber are based on a similar model.

If you are a teacher and want to teach any skill (be it read, writing, math, music, sports, art) all you do is sign up for free and complete your bio and profile. We vet through the details and talk to the teachers, to ensure the information is legit. As a teacher/tutor you can set your own schedule and rates , so it is a very flexible platform.

If you are a student and are looking for lessons, instead of asking your neighbor or relying on search engines we bring you highly rated teachers. All you do is sign up for free and can search for teachers who are registered with us.
You can also rate your teacher once the lesson is complete.Your ratings further provides credibility to the awesome teachers we already have. 
We prefer quality over quantity so we have the best teachers only .For some reason the lesson does not go as intended we give you 100% refund for your lessons. 
That way we have your back ! 


How long have you been in that role? How do you balance a startup with your personal life?

I have been in this role for about a year. Like for all good things in life, one has to work for it. It is very challenging to strike a healthy balance between personal and work life. When you are heading a startup it stops being a 9-5 job and the border between home and work are gray areas.


However I have a few tips that help me

- Build a team of allies and advocates (teachers, people who already take lessons , neighbors) who can do your marketing for you and spread the word. Takes a little pressure off you
- Plan the week ahead of time - Know the difference between important and urgent . This is important because when you are an entrepreneur you have to do everything so it can be overwhelming
- I try to set up evening times for my family (dinner, going to the park with kids, talking and sharing our day). This helps me wind down.
- Try to go to bed at a reasonable hr. A tired mind is not productive
- Trust your team. Sometimes people on your team need to be able to make some decisions so you are not a single point of failure

You play an integral role in your startup. Can you please tell us more about what the startup does?

Learnskillz is an global online platform that connects tutors to anyone looking for lessons. We support the entire value stream of finding a teacher, scheduling a lesson, paying for a lesson, rating the lesson

What makes us unique ?
- This is global application. So you could learn Mandarin from a teacher in China or you could teach English to a child in India. The opportunities are unlimited
- As a teacher you can make extra income on the side and more importantly share your passion across the world. We do not think geographical boundaries should come in the way of teaching and learning
- As a student we bring best rated teachers to you and if for some reason it does not work out we offer you 100% refund. So it is a security for you and you know we got your back
- We use secure financial transaction platforms (paypal) and top of the line technology for safety and secure payments
- Unlike some other similar platforms there is no membership fee, no hidden costs, we just charge a nominal 15% transaction fee (lowest in the industry) to take care of paypal which is used as a payment platform.

How does it work? Can anyone join?

Tutors and Students can sign up for free. There are no charge to sign up. However , we charge 15% of the transaction fee

What is the most challenging part about what you do? How do you overcome that challenge?

The most challenging part like in any marketplace is its the chicken and egg situation. Without sellers(students) onboard its hard to get buyers to register (tutors) and without buyers(tutors) its hard to convince the sellers to come onboard(students).

First we had to get some teachers boarded. We went to libraries , social media, spoke to school districts, participated in events and fairs to get 50 teachers around couple of areas registered.


Then we used our network to get atleast 1-2 students for those teachers. This helped us build credibility. We used this momentum to gives incentives to our teachers and students so they could refer more tutors and students to us


So we are building this marketplace in waves (iterations). We use every success as a building block.

Where online can we learn more?

Explore more at www.learn-skillz.com

Follow us on social media 

1. www.facebook.com/learnskillz
2. www.twitter.com/learnskillz
3. www.linkedin.com/company/learnskillz-ltd