The private tutoring industry can be lucrative for many but to be a successful tutor you need to retain and attract new clients while ensuring quality and results. LectureLab is the platform that empowers tutors to manage their clients and business using its cloud-based management system. The platform enables tutors to customize content for sessions, stay in touch with clients, and keep parents up-to-date on students’ progress, reducing the administrative burden so that tutors can focus on educating children.
AlleyWatch interviewed founder Taylor Kelly to learn more about how LectureLab is transforming the private tutoring industry.
Tell us about the product or service that LectureLab offers.
Our vision is to be the first full-service client management system for tutors, enabling tutors to deliver customized worksheets for tutoring sessions and providing parents and tutors a continuous feedback loop. By equipping tutors with the tools to provide enterprise-level test prep to families, the price of private tutoring comes down -as overhead costs are eliminated- and the quality of services delivered by individual tutors increases. With a 28% year-over-year increase in parents demanding tutors for their children, the LectureLab platform will give tutors the resources to successfully participate in this growing market.
Tutors will make more money, deliver a higher-quality service, and be able to grow their tutoring business with ease by using our full-service platform that allows them to:
- Take payment for each lesson
- Submit data-backed reports
- Communicate directly with current clients
- Manage tutoring schedules
- Connect with new clients
- Generate, view, and print upcoming tutoring materials
- Modify upcoming tutoring materials based on student needs
- Additionally, our platform will have a parent portal to ensure transparency during the tutoring process. Parents can opt-in to the following:
- See previous session reports that are tied to academic benchmarks and data-points
- View their child’s upcoming lesson plan
- Communicate with their tutor directly
- Pay and track tutor directly through the platform
- Schedule tutoring sessions
- Search and connect with qualified tutors on our private marketplace
Parents will be able to subscribe to access our customized content feature even without a tutor.
How is LectureLab different?
We will be the only data-driven, full-service client management tool for tutors.
Currently, the market has scattered resources, which tutors piece together to facilitate tutoring sessions and manage clients.
There are individual marketplaces (akin to search engines that allow tutors with clients to find each other); content sharing platforms (sharing and purchasing materials); and scheduling tools (calendars and slot-based scheduling). Tutors can join big-brand tutoring companies to access their proprietary client-management and content resources, but there is nothing that brings together enterprise-level tools to one place that individual tutors can access.
The industry as a whole is extremely fragmented, lacking one central quality control manager for all of the moving parts that go into private tutoring. We want to create a comprehensive platform that addresses tutors’ paint points around client management and content delivery head-on.
What market does LectureLab target and how big is it?
Our platform will target existing private tutors, new tutors entering the industry, and classroom teachers who could potentially use our platform to tutor students. As we grow our user base, we will advertise our platform to parents as a way to help our users (tutors) grow their private business by connecting them to new client streams.
Our platform will target existing private tutors, new tutors entering the industry, and classroom teachers who could potentially use our platform to tutor students. As we grow our user base, we will advertise our platform to parents as a way to help our users (tutors) grow their private business by connecting them to new client streams.
What is the business model?
LectureLab is a community-based, two-sided online platform that helps facilitate dynamic tutoring experiences for tutors and their clients by providing not only efficient client management tools, but also customized worksheets and reporting for every student based on their learning progress. On the one side, it enables tutors to access enterprise-level technology, list their services, and earn more money than they would be working for a big-brand. On the other side, it provides parents easy access to hiring private tutors and transparency in their child’s learning process every step of the way.
Personal profiles -as well as a rating and reviewing system- provide information about the tutor and what service they can offer. Vice versa, tutors can choose on their own what families to work with.
We will be a B2C brand that strives to grow a community of parents, tutors, and students unlike any other tutoring platform today – finally unchaining tutors from big-brands by giving them the personalized technology they need.
What inspired the start of LectureLab?
We started LectureLab to help tutors grow and scale their private businesses. We’re trying to develop a tool to make educators’ lives a bit easier and allow them to more readily make a livable income. Did you see those Time covers about the many ways that teachers scrape money together? For the full-time teachers we work with, a major way to earn extra cash is private tutoring.
We started LectureLab to help tutors grow and scale their private businesses. We’re trying to develop a tool to make educators’ lives a bit easier and allow them to more readily make a livable income. Did you see those Time covers about the many ways that teachers scrape money together? For the full-time teachers we work with, a major way to earn extra cash is private tutoring.
Unfortunately, there simply aren’t any tools on the market that allow private tutors to deliver enterprise-level services on their own. Because of this, many tutors join big-box tutoring companies that keep anywhere from 40-85% of service charges without shouldering much of the labor burden. With LectureLab, we can unlock the client management + content resources of big-box tutoring companies for individual tutors, allowing them to grow and scale their private businesses.
We have seen the many sides of the tutoring industry. We have seen what makes a tutoring company thrive, and what drives a business into the ground. We both bring extensive (and relevant) experience to the table that really mmakesour partnership work for this project.
Would you tell us about the EdTech ecosystem in New York and where do you see it going over the next few years?
New technologies are beginning to automate every possible piece of the teaching process. New technology is allowing educators to quantify labor that happens in the classroom.
Teachers and schools are utilizing tools that are data-driven and taking historically qualitative information and quantifying it. For example, I see a tool like ours fitting into this landscape, because it takes all pieces of the supplemental learning and test preparation process and putting into one easy-to-use platform that uses actual data points to ensure student success.
I am seeing education technology to begin blurring the lines of learning happening inside and outside of the classroom in a way that could never happen before.
What are the milestones that you plan to achieve within six months?
Right now, we are seeking enough funding to layout a 12-month runway so that we can begin building our comprehensive technology platform. We plan to spend the next 6-months building a nice foundation for moving forward and truly changing the way tutoring takes place around the country.
What is the one piece of startup advice that you never got?
I always have to remind myself that launching and growing a startup means that your business is a living creature. Your ideas are constantly growing and evolving. You can’t ever really become too attached to one specific plan, but instead be willing to adapt and play with new ideas. Be willing to accept ideas from places you might not have expected, and you would be surprised how successful you can be.
If you could be put in touch with anyone in the New York community who would it be and why?
At this point, I would love to be put in touch with as many relevant education technology influencers as possible. Advice and feedback from individuals who have gone through this process before are the best people to listen to. So far, our team has been incredibly lucky to have mentors lending their time to guide our steps. If I had to choose one particular person at this point, I would say Paul Edelman, the founder of Teacher Pay Teachers. I believe one of the most valuable aspects of our concept is the content that we will produce. I believe that Paul would be someone who has a very unique insight into the type of content educators need.
Why did you launch in New York?
Sara and I have spent the last 4-5 years in working in the education industry in New York. Our relationships we have built and the knowledge we have gained working in this city are priceless. It makes the most sense for us to launch in New York, because we have a clear understanding of the education industry in this city. Besides, New York City is the center of the universe. It is a city filled with all of the resources we might need to succeed.
Where is your favorite fall destination in the city?
My favorite fall destination is Central Park. Who doesn’t want to visit Central Park at any time during the year? Add in some beautiful fall foliage laid out in front of the miles of breathtaking city views, and there is simply no other place like it. I have to say that the parks in New York City provide me a place to escape from the hustle and bustle that comes with living here. Sometimes, even taking 15 minutes to sit on a rock and just reflect on the day is exactly what you need to clear your mind.
