Show HN: Tutoring startup in Perth, Australia
tutoric.comI recently launched a local tutoring startup with a friend of mine, learning rails as I went. We'd love some feedback if you have any. Hey... nice site, and beautiful interface design. I'd probably make it a little more obvious you are Perth-only at the moment, maybe change the tagline "Connecting tutors and students" to "Connecting West Australian tutors and students" until you expand. I'd probably also be keen to see the subject search promoted to the front page. The filter box on the search results page is good, I feel like you'd often like to include that in your initial search, rather than only use it as a refinement. In terms of money - I think your motives are great, but don't be afraid to charge some of the tutors. My wife is a singing teacher and most of her clients come through "Music Teachers Online" (another market you could tap into btw, your product is much nicer) and you would happily pay for a better profile or a higher listing, even if it only gets you one new student every month or two. I'm also from Perth, and also a developer making apps to better education. Would love to shout you a beer or coffee some time and hear about your experience making this. And if I meet anyone offering tutoring, I'll be sure to send them a link :) Thanks for the feedback! We did suspect that we weren't making it obvious enough that we were Perth only for now, so it's good to get some confirmation. We have gone back and forth on the money issue so many times, and can't quite work out the best way to incorporate it, which is mainly why we haven't as yet. The solutions to the online payment problem really aren't great in Australia when compared to the likes of Stripe as well.. The suggestion about incorporating music tutoring is a great one. We've added some music subjects, and will give some thought as to how to advertise to that market. It would be good to catch up and talk education/technology, how should I contact you? Cheers :) For payments, you could check out pin.net.au They're monthly rate is pretty steep but they've got a pretty convincing clone of the stripe API and they accept AUD and work without needing a merchant account... My email is jason.oneil@gmail.com. On holiday down south for the next week, but if you email me I'll get in touch once I'm back in Perth