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Course with employment: "Profession Methodologist from scratch to PRO»
Learn moreTensy
The essence of the project is to create a unique and effective solution aimed at meeting the needs of the target audience. We strive to develop a product that is not only useful, but also easy to use. Our primary focus is on quality and innovation, which will allow us to stand out from the competition. As a result, the project aims to achieve maximum customer satisfaction and long-term success in the market.
An online platform for helping schoolchildren and parents, where you can ask any question about your studies or send a photo of your homework. Within one to two minutes, users receive a personalized lesson from a high school student or university student who has already mastered the material well. Our platform provides fast and high-quality assistance in learning, allowing you to effectively cope with difficult tasks and deepen your knowledge in various subjects.
The year of the project's launch is a key moment in its history. It marks the beginning of all processes related to the development, promotion, and growth of a product or service. Correctly defining the launch year helps establish a timeframe for analyzing success, planning future steps, and assessing market impact. This stage is also important for shaping a brand's image and attracting the attention of the target audience. Including the launch year on a website or in advertising materials can enhance user trust and improve SEO rankings, as it allows users to understand how long a given project has been in existence.
In 2020, the world faced numerous challenges and changes. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on daily life, the economy, and public health. People adapted to new conditions by switching to remote work and online learning. During this time, the importance of technology and digital solutions became more apparent. Businesses began to actively innovate to survive the crisis. Social media and video calling platforms gained immense popularity, connecting people despite physical distancing. 2020 has seen many realize the value of health and the importance of supporting each other during difficult times.
A city is a vast urban area, home to a large concentration of people and diverse infrastructure. Cities foster economic, cultural, and social ties. They serve as hubs of trade, education, and services, attracting people from rural areas in search of better opportunities. Each city is unique thanks to its history, architecture, and cultural characteristics.
Cities are becoming important hubs for innovation and development. They offer a wide range of opportunities for business and self-fulfillment. Transportation systems are also actively developing, facilitating travel and communication between different areas. Modern cities place great emphasis on ecology and creating a comfortable urban environment, which contributes to improving the quality of life for residents.
Thus, cities play a key role in shaping modern society and its further development.
Moscow, the capital of Russia, is one of the largest megacities in the world. The city is famous for its rich history, architectural monuments, and cultural heritage. Moscow attracts tourists with its famous landmarks, such as the Kremlin, Red Square, and St. Basil's Cathedral. Every year, millions of people come here to enjoy the unique atmosphere and variety of cultural events. The city is also an important business hub, home to major companies and financial institutions. Moscow is actively developing its education, science, and arts sectors, making it an attractive place to live and work.
A link is an important element of web content, allowing users to navigate between different pages and resources on the internet. Optimizing links for SEO helps improve a website's visibility in search engines and increase its authority. Proper use of anchor text and building high-quality backlinks play a key role in attracting traffic. Ensure that your links point to relevant and useful pages, which contributes to a positive user experience and increases the likelihood of conversion.
tensy.org — Tensy.org is a platform offering a wide range of services and solutions for users seeking to improve efficiency and productivity in various areas of their lives. We focus on providing high-quality content and user-friendly tools that help our clients achieve their goals. Our team of experts is constantly working to improve the site's functionality, providing quick access to relevant information and the latest trends. We are confident that our resources and tools will help users significantly improve their skills and expand their horizons. Tensy.org is your reliable partner in the world of modern technology.
Tensy's creator, Savva Antonyuk, studied at the Department of Nuclear Physics at St. Petersburg State University. However, the traditional education system led him to disillusionment with both his chosen profession and the educational process as a whole. As a result, he decided to change this situation and developed a unique platform where schoolchildren can receive help from their peers in mastering academic topics and completing homework. This platform also provides an opportunity for high school and first-year students to earn money by sharing their knowledge and skills with younger students. Tensy is becoming an important tool for student interaction, facilitating the learning process and developing collaboration skills.
Savva shared his experience with Skillbox Media. He spoke about the importance of professional growth and continuous learning in the modern world. Savva noted that career success depends on a willingness to adapt to change and master new skills. He emphasized that learning is not only a formal educational program but also self-knowledge, which helps develop personal qualities and improve competitiveness in the labor market. In his opinion, it is important to use all available resources, including online courses and master classes, to stay on top of professional trends and keep abreast of the latest technologies.
- why is horizontal learning the future?
- how did a project for universities eventually turn into a solution for parents?
- how much time can parents save on checking homework?
