TeachStreet™

Do you speak a second language? Perhaps you’ve thought about learning French, Spanish, German, or Arabic?

If so, there is no shortage of classes here in Seattle at Washington Academy of Languages (WAL), located on Nickerson Street, over by Seattle Pacific University.

Who are they?
Well, they’ve been around for almost 30 years teaching English language and culture to non-native speakers. Their longevity is a testament to the quality of the programs that Dr. Paul Schneider and the rest of the folks at WAL have architected. Not to mention, an impressive feat for an independent non-profit language school

So if you’re kicking around the idea of improving your language skills, give them a shout. Here’s some more info about WAL based on a conversation we had last week with Nell Gross, the teacher education program coordinator at WAL.

How big are they?
They currently have about 100 instructors involved in private one-on-one programs, group classes, and more.

What’s unique about WAL?
The diversity of students! They have students of all backgrounds coming from all over the world to learn English. They also have a diversity of students training to teach English in the US and abroad. As Nell mentioned to us, “everyone has such interesting reasons for wanting to learn or teach a language!”

Core mission?
They are a “serious” language school in the sense that they’re committed to comprehensive language learning. They aren’t just trying to move students through proficiency levels, or offer just enough of to get by, though they do offer courses for world travelers.

They aim to facilitate deep, cross cultural communication.

They also have fun in the class, too.

What makes WAL different from other language schools?

• They’re the only independent language school offering university credit programs for students and teachers.

• Programs in-house and online and across the state—in school districts and at corporate sites.
  Professional development for faculty and state-of-the-art teaching methodology—their teachers are observed and can take advantage of teacher education courses and professional development meetings.

• Programs that allow students to learn English in order to meet and interact with other students. One such program is their Conversation Partner Exchange.

• Students can participate in community programs using their volunteer exchange program.

Some of the ways they currently find new students

• Google.
• CraigsList.
• Word-of-mouth.
• Walk-ins to their office.
• Education Clearinghouses (Such as Edufind.com and learn4good.com, to name a few).
• Did I mention TeachStreet?

Want to learn at WAL?
Check out the offerings on their site. There are many!

Want to teach at WAL?
If so, they receive unsolicited resumes all the time. So if you’re interested in teaching, and have at least a Master’s degree in the field you want to teach, shoot WAL your resume, or give them a call.

Or, check out their TeachStreet profile page.

Want a workforce of Harvard graduates? Well, talk to HR.

Want a workforce of Harvard graduates for your kids? Talk to Overqualified Tutoring.

Overqualified Tutoring, a local tutoring company, and early adopter of TeachStreet, does just that: provide local students with Harvard educated tutors so they can succeed in the classroom, as well as in the real world.

What’s with the name?

• Their founder was in L.A. and wanted to work 20 hours a week to pay the bills while pursuing his passion for acting. He tried to find part-time work, applied at a number of places, and was continually rejected. Why? …for being overqualified!

Who are they?

• Overqualified has been in New York and L.A. since 2004, but now they’re now in Seattle, too. They have 50 tutors in the three cities and have taught over 250 students to date.

• What’s unique about Overqualified, other than the whole Harvard diploma thing, is they match students with teachers who share similar interests (i.e. athletes with an athletes, music fans with music fans, etc).

Are you a Harvard grad?

• Um… well yeah, about that. There’s no crimson on my diploma, but if you have some on yours (sorry WSU grads!), Overqualified Tutoring is a great way to pick the number of hours you work, pay the bills, and still have the time to pursue any career aspirations you may have, be they acting, singing, yoga, or whatever else.

How do I find out more?

They’re based out of Fremont, but their tutors will travel around Seattle to teach sessions. For more information call their regional director: Brett Nowak. Brett is a Harvard alum, a former professional hockey player, an avid fisherman (the pic above, also on his TeachStreet profile page, speaks for itself), and a guy whose passion for teaching is palpable.

Brett can be reached at (206) 300-4185.

You know what they say about guys with big cars, right? …Big footprint.

10,207 lbs of CO₂. That’s what TerraPass says my car emits each year. This may sound like a lot, but it’s a figure that would be more than doubled if the model of my car ended with -burban. Though in light of the fact that it’s Earth Day, I’m not ready to pat myself on the back.

