Why we're going back to NYC to build Tutorspree | Hacker News Reader

Why we're going back to NYC to build Tutorspree

aaronkharris.com

51 pointsakharris17 comments

I also think it will help that NYC has a very competitive private education environment. Many parents will do almost anything to get their kids on track to the Ivy Leagues, which obviously includes tutoring. Also, the fact that you are from there so your networks are more established there makes it a good choice. Best of luck!

We look at what we need in order to develop the next stage of Tutorspree - high density of students, focus on education, willingness to experiment with new technology and methods, design talent, engineering talent, etc. and we put that on the scale. For us, those factors all point to NYC as our optimal first market to conquer.

Funny, I look at those factors and think, "Boston".

Yeah, Boston would also be a great town for what we're doing. That's where the social/personal element helps us decide.

I look at all those and think bay area or Boston. NYC has Columbia, NYU, CCNY/CUNY and some spill over from SUNY's versus Berkeley, Stanford, SFSU, CCSF, SJSU, UCSC, and a bunch of other smaller colleges.

Also, I can't imagine the living cost in NYC is really that much than SF/Silicon Valley. I mean, I pay $950/mo for a nice room in a decent house in SF, and even in Menlo Park I payed $750.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/19/real_estate/housing_affordab...

It really is that much more expensive here.

With stats like the ones in the article posted, you're incorporating a really geographically diverse area for NYC. Do the SF ones include Oakland? Here they're talking about way out in East New York, or East Flatbush BK, or the South Bronx. So sure, CNN says you can buy a house for $455k, but in any neighborhood you'd feel safe living in it's more like $600k for a smallish 1 or 2 bedroom co-op, and that's in the neighborhoods going through gentrification.

Rent is generally around $1500/month for a 1 bedroom in bed-stuy or up in east greenpoint. You can easily pay double for Manhattan.

Then there is the cost of everything else in the city. It really gets expensive quick!

Cheapest you get a 1BR apartment is maybe $1000-$1200 in Oakland or closer to the valley you can get some deals in East Palo Alto, but you'll probably be held up at gun point some time in your life (Two friends in North Oakland have been held up at gunpoint) In general though, $1700 for a decent 1BR except in SF, where it's probably closer to $2k.

Cheapest homes in East Palo Alto for sale will run $350k. Everywhere else is at least $500k for anything. The government locality pay difference for the GS pay scale in SF is 35% vs. 28% in New York/Newark.

I'm sure the city of SF is very comparable to NYC, although you can find some cheaper areas here, but you'll be living further away and commuting, same thing probably goes for NYC (and New Jersey for that matter)

Yeah, it seems like SF is very comparable to Brooklyn in prices.

Also, that's a room, not an apartment. The house rents for $3K.

Great post, glad you are coming back to NYC! Wanted to make a comment about your website. I think you overstate cost as a deciding factor for parents. Right now, visiting your website and searching for a tutor the cost and picture are the most highlighted factors about each tutor. From my experience tutoring for 5+ years, most people who seek a tutor for their kid (especially in test prep) care far more about the tutor's capabilities than price.

I've been meaning to write a blog post about this, but when I started my tutoring business I was very worried about what I charged. Nervously, I would bring it up at the beginning of early conversations with prospective parents. Later, I realized that parents really use those calls to establish competency. If they believe you are really competent they will pay double or triple the "average" price for your help. People consider tutoring, and especially test prep as investments, and like anyone else they care more about their ROI than their exact cost.

I think the focus for the search on Tutorspree should be on emphasizing competency. Especially for test prep. So, in the big box where price is now, it could show their applicable SAT/LSAT/GMAT score, and perhaps the number of students they have tutored before. Then it could have a one-liner like "Graduating cum laude with degrees in Mathematics and Economics" or whatever. This is addressing what the parents want (especially in ultra affluent and educationally attuned uptown Manhattan).

Even more importantly, it makes the tutors feel like they are competing on quality, not on price. This will encourage better tutors to come to your site. Top LSAT companies will pay a tutor $100+/hour and charge $250+/hour. In order for a great tutor to use your site they must feel like they have a chance to get paid at least equivalently. And, I think in the end the most likely way Tutorspree succeeds is by matching parents/students with incredible students.

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Good luck again! I will be NYC based soon, and have worked as a tutor for many years. If you guys would like to bounce ideas off someone with that background, my email is in my profile.

If you know of any exceptional engineers or designers, please let them know that we're hiring: jobs (at) tutorspree.com.

Hey Aaron, loved the article, although my comment is unrelated. If you press cmd+ on your computer, it makes the font the perfect size. Might be good to increase it by 2-3px? Makes it a lot easier to read.

+1 I was going to post the same thing. I thought maybe it might just be my old age.

I'm 16, so I don't think so :-)

solid advice. just fiddled the css over to make it easier to read. now i can stop squinting as well.

Also, for your post title to display properly, it looks like you need to make your h1 {line-height: 1.2em;}

cheers!

Seems like Tutorspree could really start in any city. One could use the same argument about AirBnB (a high density of available apartments), but it's still worked out well for them. However, if NYC is your personal preference, that's great. I'm in the area, and although I don't know what the tech scene is going to look like 5-10 years from now in the city, I'd love to see it grow and have NYC viewed as something other than the Capital of Finance (or Financial Wizardy).

Agree that it could start in any city, but the question is more around what gives you the highest chance of success. AirBnB did focus heavily on particular places (NYC, in fact). Makes sense as they'd want to understand the dynamics of how they would grow, what would work, etc. on a knowable playing field before repeating that success in place after place.

At least, that's how we think about it.

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