- what useful offer in the education market ultimately did not work on the platform?
- why do schoolchildren become teachers and how unusual learning is turning into an ecosystem?
- are investors interested in the project and how did the developers make money on it?
The Beginning: From the Desire to Change the System to Ten Hours of Homework
During my studies at the university, my friends from the IT field actively participated in hackathons, dedicated to blockchain and were developing decentralized applications. Initially, they weren't always successful, but they persevered and soon began winning prize money. I noticed there was a lot of movement in this field, so I decided to join their team.
At university, we were taught using textbooks written over 30 years ago, and professors shared news about how the rector's office was taking away their premises. Topics of development and research weren't addressed, which caused discontent. This prompted me to consider the need for decentralization of education. Decentralization will create a more flexible and modern educational environment, adapted to the demands of the times and the needs of students.
Modern education retains an outdated vertical system that no longer meets the demands of the times. Previously, standard lectures served as a tool for the state, allowing it to promote a unified idea, synchronize the public agenda, manage the population, and raise the overall level of education. The format, in which one person teaches hundreds of others, arose due to a lack of alternatives—knowledge was concentrated in the hands of a limited number of people, and the majority had no access to it. However, with digitalization and technological advances, new approaches to learning are emerging that make the process more interactive and accessible to everyone. The transition to more flexible educational methods allows not only to preserve knowledge but also to share it, opening up new horizons for students.
The system continues to move in this direction, but currently there is no universal solution that could completely transform the educational process. It is necessary to make it more transparent, open, and accessible, using modern technologies. The transition from vertical to horizontal education will allow everyone not only to acquire but also to share knowledge. This will create motivation for faster development and learning. The horizontal education system promotes active interaction and the exchange of experiences, which significantly enriches the educational process.
The best way to learn is to teach others. For example, I only realized how to solve Part C of the Unified State Exam in mathematics after two years of working as a math and physics tutor. When I took the exam, I was confident in my knowledge, but true understanding came only after I explained the solutions to others several times. This experience not only deepened my knowledge but also allowed me to better navigate complex problems. Teaching others helps reinforce the material and develops explanation skills, which is an important aspect of successful exam preparation.
The idea behind the project is that a person can not only acquire new knowledge but also share it with others. This not only allows you to reinforce the material you've learned but also provides the opportunity to earn money. This approach creates additional motivation for further learning and development. Educational challenges became the source of my pain, which in turn inspired me to create Tensy, a platform that combines my love for decentralized technologies and blockchain. I didn't seek to invent something radically new for the sake of changing the existing system. My goal was to integrate cutting-edge technologies into the existing educational structure, improving it and making it accessible to everyone. Tensy represents a step towards more effective and transparent education based on the principles of decentralization and innovation. Entrepreneurship is a skill that develops over time. I sought to improve the field of education, making it more accessible and of higher quality for everyone. My goal is to create conditions so that everyone can gain the necessary knowledge and skills, regardless of their starting position. In 2017, after graduating from university, I decided to launch my own educational project. The idea was presented to friends in the EdTech field, and their support inspired me to take action. A few weeks later, I asked a friend, a student, to help with the technical development of the project. Alexey joined the team and assumed responsibility for the overall platform architecture. Over the next year, a tester, a front-end developer, and a communications specialist joined our team, significantly strengthening our position in the field of educational technologies.
Within a few months of development, we created the first prototype of our platform. For a year and a half, we actively tested various hypotheses: some ideas succeeded, others were rejected. We attracted users, tested their reactions, and validated our concepts in the real market and among the target audience.
We had many hypotheses, some successful and some not so successful. Initially, we planned to focus on supporting universities, believing that they would approach us as clients themselves and be willing to pay for the use of our resource.
This hypothesis turned out to be one of the most unsuccessful and surprising. We realized the level of our arrogance when we attended an international startup conference and talked with colleagues from other projects. They shared their experiences and explained that universities would not invest in our product. This revelation forced us to reconsider our strategy and approach to the market.
We decided to focus on the problems of secondary education. To test our hypotheses, we turned to friends at the private school "Five Plus" in St. Petersburg, where external students prepare for university entrance. For several months, we tested our ideas at this school and also tried to establish contacts with other educational institutions to assess the situation in secondary education more broadly.
Over the course of a year, we collected feedback from teachers on the questions students were asking, as well as topics requiring reinforcement and review. As a result, we created a platform for uploading assignments on the material covered. If students encountered difficulties, they could turn to those who had successfully mastered the topic for help. However, this process proved lengthy: while one student was grasping the material, another was ready to help. We realized that this approach was ineffective and required optimization.
