TutorSearch helps students and tutors connect

Three years ago Melbourne student Milan Amarsi was looking for a tutor for his cousin and found it difficult to find one on short notice.

More difficult than he thought it should be. So he teamed up with two friends, Louis Goutos and Harry Vamvakas and together they founded TutorSearch, an online platform that allows students and tutors to search, locate and contact each other.

They created 121 Group Pty Ltd 18 months ago and launched the TutorSearch app and website in early September.

“Our aim is to make quality education as accessible as possible and as a secondary student it is very easy to find a tutor on our app and website,” Goutos says.

“Once you have made a profile you can login anytime you want and search our network for a tutor that suits your needs.”

Since launch, TutorSearch has over 500 students and tutors signed up to its database, the majority of whom are located in Melbourne, although Goutos says the startup is looking to grow its user base Australia-wide.

The startup has not received any outside investment and has no plans to look for seed funding anytime soon, instead preferring to focus the coming months on growing its user base.

It’s a competitive space, and Goutos says the team is setting out to build a community which they hope will set it apart from other platforms.

“By allowing both students and tutors to create their own profiles and contact each other, we are facilitating a sense of identity on our network, as well as creating a community for both parties to become a part of,” he says.

“We developed our tutor profile page after comprehensive research and development finding out what it is that students and parents really wanted from a tutor.

“Also, our editorial page, which includes articles from our editorial director (myself), as well as an array of guest writers, gives our product a voice on educational issues that we feel separates us from our competition and is a point of difference from anything else of this kind in the industry right now.

“We feel it is important to take a broader approach than just matching students and tutors and our goal is to create an educational community that people can trust.”

Monetization will be based on a small subscription fee that TutorSearch will charge for businesses to sign up to the service.

“Our goal with TutorSearch is to always be a free service for students and their parents,” Goutos says.

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