Online learning platform Outschool provides more than 100,000 virtual classes taught through video chat, ranging from essential disciplines like reading, science, and arithmetic to more esoteric, interest-based topics. Teachers and students from more than 200 countries presently make up Outschool’s current student body of over 500,000.
Teachers and students work together in small groups to study about anything chemistry, arithmetic, and literature in a live online environment. One-time enrichment classes and semester-long core courses are both available on Outschool. Outschool offers more than 100,000 online lessons taught by professors from around the world to students around the world.
The goal of Outschool is to make education more engaging, sociable, and self-directed for children. Using video chat, parents may assist their children explore their interests and find new ones. For teachers, this is a means to develop the lessons they’ve always wanted to teach, while also earning an additional cash.
A Brief History of Outschool
- 2015 – Amir Nathoo, a former Google employee, and Mikhail Seregine, an Airbnb programmer, co-founded Outschool in.
- 2016 – Nathoo and his team received seed money from startup accelerator Y Combinator to launch their platform’s website;
- 2017 – the first class was launched.
- April 2021 – A $45 million Series B fundraising round headed by Lightspeed Venture Partners was closed by Outschool in September of that year. Series C investment of $75 million was received , making the firm a unicorn with a valuation of $1.3 billion.
Meet the Owner
Amir Nathoo
At Outschool, Amir Nathoo serves as CEO, a marketplace for live online lessons for students in grades 6 through 12. In addition to being the CEO and co-founder of Trigger.io, he was responsible for the creation of Square Payroll. The University of Cambridge awarded him an MEng in Electrical and Information Sciences.
Amir Nathoo was formerly the co-founder and CEO of WebMynd Corp., the product lead for Square payroll, and the CEO of Trigger.io before joining Outschool. They claim that after working on traditional content management systems for a while, Nathoo leveraged his knowledge of how small businesses may benefit from cloud-based software to fill this gap.
To meet tight deadlines, he assembled the correct team and guided them to a successful outcome. As well as successfully negotiating contracts for technical services, he originated, directed, and concluded sales of this product. This demonstrated Amir’s remarkable qualities as an entrepreneur, a CEO, and a businessman throughout the process.
The Future of Outschool
There were 1,000 instructors using Outschool’s platform at the start of the pandemic. With 10,000 teachers on board in just a few months, Outschool’s founder noted that the screening procedure was resource-intensive, but necessary. Teachers who join Outschool full-time earn 70 percent of the price they set for lessons, while Outschool takes home the remaining 30 percent of the revenue.
Ironically, getting into schools is one of Outschool’s most ambitious objectives. Despite the epidemic, some businesses have been able to sell their products to schools, but district sales processes and low budgets continue to pose a problem for growing.
To help low-income families get on the platform, the start-up is working with schools and businesses to get contracts in place. As part of the COVID-19 response, Nathoo began implementing an enterprise sales strategy last year, which the company maintains is a minor portion of its overall revenue. It is now testing out its B2B product with a number of schools.
Major Competitors
- VIPKid – http://www.vipkid.com
- Cambly Inc – https://www.cambly.com
- Newsel – https://newse.la/38XBni8