Among the many experiments, there were some successful results. For example, it became clear that connecting a school to our platform doesn't require negotiating with principals. Teachers actively demonstrate initiative and are willing to collaborate after the first communication with our team, and their numbers are only increasing.
In 2017–2018, we conducted several hundred in-depth interviews with students and their parents, which allowed us to gather valuable information about our service, which has been tested by over eight thousand users. We closely monitored feedback, analyzed responses, and processed traffic to improve the quality of services provided and meet the needs of our customers.
As a result of the analysis, it became clear that the main "pain" is concentrated among parents. They are concerned about homework and their children's academic performance. Children, in turn, strive to be left alone, although they want to get high grades, improve their knowledge, and prepare for the OGE and USE. To achieve these goals, there are numerous resources available to assist with learning and exam preparation.
During our analysis of the existing product, we discovered that the user value chain was too long and did not meet the requirements for a minimum viable product (MVP). For the platform to function successfully, we needed to attract a significant number of schoolchildren to ensure there were users with free time to explain various topics. Given the current situation, such a model was unlikely to be effective.
In 2019, we presented our new developments at the Hack.Moscow hackathon and decided to change our focus. After analyzing the international market, we concluded that we needed to create a platform where schoolchildren could ask questions and receive instant answers from other users. This platform will facilitate knowledge sharing and facilitate understanding of educational material.
Our team achieved success thanks to the developments that became key to our project. This victory inspired us and strengthened our team spirit. In January 2020, we decided to change course: instead of creating a cumbersome platform, we focused on developing the effective and user-friendly solution we present today.
The Bottom Line: From Parents' "Pain" to Student-Mentors
After changing the concept, we realized that homework is the main adversary for children and parents. We analyzed various studies, including data from The Guardian and Mail.ru, and compared them with educational statistics. This includes the number of school weeks, the number of students in grades two through eight in Russia, and the average number of children per parent. The results showed that the amount of homework significantly impacts stress levels in both children and their parents.
Parents spend an average of more than ten hours a week helping their children with homework. This problem exists not only in Russia but also in other countries, such as the United States, where the figures are similar. One can only imagine how much time parents could save if their children completed their homework independently. The time saved could be used for earning money or relaxing, and the cost of subscribing to educational resources pales in comparison to the potential benefits. This market offers real help and a solution for many families.
Parents typically actively support their children's academic progress until seventh grade. However, with the transition to more complex subjects such as algebra, geometry, chemistry, and physics, many find themselves in a difficult situation. Difficulties arise because adults often forget the content of these subjects, and they are unable to provide the necessary explanations. This leads to knowledge gaps, and many parents ignore them, believing that academic failure is normal. Some react to low grades with anger, attributing them to adolescent changes that don't actually affect academic performance. Meanwhile, other parents decide to hire a tutor, which can be a significant financial investment. It's important to understand that additional support can significantly impact a child's academic achievement and help them overcome difficulties in complex subjects.
Children often face learning difficulties, especially when it comes to complex subjects. This situation can become a real "pit" from which it is difficult to escape. Without the support of a tutor or a parent willing to spend time explaining the material, a child will struggle to master the material. As a result, the learning process can become stressful, making it extremely difficult to close knowledge gaps later. It's important to provide the necessary help and support to avoid such situations and help children successfully overcome academic challenges.
Tensy's core audience consists of students in grades two through eight. Although we occasionally receive requests from high school students, we don't rely on them, as they are more focused on preparing for final exams and have less need of our platform's resources. Our primary goal is to support elementary and middle school students in their learning process.
Participation in a hackathon inspired us to create a homework checking service. We offer two types of assistance: solution review and explanation of difficult topics. This work is carried out by experienced mentors. A "reminder" service is also available: a mentor contacts the student at a pre-set time to encourage them to begin the learning process. During a half-hour session, they work together to address key challenges, after which the student continues working independently.
We implemented a test feature on our website that allows users to obtain ready-made solutions. We implemented the "I want a ready-made solution" button, and results showed that approximately 22% of all visitors clicked it. This indicates that most users are interested in a deep understanding of the topic rather than simply copying information. We strive to provide high-quality content that helps our users acquire the necessary knowledge and skills.