Picture by kk+

But I will give one to Seattle, who, as Alex Garcia mentions on his Alex in Seattle Blog (a great local blog on local real estate and all things Seattle), received the honor of #1 green building city in the country. A statistic that’s great for local homebuilders, but what about the the rest of us? There are many ways we could reduce the size of the ol’ footprint.

Here are a couple ways you can do just that on TeachStreet and some folks who can help.

• Walk more: Walk more. If you’re a senior, check out the Senior Center in West Seattle. They have free walking and fun fitness classes.

• Run more: Train for a marathon. And you can check out Team Survivor or other orgs to enlist their help.

• Grow your own. Learn gardening. Start by checking out the Tantalizing Tomatoes class at City Peoples in Madison Valley.

TeachStreet is a place for learning, yes. However, the site wouldn’t be much if it were just teacher listings. Classifieds and directories can, and do, fit that bill.

The secret sauce in the TeachStreet pudding (if we can call it secret), actually has nothing to do with databases, designs, or any of the free tools available on the site. It has to do with something that’s already here in Seattle: great teachers, in algebra, geometry, belly dancing, sewing, pilates, and hundreds of other subjects.

Pic: School Crossing | limonda

So despite our appreciation for the outpour of teachers and students over these 48 hours (thank you all, really!), we deserve little to no credit. Any credit belongs to the great community of local learning that already exists.

And thankfully, our job is made even easier yet by the fact that we don’t have to report on what’s going on in the Seattle education space either. There are some great local bloggers already doing just that.

Here are 3 great local education blogs, which I’d recommend to stay up on what’s happening locally with respect to schools and neighborhoods.

• The Seattle P-I School Zone Blog: Jessica Blanchard and Amy Rudolph team up to co-write the School Zone blog. which addresses both K-12 (Jessica’s realm of expertise) and higher education (Amy’s forte). Brevity and relevance make their posts good reads.

• Denise Gonzalez-Walker blogs about all things Seattle School District. It’s a reader blog, but Chalkboard has high quality content. Watch out WASL, Denise is opinionated, she’s local, and yes, she’s a Mom.

• The Full Circ Blog: Though her blog has no affiliation with the Seattle P-I, as two others do, Nancy White rounds out this short list. Nancy is a local master of web 2.0, whom I’ve heard only heard rave reviews about. Her consulting biz, of the same name as her blog, Full Circle, is a great resource for local companies looking to build online communities around their businesses.

For a longer list of great blogs nationally, check out this list of the Top 100 Education Blogs.

Exciting day around the ‘Street — we’ve been live for all of 12 hours, and so far, so good. Have seen a bunch of really interesting (and fun) classes show up, including “Private Bird Behavior Consultations” and a bunch of great knitting and sewing classes from our friends at Stitches here in Seattle!

In addition, we’re honored to have received some awesome launch coverage including:

• Two posts by the uber startup blog, TechCrunch — both pre-TeachStreet-launch and post-launch!
• John Cook, at the Seattle P-I, announces “Seattle: Land of nearly 1,000 Yoga Classes” — thanks, John!
• Brier Dudley, at the Seattle Times, not only wrote a great TeachStreet article, but it includes an action-packed video with yours truly — Mom will be so proud
• Greg Sterling’s Screenwerk blog, which covers local media better than pretty much anyone (IMO), gave us a nice launch write-up — I realized that he uses a similar ‘cloud header’ theme!
• Monica Guzman’s Big Blog writeup, “Want to take a class?“
• Matt Marshall’s Venture Beat
• Mary Kathleen Flynn at Tech Confidential

My Mom’s going to be so proud!

TeachStreet Closes Series A Round of $2.25 Million

Madrona Venture Group and Bezos Expeditions Lead First Round of Funding for New Company Dedicated to Connecting Teachers and Students Online

SEATTLE, WA — April 21, 2008 – TeachStreet, a new company dedicated to helping students find great local teachers, today announced that it has closed a $2.25 million Series A round of venture financing. The round was led by Madrona Venture Group, with participation by Bezos Expeditions and several strategic Seattle angel investors, including current and former Amazon.com executives Jeff Blackburn, Michael George, Jason Kilar (currently CEO at Hulu.com), Kim Rachmeler, and Joel Spiegel; former CEO of Expedia, Erik Blachford; founder of ProgrammableWeb, John Musser; and former RealNetworks’ executive and current co-founder of Athena IQ, Dave Richards.

