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Tutorspree
Based in
New York, United States
E-Commerce, EdTech, Education
B2B
Web-based tuition services
Acquired
Attended an Accelerator
Dates
Launch
1 September 2010
Closure
1 January 2013
Duration (months)
2 years, 4 months
Failure
Reason
"Tutorspree was a startup in a very seasoned and competitive sector. There is no clear-cut reason for the venture failure but analyzing some of the available information might help us shed light on possible culprits. First, it probably had to do with the founders of the company and their lack of expertise in the field. Also, Tutorspree's vision of pairing up tutors and students to meet up in person so as to create and maintain a real connection is commendable but not practical. Although indeed, in-person lessons are still very much valuable, the market -and the world- is heading on to a different direction. It is also possible that the platform, which was initially taking 50% of the tutorâs fees, might have witnessed a decline in overall user growth because nothing could prevent tutors and students to schedule lessons without recurring to Tutorspree.com after they got to know each other.Another problem for Tutorspree's seemed to be that the company was primarily dependent on search traffic from Google to acquire new students and tutors, and any algorithm changes could significantly reduce their traffic and in return their users. As resources started to dwindle and funding failed to come in, Tutorspree decided to shut down. Its assets (including its user's database) were bought by Wyzant, a tutoring marketplace launched in 2005 which is still active."
Submitted Failure Story
Failure categories
Poor marketing
Founders and team
Investment
Number of investors
10
Investors
Y Combinator, Sequoia Capital, SV Angel, Lerer Hippeau, Founder Collective, Thrive Capital, Alexis Ohanian, Resolute Ventures, reinmkr capital, Bubba Murarka
Accelerator program
Y Combinator
Acquisition status
Acquired by Wyzant for undisclosed amount
Acquisition date
24 January 2014
Employee count
51-100
Founders
Aaron Harris, Josh Abrams, Ryan Bednar
Founders Twitter
Funding
Total funding
$1,800,000
Number of funding rounds
2
Funding round(s) amount(s)
Venture - Series Unknown - $800,000, Seed - $1,000,000
Last funding
$1,800,000
Last funding date
18 February 2013
Last funding type
Venture - Series Unknown
Funding Status
M&A
Online
Website
Public synopsis
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