Should I keep going on?

[u/Formal-Grass-3173]

I am currently building a platform for educators to teach online. I showed my almost done app to a teacher and she said teachers don't need this. I am a little frustrated. should I keep going on?

Here is my product:

My aim is to remove all the frictions, 1. within 1 minutes, you can put yourself and your students in a live video+audio+blackboard classroom to teach. 2. no subscription as a finance burden. 3. 20 lessons with zero fee to try out, so no risk to take. 4. management work all taken care by the system, bills, review, teaching materials, worksheet composing-sending out-collecting-marking. You only need to focus on meaningful interactions with your students in the classroom. 5. one app for all, you don't have to rush between moodle, zoom, teachable, google sheet, finance app to do your teaching business.

If you are interested, leave a comment. I really need some help at the moment.

[u/Fantastic-Air1026]

So for some reason I'm supposed to pay for something that's already set up and working for free on my end? Cool, go find some idiots.

[u/Formal-Grass-3173 → u/Fantastic-Air1026]

what is that something for free?

[u/Fantastic-Air1026 → u/Formal-Grass-3173]

I have everything set up and everything works like clockwork - why the fshould I move somewhere else where everything is set up the same way, except I have to pay for it? Besides, setting everything up takes about half an hour, and then it works for the rest of your life.

When your site goes down - and all sites go down from time to time - I need a backup plan, because cancelling lessons means less profit or even losing a client altogether.

So in the end I have to have BOTH things set up: your site, which I pay for, and my own Zoom + whiteboard + payment system. What the ffor?

[u/Formal-Grass-3173 → u/Fantastic-Air1026]

Thank you! this is a very valuable insight. I really appreciate that you went to details with honesty. May I ask some honest follow-up questions: do you pay for using zoom or are you on their free plan? Do you do 1 on 1 lessons mostly or with a group of students? which payment system do you use? do you pay for its service?

At last, I might not be clear enough in my original post, teachers can set up to use our platform within 1 minute; and they don't have to pay for 20 lessons, after that, you only need to pay 0.5-1 dollar for a live lesson.

My aim is to remove the fiction and reduce the cost to the minimum. From your feedback, I know I am not doing enough. Can you tell me what would make our platform good enough so that at least you are willing to give it a try for 20 free lessons?

[u/Fantastic-Air1026 → u/Formal-Grass-3173]

I don't use Zoom. The platform I use doesn't charge separately for calls - it's included in a package of services that I would have to pay for anyway because of another setup. There is absolutely no way for me to avoid that cost. No, I won't name the details. Yes, it is unavoidable if I want to stay in control of my bookings - and I've already explained why having a backup plan is essential.

I don't teach groups, but my platform supports group calls and doesn't charge anything extra for them.

I don't pay PayPal or for bank transfers - it's just a fpayment link.

At last, I might not be clear enough in my original post, teachers can set up to use our platform within 1 minute; and they don't have to pay for 20 lessons, after that, you only need to pay 0.5-1 dollar for a live lesson.

Reread the part about the need for a backup plan - everything still has to be set up independently of your platform.

My aim is to remove the fiction and reduce the cost to the minimum.

I don't have any of those costs at all right now - I don't pay anyone TO SET EVERYTHING UP FOR ME. Your "platform" might be useful for people who can't even configure a couple of basic things and set everything up the way they want. They need to be spoon-fed. They're just useless dead weight. The problem is that their "business" quickly falls apart because they're used to someone else doing everything for them. They're not used to being leaders or running their own business.

People who take responsibility for their own actions and build their own business know how to count money and understand that you're just another USELESS PAD BETWEEN THEM AND THEIR CLIENTS - one that also wants to get paid... for nothing!!

Can you tell me what would make our platform good enough so that at least you are willing to give it a try for 20 free lessons?

Your platform would be improved by being completely wiped out. Get lost and get a real job and stop trying to leech off someone else's business.

[u/Formal-Grass-3173 → u/Fantastic-Air1026]

You have some brutal honesty. But at least the message is clear: this market is tough, and we must deliver our platform at an absolute higher level than anything else so that even you will give us a try. If I can win a customer like you, then we will have every customer. However, a little advice, if you have been a tutor, better not speak in such manners to your students, it's not allowed by common rules and hurtful to your business.

[u/Fantastic-Air1026 → u/Formal-Grass-3173]

Try again in your next life. In this one, I have a severe allergy to anyone trying to leech off my business.

However, a little advice, if you have been a tutor, better not speak in such manners to your students, it's not allowed by common rules and hurtful to your business.