TeachStreet was founded by Dave Schappell, a former Director of Product Development at Amazon.com who most recently served as Vice President of Marketing at JibJab, the viral digital media studio. Proceeds from this first round of funding will be used to launch the company’s service in new markets, enhance product development, support sales and marketing initiatives, and attract new talent. Unveiled today in the Seattle market, TeachStreet features a comprehensive guide to more than 25,000 Seattle-based teachers, classes, instructors, and schools to provide both teachers and students with a better way to find one another.

“TeachStreet has quickly evolved from an idea on a white board to a company and a product that delivers great value to teachers and students,” said Scott Jacobson, a Principal with Madrona Venture Group, a leading investor in early-stage technology companies in the Pacific Northwest. “This is a testament to Dave, his vision for the company, and the strength of the team he has assembled. While the demand for local learning is vast and growing rapidly, the marketplace is highly fragmented, and students often lack the information they need to find the teachers and courses that best meet their needs. TeachStreet solves this problem for students and teachers, and we look forward to helping the company continue to execute against its vision.”

In conjunction with closing its first round of funding, TeachStreet added two high technology business veterans to its Board of Directors, including Scott Jacobson and Dave McClure, a Silicon Valley investor and strategic advisor to numerous start-ups. To further assist the company’s growth, TeachStreet has also formed a Board of Advisors, including Amazon.com executive Jeff Blackburn, and Gregg Spiridellis, co-founder and CEO-Guy of JibJab. The rest of the TeachStreet team includes product development veterans with deep experience in community development, Web 2.0 technologies, affiliate marketing, and search engine optimization from such companies as Amazon.com, Getty Images, JibJab, Jobster, and Zillow.

“Bezos Expeditions is particularly interested in investing in marketplace-oriented communities that bring together distinct audiences in a fun and engaging manner,” said Melinda Lewison, a Senior Investment Associate with Bezos Expeditions, a personal investment company of Jeff Bezos. “This is a hugely underserved market at present, and we think the application of Web 2.0 technologies to a hypertargeted audience of teachers and local experts, who have traditionally relied on coffeehouse posters and Craigslist postings, presents a significant opportunity to build a high-growth online-to-offline community-based business model.”

“TeachStreet was created to address the huge gap that currently exists in the market for students and teachers to not only find one another but also increase the likelihood that they’re a perfect fit,” said Dave Schappell, founder and CEO of TeachStreet. “We believe that having such a strong group of investors from the very start significantly improves our chances of realizing our goals.”

About Madrona Venture Group
Madrona has been investing in early-stage technology companies in the Pacific Northwest since 1995 and has been privileged to play a role in some of the region’s most successful technology ventures. The firm invests predominately in seed and Series A rounds across the information technology spectrum including consumer Internet, commercial software and services, digital media and advertising, networking and infrastructure, and wireless. Madrona currently manages over $425 million and was an early investor in companies such as AdReady, Classmates.com, Farecast, Redfin, and ShareBuilder. To learn more, visit www.madrona.com.

About TeachStreet
Founded in June 2007, TeachStreet is dedicated to helping students find great local teachers, and empowering teachers with robust online tools to manage their teaching business. The free site provides the information that students need to make a good decision about their learning experiences, including student reviews and teacher recommendations, pricing information, location, teacher background and training, and more. TeachStreet is headquartered in Seattle, WA and backed by Madrona Venture Group. For more information, visit www.TeachStreet.com.

