Curious Cardinals
$4T is spent on education annually, making it one of the largest industries in the world. And, one of the most important considering the impact on future human and planetary well being. The efficacy of that spending has been studied for decades by thousands of researchers. One robust finding from all of that work: one-on-one learning works.
In fact, high dosage tutoring is one of the only interventions repeatedly shown to be effective, with the largest estimated impacts for student learning. Of course, tutoring is expensive. And it doesn't fit with our traditional school house, factory model of education.
So, we have a solution that works, but is too expensive and difficult to implement. Following Clay Christensen, one way to innovate is to create a disruptive new model for tutoring, inferior on one dimension but potentially preferable on other, more important dimensions.
Online mentorship from non-professionally trained mentors likely would be dismissed by professional educators as inferior. The mentors aren't credentialed. Virtual learning doesn't match being in the same room as the student, working through a problem side by side. Without a school infrastructure, how is a curriculum followed, standards maintained, quality controlled?
All valid questions. But, consider the opportunity. A global marketplace of inspiration for young learners. A thoughtful pairing process for mentors who share similar passions and life experiences, but are just a little farther ahead in the journey, to connect virtually with learners anywhere in the world. The online marketplace model opens up the possibility of a middle school student from Kansas meeting weekly with a New England college student. Or, a new mentor from New York, New Zealand, or New Delhi. The possibilities for affinity and inspiration increase exponentially when you move from driving distance to online availability.
I'm inspired by Curious Cardinals, the organization building this future. I started as a customer. My son is learning web development from Erin, a Computer Science major who studies at Yale, ~5,000 miles from our home. Each week, he learns from and gets inspired by Erin. I am now an Advisor to Curious Cardinals and I'll be an investor when the team lets me invest.
Curious Cardinals is an online marketplace to connect and inspire young learners. Right now, the anchor product is mentorship - regular 1-1 meetings between college students and middle school age students who share similar interests. The mentors get an interesting, well paid job, furthering their own professional growth. The mentees get individualized attention, and connection with an older learner on a similar journey.
Online marketplaces are beautiful business models. They can open up new supply, like bedroom nights for Airbnb, and classroom teaching for Outschool, which provide more choice and lower costs for customers. The digital platform allows for rigorous feedback mechanisms - what is working in the model, what isn't, and how the marketplace should evolve over time to better serve student learning goals. Dynamic and individualized pricing enables different types of mentors to serve the market, at both lower price points and significantly higher price points depending on the specific circumstances.
Curious Cardinals builds from the belief that we learn best when connected and inspired by another. Our family also uses and loves Khan Academy. And Duolingo, and Wikipedia. Valuable services like those provide a knowledge base online and customized learning pathways. But what is missing is the human connection - the social element of learning. As Aristotle observed, we are social animals.
Imagine a world with 1,000,000 different mentors of all different demographic, geographic, academic and personal backgrounds. Easy discoverability for any learner, of any age, to engage with that mentor on a topic of mutual interest. A platform connecting them at ease, with trust and safety providing payment, feedback, and accountability in both directions.
Such a marketplace would not need to replace schools to dramatically improve education in the world.
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