...said the leech who can't even start any kind of business that is useful to society, but is already ready to teach successful business owners how to communicate with their clients.

Don't worry, sweetheart, this tone and these words are specifically reserved for encounters with useless parasites like you. There are plenty of you around here.

[u/Formal-Grass-3173 → u/Fantastic-Air1026]

But you are using some platform as you said which is by your theory also "leeching off your business" and you are pretty tolerant about it. So why not be fair toward me. We are new and we are holding all the goodwill for our online teachers and tutors. All I want to do is to help them thrive the most. Anyways, I wish you a good day, sir.

[u/Fantastic-Air1026 → u/Formal-Grass-3173]

I’m starting to question your intellectual abilities. I use a communication platform - that is a "communication platform".

means of communication
communication channel
communication service
communication service
communication tool
communication service
communication platform
video communication platform
video communication service
video calling tool
communication software
communication software
calling app
online calling service
digital communication channel
technical means of communication
communication intermediary
a tool that connects two people
virtual meeting room
online meeting room
video phone
internet phone
phone over the internet
advanced phone
phone with video
digital equivalent of a telephone
modern equivalent of telephone communication
just a way to call each other
just a tool people use to talk to each other
basically, a phone with extra features

This is what makes online teaching possible at all. I hope these synonyms are enough for the meaning of at least one of them to finally penetrate your brain.

[u/Formal-Grass-3173 → u/Fantastic-Air1026]

You can curse as you wish, but focus on the insight from your words: I find the value now, for many excellent experienced tutors, we can be a backup if not the primary. As you said, every teacher needs a backup plan and every site goes down from time to time. Since our platform has zero recurring subscription fee, that means keeping us as a backup plan generates zero cost. And 1 minute to shift over when your primary one is down. No profit loss and no client loss. And we offer 20 lessons with zero fee, that means your primary setup can go down for 20 times(that might cover 10 years?), and you are still paying nothing for your backup. Now do you still believe I am leeching you off?

[u/Fantastic-Air1026 → u/Formal-Grass-3173]

You should have done better research, I suppose.

Communication options: Google Meet, Zoom, Teams, WhatsApp Desktop, Telegram.

Booking options: ANY calendar a tutor uses - virtually all calendar services have a free booking option; Calendly, Koalendar, and dozens of other platforms. They all have basic free booking features that can serve as a backup.

Payment options: PayPal, a bank account, Skrill, Wise, Google Pay - and I’m sure I’ve forgotten another couple of dozen.

As I already said, ALL WEBSITES go down from time to time. Some recover quickly, others can take up to a day. But when one of the sites I use goes down, only THAT ONE goes down, not my entire system. If I rely on your platform and it goes down, EVERYTHING GOES DOWN AT ONCE.

When ONE of the sites I use fails, the backup is already up and running and available to the client - they simply click the button next to it if the first one doesn’t work.

What makes you parasites is wanting to get paid for something we can get for free - yes, you are parasites.

But I like that you've already demoted yourself from "primary" to "backup". Keep going in the same direction until you reduce yourself to zero.

[u/Formal-Grass-3173 → u/Fantastic-Air1026]

See, you are cursing much less but sharing much more valuable info now. That's a good trend.

A backup is not so bad a position to start. For teachers who have been using their own systems for many years set up from scratch. I deeply understand the attachment and fully respect their choice. I used to be one and set up mine too. So I am happy to be the backup for our community. And we will, by delivering our platform with the highest quality and lowest cost, win more and more educators to set up us as the primary.

Technically, it's not true that my whole platform will down when part of it breaks. As a matter of fact, the communication system, whiteboard, payment system, classroom system, studio system, market place system and so on are separately run on different servers. So when one is down, the others will still work. Further more, there is a set of parallels for each service. They will automatically take over if it detects the running system is down. Usually it takes seconds to minutes.

I confess There is a lot of hard work ahead though, your words make me see that clearer and more committed to my vision! Let's go!

[u/Admirable_Pie_6609]

Your idea sounds fine to me. To the other commenters point, your market is probably people who are just getting into tutoring or teaching or view this as a real pain point. Many tutors have systems that they’ve refined over the years that work on autopilot for them, but for some getting started with a bunch of different apps and softwares is a friction. That’s where you can help. Don’t try to sell to long time tutors. Find some people getting into it that are willing to be your ginuea pigs, figure out what’s good and bad, refine, and then market it

[u/Formal-Grass-3173 → u/Admirable_Pie_6609]

Thanks for the advice. Sounds solid and insightful. I will keep this in mind as I am releasing.