TeachStreet Unveils New Website to Help Students of Any Age Find Great Local Teachers and Classes

Launching in Seattle with More Than 25,000 Classes, Teachers, Instructors, Coaches, and Schools, TeachStreet Gives Lifelong Learners A Simple Way to Connect with Local Experts

SEATTLE, WA — April 21, 2008 – For the lifelong learners among us, it’s not always easy to find the right teacher. Whether hoping to brush up on their Spanish, learn how to swing dance, or prepare for the SAT, students have had to search far and wide — and often with little success. TeachStreet, the first website dedicated to helping teachers and students connect with one another in the real world, today took the covers off its beta site at www.teachstreet.com. Representing the largest free directory of learning experiences for students of all ages, TeachStreet features more than 25,000 Seattle-area teachers, trainers, tutors, instructors, coaches, and classes. Students can search for teachers across more than 500 subjects and filter the results according to map-based location, ratings from other students, teacher availability, promotional pricing, and more. For teachers, TeachStreet provides a simple yet powerful way to promote themselves online and manage their learning business.

“We have heard time and again from adult learners, and from parents looking for tutors and coaches for their children, how difficult it is to find relevant and up-to-date information to evaluate teachers. At the same time, teachers are craving easy-to-use tools to help market themselves on the Internet, manage their student rosters, and find more prospective students in their neighborhoods,” said Dave Schappell, founder and CEO of TeachStreet. “One of our goals with TeachStreet is to use the latest online technologies to facilitate real-world connections and provide anyone who wants to either learn or teach a new skill with a rich, geographically targeted website that feature’s a city’s best teaching resources.”

TeachStreet provides teachers and instructors with an array of free online tools to help them grow their business. These include:

• Online Profile Builder: In under three minutes, teachers can create a robust web presence where they can feature photos, sample lesson plans, pricing, and student references;
• Search Engine Optimization: TeachStreet was designed specifically to help teachers’ listings be discovered more easily on major search engines including Google, Yahoo! and MSN, providing teachers with an easy way to be found by students; and
• Scheduling and Management Tools: To help teachers organize their schedules and manage their workload, TeachStreet offers an assortment of calendering and management tools that let teachers focus their energy on what they do best.

With more than 25,000 Seattle-area classes, teachers, instructors, and coaches currently listed on the TeachStreet beta site, there’s a class for every interest. Classes and teachers currently available on TeachStreet include everything from the popular (tennis coaching, piano lessons, and cooking classes) to the esoteric (break dancing, surfing, and Texas Hold ‘em Poker, to name just a few). The site can be searched by keywords or visitors can scroll through TeachStreet’s extensive directory of classes, which are organized by subject. Currently, some of the most popular subjects in Seattle include: 918 yoga classes in 31 neighborhoods, 413 dance classes in 28 neighborhoods, and 131 dog obedience classes in seven neighborhoods. In addition, students are encouraged to submit reviews of teachers, and teachers are invited to enhance their profiles with lesson plans, class photos, and more. While this extensive coverage is currently limited to the Seattle area, TeachStreet plans to expand its service to other US cities in the coming months.

“As a guitar teacher trying to expand my student base, I think TeachStreet will be an invaluable resource. I’ve spent four years teaching guitar to students of all ages and that’s where I want to focus my energy, not trying to keep abreast of new technologies,” said Ryan Casperson, a guitar teacher based in Wallingford and early tester of the site. “In less than three minutes I was able to set up a full-featured online presence on TeachStreet and I now have a permanent address to send my students where they can get a true sense of my teaching style and how I work with students.” Ryan’s TeachStreet profile page can be found here.

About TeachStreet
Founded in June 2007, TeachStreet is dedicated to helping students find great local teachers, and empowering teachers with robust online tools to manage their teaching business. The free site provides the information that students need to make a good decision about their learning experiences, including student reviews and teacher recommendations, pricing information, location, teacher background and training, and more. TeachStreet is headquartered in Seattle, WA and backed by Madrona Venture Group. For more information, visit www.TeachStreet.com.

Hello World — we’re so excited to welcome you to TeachStreet!

The last 6-9 months have been an incredible experience. While the TeachStreet idea is about a year old, the team has actually been developing the website for only about seven months, and we’re incredibly excited to share our efforts with you. We launched today with a directory of more than 25,000 classes, teachers, and schools across the Seattle metropolitan area. While building that directory was a herculean effort, we’re even more excited about the easy-to-use tools we’ve built, to help make it incredibly convenient for teachers and schools everywhere to get themselves set up on the web with a professional presence that helps them find more local students, more quickly.