Parents register their child on our platform, after which they can independently select the necessary assistance. Classes are held in mini-lessons lasting 15 minutes, which facilitates effective learning. We provide convenient learning tools: chat for communication, audio chat for voice interaction, and an online whiteboard for drawing formulas and displaying necessary images. This creates an interactive and engaging learning environment that promotes better understanding and mastery of the educational material.
We've developed a history of requests and lessons for parents so they can track what help their children needed and what gaps there are in their knowledge. In the future, we plan to implement a comprehensive reporting system, but for now, our goal is to make it easier for parents to check homework. If we can save even half the time spent on this work, it will be a significant contribution to the educational process.
We've organized our service on a subscription basis, offering monthly, three-month, and annual options. Research has shown that most parents prefer an annual subscription, which is available at a discount and costs approximately ten thousand rubles. This allows them not only to save money but also to ensure stable access to the services they need throughout the year.
Getting help in any subject, in any amount, has become easier. We do not impose limits on the number of requests or the time of contact, so students can freely ask tutors questions. This creates a comfortable atmosphere where you don't have to worry about how your question will be received. It's important to remember that there are no stupid questions; only those who don't ask them miss out on the opportunity to learn something new.
Mentors in our system act as tutors. They are excellent students, Olympiad winners, or first-year students with deep knowledge of specific subjects and the ability to explain the material clearly to others. This learning model meets the needs of modern education and the popularity of the horizontal approach. Our mentors' services are significantly less expensive than those of professional tutors, making learning more accessible. In addition, the speed of receiving help is significantly higher: unlike a lengthy search for a tutor, which can take weeks, in Tensy a user can start chatting with a mentor just a minute after requesting, receiving high-quality help in the required subject.
We have developed a unique algorithm for instantly matching a suitable tutor, which takes into account more than ten parameters. This algorithm, based on the matching method, analyzes data about the student, the tutors, and the user's specific preferences. To improve the efficiency of the match, we use artificial intelligence. In the future, we plan to develop the system so that it can "match" tutors and students based on their personality types.
Most of our tutors are eleventh-grade students. This may seem strange, since they have limited free time due to preparing for university entrance exams. However, during their preparation, they can effectively review and reinforce old topics. I am convinced that the best way to learn material is to explain it to others. This approach has been confirmed in my experience as a tutor. Therefore, it is logical that instead of professional teachers, we employ young mentors who communicate with students in the same language and understand their needs.
Over the course of our project, we have attracted over 400 mentors. Of these, about fifty are the most active. This allows us to ensure a high response rate to student requests, no more than two minutes.
Anyone can apply for mentoring using a Google form. We also actively invite high-achieving students, Olympiad participants, and first-year students from leading universities. This is an excellent opportunity for those who strive to develop and gain valuable knowledge from experienced mentors.
We planned to create our own ecosystem, so we attracted entire schools to our project. Educational institutions bear no financial costs, and students have the opportunity to exchange knowledge and provide assistance free of charge. As a result, we form a pool of valuable specialists who subsequently become part of our platform. In this way, schools act as incubators for mentors. However, we have currently suspended collaboration with educational institutions, as this process has proven lengthy and inconvenient.
Before connecting a mentor to our platform, we conduct an interview to assess their ability to work with us. It's important to determine whether they can ask probing and relevant questions, as this is significantly more effective than simply explaining the material or doing homework for students. Afterward, we organize webinars where we discuss strategies for interacting with students, share helpful tips, and explain how to conduct lessons and provide explanations. To facilitate the onboarding process for our mentors, we have developed detailed guides and instructions that describe all the necessary procedures step by step.
Mentors on our platform are paid, but we don't charge a commission for using the service, unlike traditional aggregators. Instead, mentors earn points for their work, which can be used to withdraw funds to a personal account or exchanged for a variety of goods in our store, such as devices, trips, certificates, and computer game skins. If mentors want to earn money, they can register as self-employed, or their parents can enter into a corresponding agreement with us. Please note that parental permission is not required if the mentor is over 14 years old. In this case, they simply interact with students, taking full responsibility for their actions.
To ensure high-quality teaching, we don't conduct a rigorous review of each lesson, but rather use a rating system that incorporates both quantitative and qualitative indicators. The quantitative rating is based on the number of lessons taught by a mentor, while the qualitative rating is based on student ratings. If a mentor receives low ratings, their profile is temporarily frozen, and the situation is reviewed by moderators. Moderators are experienced mentors with high ratings and an established reputation, whom we trust and can entrust to review the lessons of other teachers. This allows us to maintain high standards and a high level of learning for all students.
