Student job leads to successful startup
April 1, 2021
When Zachary Mason joined UAF’s Center for Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship team in March 2020, he had no idea the world of innovation and assisting startup companies would lead him to create his own business.
The computer science and applied mathematics major is still enrolled at UAF and was hired as a student ambassador for Center ICE.
Mason left Center ICE to work for a Hong Kong-based online meeting startup company, Remo, but that job opportunity fell through. While wondering what to do next, Mason was asked by local parents to provide tutoring to high school students in Fairbanks. A friend of Mason’s had also received requests to provide tutoring.
“I realized there's got to be a need for this and I bet a lot of kids are having trouble in school, right now, especially with everything moved online,” said Mason.
Mason’s short time marketing and coordinating events at Center ICE built useful skills, but his experience working with innovators and entrepreneurial coaches like Nigel Sharp and Mark Billingsley inspired Mason to become an entrepreneur himself.
“I’d like to thank Nigel and Mark at Alaska Center ICE for providing me invaluable knowledge and experience during my time there, which I think back on regularly while making decisions in my own company,” said Mason in a Facebook post reflecting on his business success.
North Star Tutors, Mason’s company, is a Fairbanks-based online tutoring service that offers educational tutoring, standardized test prep, and music lessons among a growing list of additional topic areas. Students from around the world utilize the company’s online services, from Fairbanks to Zimbabwe.
Now six months old, North Star Tutors employs 12 tutors along with several full-time and part-time office staff. Mason has shifted his own work from tutoring to managing the business. He has yet to give himself a paycheck during these early stages of the business. “I have never worked so hard for so little money,” Mason chuckled about the 12-hour days he works seven days a week to manage the business. Since the business started, the tutors have provided over 500 hours of coaching to students.
“It was very much an accident,” said Mason. “I didn’t intend to end up in this situation (starting a company), but I am glad I did, and we stumbled on to a real problem.”
The problem he found through research is that most tutoring services are too expensive for high school students to afford — the national average cost for lessons starts at $80 an hour — and services were not designed for online learning, are impersonal, matching students with tutors based only on subject. North Star Tutors starts at $50 an hour, with discounts available that can bring the cost down to $40 an hour, it was based as an online education experience and student-tutor pairings are based on subject and personality traits to increase comfort and improve communication.
North Star Tutors mentors are college students themselves, and Mason, a current student himself, feels that students coaching students offers a more contemporary experience where tutors clearly understand current education methods. North Start Tutors provides lessons to both traditional and non-traditional students.
North Star Tutors has already received an injection of cash from investors. That amount was just enough to pay for preliminary marketing, the technology platform that serves as the accounting and personnel backbone, and provide the initial funding for hiring tutors and an office manager.
Mason recently entered the Alaska Angel Conference, a three-month program where entrepreneurs are coached to hone their business model and pitch their business to potential angel investors for a final grand prize of a $100,000 investment. Mason values speaking with the investors about the entrepreneurial process and learning their insight to overcome business problems.
“Even if we don’t win, it has been a great opportunity to get to know the investors and entrepreneurs in the state,” said Mason.
Mason started to feel a real sense of responsibility when he began hiring tutors. “I have had tutors quit their day jobs, and if we fail — I have people counting on me to make rent at the end of the month,” Mason said.
North Star Tutors has seen a tenfold increase in revenue over the first six months, so it seems at least for now that rent will be covered. The tutors and Mason have found themselves a hungry local market and created a valuable service to satiate that appetite.
"It's great seeing a student like Zach Mason take the initiative to start a new virtual tutoring system that really addresses a growing Edtech need in response to our Covid-limited society, his startup is making great impact by creating gig jobs for tutors while serving Alaskan students," said Nigel Sharp, Startups and Innovation Manager at Center ICE.
“It’s very fulfilling and rewarding to be able to help Alaska students and give back to the community,” added Mason. He’s thankful for his introduction to the startup community, and his time at UAF and Center ICE provided the knowledge and connections that have been instrumental in helping Mason create a successful company.
Learn more about North Star Tutors here and about the Alaska Angel Conference here.