“So what do you do?”
Ever since joining TeachStreet I’ve struggled with this question. Not because I don’t know what my job entails, but because unlike employees at companies with more name recognition, I can’t satisfy the question by simply saying “I work at TeachStreet.”
At the same time, however, when people ask this question they are not secretly asking for the recitation of a business plan either. They want brevity. So it’s been a challenge to provide silver bullet answers that effectively explain what TeachStreet is all about without using terms like vertical search or keyword bid management.
Ultimately, I’ve found what I say really depends on who asks the question. Here are a couple answers that have seemed to work.
Friend-of-friend: “I work for a tech start-up that focuses on local search.”
Grandma: “I work for… um… it’s like-uh… Grandma, I work an internet company.”
Web Savvy 28 yr old: “OK, so you use Yelp. Well, TeachStreet is similar, but instead of focusing on aggregating restaurant information, the focus is on teacher information. In other words, if you want to learn something, be it Spanish, guitar, yoga, or whatever, you’ll be able to use TeachStreet to connect with the people in your neighborhood or city who are teaching those subjects.”
Cute Barista: “It’s actually called the TeachStreet Foundation.”
Guitar Teacher: “One way to think of TeachStreet is as an eBay for local learning. Just as eBay empowers merchants to build their businesses, TeachStreet empowers local teachers to build their businesses by connecting them with local students interested in learning what they teach.”
4 yr old: “You know how you watch Sesame Street and learn stuff? Well, TeachStreet is kind of like that. And you know how there is a grouch on Sesame Street? Well, there is a grouch on TeachStreet, too. Except his name is not Oscar; His name is Dave.”
Picture: Creative Commons Ben Scicluna
I think our upcoming launch at the end of February will clear up any questions people may have about what we’re working on at TeachStreet, not to mention empower everyone to start using the site for it’s intended purpose: discovering teachers and learning new things.