At the beginning of 2020, we posted announcements on our personal social media pages seeking the first users to test our new platform. This allowed us to gather approximately 20 families with homeschooled children. In April 2021, after launching targeted advertising and opening sales, we discovered that our service was attracting not only those studying remotely but also students studying in traditional educational institutions.
Although subscriptions currently generate limited revenue, we continue to exist thanks to alternative funding sources. Previously, hackathons were our primary source, but we are now focused on receiving grants and attracting small investments from investors. In particular, our project was successfully selected for the HSE accelerator and began collaborating with colleagues from Estonia. These international partnerships allowed us to attract investment from Europe. Currently, the investment volume is still small due to the lack of significant traction. Nevertheless, we have made tutoring more accessible and convenient, which is an important step in creating innovative solutions in the education market. This is much more valuable than simply generating income from traditional methods.
A grant from the Innovations in Education initiative of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives has provided significant support for the development of our Tensy platform. The funds raised were used to improve the infrastructure and pay our mentors, which allowed us to improve the quality of educational services and support for users.
Parents' reactions can be gauged by statistics: 80% of users who learned about us through social media sign up for an annual subscription. The average rating for our lessons is 4.8 out of 5. Throughout the project's existence, not a single client has requested a refund, despite the fact that we offer this option in case of dissatisfaction. These figures confirm the high quality of our service.
We encountered situations where parents struggled to explain complex topics to their children for a long time. We offered them trial lessons where they could understand the material with a mentor. This helped them better understand the topic and then explain it to their child in their own words. As a result, the student not only successfully solved complex problems but also could clearly explain the logic behind their solutions. This approach promotes deep knowledge acquisition and the development of explanatory skills, which is important for the educational process.
We regularly call parents to learn about their children's progress. We've observed that lessons on the Tensy platform contribute to significant learning progress.
We recognize the importance of the psychological aspect in children's education. Often, parents who hire a tutor don't actively engage with the lessons or what's happening during them. In contrast, our users have the opportunity to receive detailed information about the lessons and discuss their child's successes and challenges. This not only ensures transparency but also increases parental engagement.
Schoolchildren rarely provide feedback, as we primarily interact with parents who share their concerns. However, students are also satisfied with the support of their tutors. Firstly, homework help allows them to freely spend time with friends, an important aspect of their lives. Secondly, a tutor becomes an additional support system for the child, providing an opportunity to discuss personal experiences. There are cases where tutors and their mentees begin communicating outside of class, which has contributed to the formation of friendships. This support not only facilitates the educational process but also promotes the social development of schoolchildren.
Our project has received a positive response from a wide audience and in the education sector. However, few people were willing to help, and such exceptions can be counted on the fingers of one hand. One of the few who supported our initiative was the Rybakov Foundation. We participated in their competition, which allowed schools to register on our platform for free. This collaboration was an important step towards developing educational opportunities for students.
The foundation's community successfully established contact with school principals, which is a significant achievement. However, schools are not currently our priority, and this area is formally closed. Scaling requires significant effort to test multiple hypotheses, and we currently do not have sufficient resources for this. We will focus our efforts on other areas that will allow us to more effectively utilize our capabilities and achieve our goals.
Growth: What's Happening with the Project Now
From a business perspective, our platform is experiencing automatic growth. We don't rely on constantly attracting tutors from other services or interviewing them. We've created a system whereby school-age users who pass internal screening become tutors. You start by learning, and soon you can help other school-age students with subjects such as math or physics. This opens up vast opportunities for scalability, speeds up the recruitment process, and reduces the cost of services. This makes tutoring services accessible to most families.
By the end of the year, we aim to attract over three thousand new annual subscription customers. Our success will be achieved when every second parent who appreciates the benefits of our platform recommends us to their friends. We are striving not only to expand in the Russian market but also to enter international markets. We are currently testing the Latin American market, as activity slows during the summer holidays in Russia, while in Latin America, the school year begins at this time.
Return on investment is a secondary concern in such projects. Examples of companies like Tesla and Uber demonstrate that they are not profitable in the early stages. Investments in these companies significantly exceed current profits, but they are expected to pay off in the future as their products become more popular. It is important to focus on investments to gain market share, not immediate profits. For quick income, you can consider simpler business models, such as selling street food.
Success for us means saving at least ten percent of the billions of hours that parents spend helping their children with their studies.
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