Women-Led EdTech Company Poised to Take on Language and Academic Tutoring Giants

NEW YORK, Sept. 12, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Today Lessonface announces an expansion: the leading marketplace for live online music lessons with great teachers is now offering language lessons and academic tutoring. CEO and founder Claire Cunningham said, "After six years of practice, practice, practice with music lessons, so to speak, we are very excited to expand our tutoring universe."

"Lessonface's team has changed online music lessons for the better, and we look forward to doing the same in the language and academic tutoring fields," Cunningham continued. The Lessonface staff cultivates their learning community in ways that are structural and part of their daily practices.

The marketplace operates on a basis of fair and transparent fees (15% of individual lessons booked), and has been protective of student and teacher privacy from day one. Teachers go through a multi-step application process, where they are curated for their excellence and online teaching ability by Director of Music Yonit Spiegelman and new Director of Academics and Languages Dr. Daniela Busciglio. The community directors organize free and interactive online professional development sessions for teachers and tutors to provide a lively venue for community discussions and exchange. Online group classes are also available for student enrollment.

The results are compelling. In the thousands of reviews submitted by verified customers on Lessonface, students and parents have rated their teachers 4.997/5. In 2018, teachers were paid an average of $46/hr for their time spent teaching via Lessonface, up from $45 in 2017 and $36 in 2016. This is favorably compared to the average hourly wage for private music teachers of $30, according to Indeed.com, or $21, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, indicating that the relatively smaller cut taken by Lessonface, combined with its cultivated community approach, results in both higher-than-typical payouts to teachers and greater value to students.

Lessons taught on Lessonface have doubled every year since the site launched in 2013, as the community has grown via word of mouth, a Youtube channel with over 160,000 subscribers and filled with compelling tutorials featuring the great teachers, and targeted advertising that is not privacy-invasive.

"I'm thrilled to be a part of the Lessonface team for so many reasons. Beyond working with an incredible team and using my academic expertise and experience to help build these new verticals, I'm able to take my favorite parts of academia— teaching and mentoring— to cultivate communities of both teachers and learners in a supportive and creative environment. We're not just leaders at a tech company; Yonit and I are also teachers, and the values of kindness, respect, collaboration, curiosity, and community really drive our approach," said Dr. Busciglio, who joined the company in April to lead the language expansion, and was promoted in August to also lead Academics.

Here are some recent reviews:

"The lessonface format is easy to use and extremely convenient. It is amazing that I can take lessons from a professional guitarist who is in Spain without having to leave my living room!" Review by student of Leah Kruszewski, guitar teacher, from 9/8/19

"Very easy to navigate! I have confidence my less tech-savvy parents will be able to use it now too." Review by student of Hannah Christianson, voice and songwriting teacher, from 9/7/19

"Mike is a wonderful teacher! I appreciate his sense of humor and patience. He never makes me feel pressured in any way. As a person who gets performance anxiety, I love that I can take the lessons online instead of in person." Review by student of Mike Mitchell, violin, mandolin, and guitar teacher, from 9/3/19

Lessonface.com, launched in 2013, is headquartered in NYC. Lessonface connects students to their ideal teacher for live lessons and classes that happen online, over video conference. This new expansion brings the lessons covered on Lessonface to over 140 topics, including 15 languages, 40+ academic subjects, and 85+ musical instruments. Students and teachers are all over the world, though mostly in the US and Canada. Lessons may be easily recorded and accessed from the student's account for later review. Lessonface is fully COPPA compliant, and always has been. Parents may create separate accounts for one or multiple children to use semi-autonomously. Lessonface strives to create a fair and fun learning environment that respects both student and teacher's time and enables a more accessible universe filled with the real learning magic that an inspiring teacher provides. Photos, video, and interviews with teachers, students, and staff available on request.

SOURCE Lessonface.com, Inc