Research Foundation News

February 18, 2020

App brings digital study tables to campuses through knowledge-sharing marketplace

studytable-graphic The team behind studytable, one of the businesses chosen for the Purdue Foundry’s Double Down Experiment, created a platform for users to find other college students to help with difficult coursework. (Image provided) Download image

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A Purdue University-affiliated startup wants to help college students turn their knowledge into money – and avoid the stigma that can come from conventional tutoring.

The team behind studytable, one of the businesses chosen for the Purdue Foundry’s Double Down Experiment, created a platform for users to find other college students to help with difficult coursework. The nine businesses chosen for Double Down were selected based on readiness to reach the next level with technologies.

“Every student struggles and thrives at some point with coursework, so we developed a peer-to-peer knowledge-sharing marketplace for students to earn money from the classes they excelled in by connecting them to the students having trouble,” said Wesley Crouch, who founded the startup and serves as CEO. “We initially called our platform tudr but, after market research, changed the name and branding to avoid any stigma associated with conventional tutoring.”

Crouch said the platform is simple to use. A student downloads the free app, describes the problem they have with coursework and then opens a study table. Other students who want to earn money apply to host a study table, and then the user can read reviews and personality traits to select the host they want to use. The two students then schedule a time, decide on a location and the timer in the app starts and finishes the session.

“Students often describe conventional tutoring as too formal or impersonal,” Crouch said. “We don’t draw a distinction between a student and a host. Users can create one profile and easily provide or receive help from other students as needed.”

The price for an average session is around $20. The app offers parents and families a chance to send their student a digital care package, which can help cover the costs of sessions.

The startup was created in 2018. Studytable just launched at Purdue and is active on campuses across Indiana, California and a few other states. Crouch said the plan is to advertise to more campuses as soon as possible.

Crouch said he and the team were drawn to Purdue through one of their business advisors, Michael Schrader, who graduated from Purdue’s College of Engineering.

Schrader said, “I made sure they knew about the incredible entrepreneurship ecosystem at Purdue and basically said that is the place to be for what you are trying to accomplish.”

About Purdue Foundry

The Purdue Foundry is an entrepreneurship and commercialization hub whose professionals help Purdue innovators create startups. The Purdue Foundry is housed in the Convergence Center for Innovation and Collaboration in Discovery Park District, located on the west side of the Purdue campus. The Purdue Foundry is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, which received the 2019 Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Award for Place from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. For more information about funding and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org.

Writer: Chris Adam, 765-588-3341, cladam@prf.org   

Source: Wesley Crouch, wes@studytable.co


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