35. Tutorful

Founders: Scott Woodley and Mark Hughes
Founded: August 2015
Website: www.tutorful.co.uk

After graduating from the University of Sheffield with a masters in law, Scott Woodley began working as a primary school teacher.

While he found teaching “incredibly rewarding”, Woodley decided he could accomplish more by working as a private tutor in his local area.

Finding himself frequently oversubscribed, he started to work with other tutors in the area and this sowed the seeds for Tutorful.

Woodley enlisted the help of his childhood friend Mark Hughes and the pair launched Startups 100-listed Tutorful in August 2015 as a platform that connects learners and tutors across the UK.

Tutorful thoroughly vets every tutor on its platform and its tutor base ranges from school teachers to degree level students to experienced tutors.

For those looking to learn from a tutor, you simply enter your desired subject area and postcode into the platform to find a tailored list of the best tutors in your local area. You can then message them and confirm a booking.

There is no minimum number of lessons and payment is only taken 24 hours after each lesson.

Three years since launch and Tutorful now has over 9,000 active tutors on the platform, who have delivered more than 200,000 lessons in 300 different subjects across the UK.

This growth has made the business a compelling investment opportunity and, in March 2017, it secured more than £700,000 via crowdfunding platform Crowcube from 540 backers; fundraising that also saw it recognised as a finalist for Crowdfunded Business of the Year at the Startups Awards 2017

While the online tutoring sector is becoming increasingly competitive, Tutorful tells us that, by offering an alternative to services that only provide a solution to one particular problem, it’s intent on becoming the largest tuition provider in the UK.

And it’s ambitions don’t stop there. If Tutorful continues to scale at its current rate, the start-up will look to take its transparent and trust-focused approach to international markets to “help learners across the globe”.