Episcopal freshman Thomas O’Connor, founder and CEO of FaceTutor, was selected to represent the Young Entrepreneurs Academy of Baton Rouge at a national pitch competition in New York after wowing a panel of local investors with his on-demand video tutoring service, which functions like an “Uber for tutors.”
O’Connor—who walked away Wednesday evening with $5,000 in seed funding—is among 26 area high school students participating in this year’s YEA class who pitched their business ideas to seven investors and a filled-to-the-brim LSU E.J. Ourso College of Business Rotunda during last night’s competition. All students secured some level of funding, in amounts ranging from $250 to $5,000.
In total, 26 students representing 21 businesses received $25,000 in funding. While O’Connor took home the top prize, two other businesses—Chem 3D, an app designed to expedite the chemical labeling process that typically happens at plants, and Envi, an eco-friendly water bottle that comes with a reusable straw, spork and bag—each collected $3,000.
FaceTutor offers three key components for its student market: 24/7 tutoring access, video chat functionality and session notes, allowing them to review what they’ve learned at the end of a session. For tutors, the program works similarly to how Uber works for drivers, with tutors able to log into and out of FaceTutor at their own accord.
“There’s a lot of students who need help with school, but I also think there’s a lot of teachers who want to make some extra money, so why not?” O’Connor told Daily Report after the competition.
During his two-and-a-half-minute pitch, O’Connor asked the panel for a $5,000 seed investment to cover costs associated with app development, website creation, incorporation of a video chat service and marketing efforts.
He plans to charge students $45 per tutoring session, with the expectation of profiting $20 per session, and wants to market to middle- and high-school students in the Baton Rouge area, as well as local teachers who might be interested in tutoring on the side.
Before he heads to the Saunders Pitch Competition in May, O’Connor will begin marketing to schools, asking teachers and students to join the service while developing the app.
The YEABR program is a local affiliate of a national nonprofit founded in 2004 at the University of Rochester in New York, and was launched by former Starmount Life Insurance President Deborah Sternberg as a way to offer high school students an opportunity to transform their ideas into valuable enterprises.
Read a 2018 Business Report feature spotlighting the program.