First, we’d like to thank our friends and family for all of their support — we couldn’t have done it without you.

We’d also like to say a special thank you to our early investors and advisors — your belief in us is truly humbling. Thank you Erik and Maryam, Joel and Karen, Mike, Chris and Regan, Kim, Mom & Dad S., Jeff and Anne, Jason and Jamie, Dave and Saya, John and Sally, Dave and Sharon, Auntie Maine, and Gregg. To our later investors, we are equally humbled — thank you to Scott, Matt and Geoff at Madrona Venture Group and to Melinda, Steve and Jeff at Bezos Expeditions — we are so excited about your involvement in what we’re trying to build.

Wow… It’s starting to feel like an awards acceptance speech around here… I promise, I’ll sign off soon.

Next, thank you to the Seattle startup community — we’ve been propped up with advice and assistance on a moment’s notice over and over — thank you — we’ll strive to return the favor. And, to our advisors and consultants, you’ve been unbelievable.

Finally, I’d like to personally thank the members of the TeachStreet team: Katie, Fred, Scott, Leandra, Jon, Sam and Jim; plus Amanda toiling away at Grinnell. You’ve been unbelievable. I’m so excited about what we’ll be building together.

Onward!

Dave (and Zach the Dog)

p.s. We’ll leave you with two TeachStreet Launch Limericks, courtesy of Mama Gruv, Penny Gruver (proud ‘mom’ to our wonderful Katie Gruver!):

Is there something you’re itching to know?
Come on and give teachstreet a go
Just settle right in
and give us a spin
It won’t even cost any dough

There once was a place about teaching–
you could get there without any preaching
you just sit in your house
and you work that old ‘mouse’
and soon EVERYWHERE you are reaching!

Jim stands by the the TeachStreet “On” Switch… getting ready to flip it..

And at 1:18am, 1:21am, 1:28am TeachStreet went live!  Yee haw!!!

Let the party begin!

Sheesh, this blog entry is far overdue — I first spoke with Ryan about his guitar teaching business back in January of this year and my to-do list has had his name on it ever since! But, after our conversation, I continued to think about Ryan and his guitar teaching; they were ideal matches with TeachStreet.”

Ryan’s been teaching for four years, primarily at the 4/4 School of Music, here in Seattle (4/4 is probably the best music school in Seattle, by the way — we hope to see them on TeachStreet soon!). When he started teaching, he only had about four students, but he’s a classic case of word-of-mouth excitement.  As of late, he’s now packed with 60-65 students per week, with 30 minute sessions.  Yes, that’s 65! He teaches all skills levels, from beginner to really, really good; and, he’s actually taken students in 2 years from basic to “great” (his words, not mine). Of course, he prefaces that with “they’re high school students — they have a lot of time to practice, and they take advantage of that!”

He’s thought about teaching on the side, but (a) he’s not too savvy with promoting himself online/marketing and (b) he’s really enjoyed working with 4/4 School, in that they’ve grown regularly, and his role’s grown with them. He knows that one of the huge benefits of teaching on his own, even if it’s only a day a week, is the tax benefit of being able to offset his business income with his music gear expenses (the cost of guitars, amps and related gear does add up!). Plus, he’d probably make a slightly higher income, admittedly offset by the administrative burdens.

His early feedback for TeachStreet (which we hope we’ve addressed!):

1) Make it easy to use… easy, easy, easy… while he’s comfortable online, he knows that the core teacher audience isn’t highly web-savvy… they’d love a way to get a professional online presence with minimal effort.

2) Make it free, at first — teachers are willing to pay, but we’ve got to prove that we can generate student volume for them — so, put up first, and then offer ways to monetize later.

3) Solve the repetitive Craigslist posting problem — Craigslist can work, but they make you post every few days, and you have no reputation — it’s a burden on class owners, and not very useful for student.

Finally, he’d love for us to add payments — teachers don’t like having to ask people for money (heck, who does?!?). He’d love to be able to set up students on auto-pay, with cancellation policies — that way he can be very up-front with students, and each side can have an easy-to-use interface (with 24-hour access) to manage the relationship. Point taken, Ryan — we’re on it.

Now, get back to work… student #66 just showed up!