Tutoronline.ru - how it all began
It all started in 2010. It was then that two friends - mathematicians Alexander Pashkov and Valery Solovyov, who together for 6 years participated in the creation and promotion of Internet projects aimed at a student audience - had the idea of ​​creating their own business, in which they could combine the Internet, services and education. As a result, a service was developed and launched that provides instant help to schoolchildren in case of difficulties with homework. The idea was to respond to the first request of a specialized teacher and conduct classes in the virtual Classroom.
In Russia, at that time, such a service as skype tutoring was actively used, but the market of remote tutoring services itself was just beginning to take shape. Having studied the demand, using personal experience (Alexandra’s wife, a Russian teacher, worked on Skype for a long time with the children, and also worked as tutors in mathematics during their student years), Alexander and Valery decided to create a company tutoronline.ru that could type of service to a new level.
Business model
The main issue to be resolved was to choose the right business model. As a result of studying foreign experience, primarily American, it became clear that there are several models of organizing such a business on the market:
It took several months to test foreign services and their models. As a result, it was decided that the service model has the greatest potential. It is more difficult to start (due to the construction of a system of interaction with teachers, supervision, schedules, etc.), but it is more responsive to the trend “get everything in one place” or “through one click”. The founders were assigned 2 serious tasks:
At this stage, the first employees and contractors appeared in the company. Development of the platform (site, IT part, billing) was entrusted to the contractor. The curators of the pedagogical process department and the business analyst were taken to the staff, and a little later the call center operator and the sales manager joined them.
Start
Since the formation of a clear idea until the commercial launch took about 8 months (the launch took place on 01/03/2011). By this time, there were about 100 freelance teachers in the team who had been tested in the subject, had test sessions with “as if” students on the platform. The first release of the IT platform and the site itself were ready and tested.
The main objective of the first year was determined by the reach of the audience. Taking into account the low awareness of schoolchildren and their parents about online tutoring services, especially in the format of quick access to teachers, it was decided to focus on the “service sample”: any user registered on the site was given the opportunity to hold the first session with the teacher for free.
It was at this stage that the advertising campaign of the service on the Internet began, as a result of which the first training session was held on March 3rd. On the same day, the first payment was received, although they could not receive it due to the failure of the card payment acceptance system. On March 17, 1000 people were already registered in the tutoronline.ru system.
To date, the resource has 10,000 registered users, almost 7,000 training sessions have been held. Nevertheless, the coverage is still small and the task for 2012 is to convert free sessions into paid ones and continue to work on reaching the audience.
In short, it’s all about launching the tutoronline.ru platform. More about the IT part will be described later.
In Russia, at that time, such a service as skype tutoring was actively used, but the market of remote tutoring services itself was just beginning to take shape. Having studied the demand, using personal experience (Alexandra’s wife, a Russian teacher, worked on Skype for a long time with the children, and also worked as tutors in mathematics during their student years), Alexander and Valery decided to create a company tutoronline.ru that could type of service to a new level.
Business model
The main issue to be resolved was to choose the right business model. As a result of studying foreign experience, primarily American, it became clear that there are several models of organizing such a business on the market:
- companies providing access to a tutor base and a platform for conducting classes. Such companies see their main task in performing intermediary functions and in developing or supporting a platform;
- companies specializing exclusively in software and "renting out" their "classroom";
- companies that provide services and coordinate the interaction of the student and the teacher, and the selection of the teacher is carried out automatically by the system.
It took several months to test foreign services and their models. As a result, it was decided that the service model has the greatest potential. It is more difficult to start (due to the construction of a system of interaction with teachers, supervision, schedules, etc.), but it is more responsive to the trend “get everything in one place” or “through one click”. The founders were assigned 2 serious tasks:
- make a convenient and high-quality IT platform;
- develop a system of interaction between the student and the teacher, so that the number of actions on the part of the child is minimal and assistance is provided as soon as possible.
At this stage, the first employees and contractors appeared in the company. Development of the platform (site, IT part, billing) was entrusted to the contractor. The curators of the pedagogical process department and the business analyst were taken to the staff, and a little later the call center operator and the sales manager joined them.
Start
Since the formation of a clear idea until the commercial launch took about 8 months (the launch took place on 01/03/2011). By this time, there were about 100 freelance teachers in the team who had been tested in the subject, had test sessions with “as if” students on the platform. The first release of the IT platform and the site itself were ready and tested.
The main objective of the first year was determined by the reach of the audience. Taking into account the low awareness of schoolchildren and their parents about online tutoring services, especially in the format of quick access to teachers, it was decided to focus on the “service sample”: any user registered on the site was given the opportunity to hold the first session with the teacher for free.
It was at this stage that the advertising campaign of the service on the Internet began, as a result of which the first training session was held on March 3rd. On the same day, the first payment was received, although they could not receive it due to the failure of the card payment acceptance system. On March 17, 1000 people were already registered in the tutoronline.ru system.
To date, the resource has 10,000 registered users, almost 7,000 training sessions have been held. Nevertheless, the coverage is still small and the task for 2012 is to convert free sessions into paid ones and continue to work on reaching the audience.
In short, it’s all about launching the tutoronline.ru platform. More about the IT part will be described later.
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/142987/
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