What the Company Does?
GoStudent is Europe’s most valuable EdTech company and one of the world-leading online tutoring providers. The company was founded in Vienna, Austria, in 2016 by Felix Ohswald (CEO) and Gregor Müller (COO). Currently, GoStudent is operational in 23 markets. Via its platform, GoStudent provides paid, one-to-one, video-based tutoring in 30 + subjects to K-12 students, using a subscription model.. Lessons are booked via the GoStudent platform and accessed using a computer or a smartphone. During each tutoring session, learners and tutors interact live in a virtual classroom. Integrated features, such as a whiteboard and the option to share a screen and edit documents together, are included.
Currently, GoStudent aims to facilitate long-lasting academic growth by offering subscriptions of 6, 9, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months. For each subscription, clients are able to select between 1 and 10 weekly tutoring lessons, lasting 50 minutes each. A huge benefit of GoStudent is that subscriptions can be used by the whole family, for tutoring in as many subjects as necessary. If, for example, your package is for 16 lessons a month and you have two children, both could receive personalized tutoring in subjects of their choice twice a week. The price per lesson is based on the package chosen with a new model rolling out in the coming weeks that will allow for more customized pricing options.
GoStudent employs more than 2,000 people and has opened 24 international offices. More than 1.5 million tutoring lessons are booked each month. Currently, GoStudent works with +20,000 international tutors. Various investors, such as Prosus and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, have already invested a total of +$669m in the rapidly growing platform.
The Current Landscape
The overall education system has remained untapped and unchanged for decades and provides a huge opportunity to make a difference. Education is the base for a child’s future and providing an education service that looks at the specific needs of the individual, creates a tremendous impact and potential change for our society.
There are several competitors in the online tutoring industry in the United States and globally but what differentiates GoStudent is the individual and long-term support, the wide range of subjects offered, from traditional math and science to graphic design, piano, photography and coding and the platform’s flexibility. Additionally, GoStudent has successfully been able to scale supply and demand and measure the learning success of their students to accurately show prospective customers how their interactive, customized, one-on-one lessons generate lasting results for pupils.
Company Birth Story
First conceived in 2015, the company started out as a homework chat service, managed via the messenger app, WhatsApp. Felix, aged 21 at the time, was completing his Master’s degree in Quantitative Finance at ETH Zurich. His younger brother, Moritz, was also studying, and began referring his classmates to Felix for support with their Math homework. Given his expertise in the subject, Felix quickly became the go-to expert for Moritz’s whole class, who would regularly message him when struggling or confused.
Felix was quickly surprised by the volume of messages he was receiving, and was concerned that there appeared to be a distinct lack of support for these students. He resolved to address this issue, keen to inspire in them a passion for learning that matched his own and find a solution to a fundamental and global problem: access to top tutors. It was with this mission in mind that Felix reached out to his friend Gregor Müller, GoStudent’s Co-Founder and COO, and proposed that they build a dedicated homework support app, where users could be connected with motivated and inspiring tutors and would receive high-quality support. Felix was aware that Gregor had already founded a company, so knew that he would be the perfect partner to help build GoStudent.
Together, Gregor and Felix resolved to create a platform where learners from across the globe could be connected with top tutors, helping them to realize their true potential and inspiring in them a passion for learning. GoStudent was subsequently founded in 2016, with the app launching that summer.
The Solution
GoStudent connects students with their ideal tutors in a virtual one-on-one setting. Because the tutoring takes place in a virtual classroom, the best tutor can be found for each child, irrespective of location. We focus on long-term tutoring and therefore offer memberships of between 6 and 24 months.
One of our top differentiators from traditional marketplaces from an operational perspective is the a) development of a tutor community of couple of thousands while b) managing and organizing their schedules c) keep quality standards high by offering development and training opportunities.
The Team Culture
Sam Best is GoStudent’s first US Manager. He was appointed in early 2022, to lead the EdTech unicorn’s market entry. GoStudent officially launched in the US in March 2022, opening its HQ in Austin, Texas, to provide tailored, one-on-one, online tutoring sessions to a potential market of 50 million K-12 students.
When growing the team in the Austin office, Sam is looking for employees that are passionate about GoStudent’s values:
Trust the company’s vision and employees, by unlocking the full potential of each student GoStudent is creating value..
Celebrate internal successes and milestones to motivate and inspire the employees.
Make decisions and execute plans quickly - fast or last!
Put ideas into action efficiently and quickly.
No room for egos in the office, successes are celebrated as a company because we know that we can go farther together as a team.
A Founder Quote
"I am very proud of our GoStudent company culture and I want to make sure that it is lived in all of our current and future offices. Also, it is important for us to keep the start-up vibe no matter how fast we grow. Even if we now have 23 office locations and 2,000 employees, I want to enable my team to have bold ideas, to make fast decisions and to execute without complications and politics." - Felix Ohswald, CEO
Check It Out : https://www.gostudent.org/us
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