The founder of a writing school startup based at Saratoga CoWorks said the service has been so popular that she’s been struggling to keep up with demand.
After nearly 10 years working for hedge funds and as an investment banker, Jane Chen founded Eyre Writing Center in January 2020.
Since then, 600 students from 300 families in 25 states have enrolled for classes through the virtual school. About 25% of enrollees are in upstate New York. Chen recently hired a second person to work full time on the startup.
"I'm very lucky to have the support of so many people and be growing so rapidly, to the point that I have to tamper the growth until I make sure we're able to provide that quality instruction,” Chen said. "I know how important it is to grow correctly as opposed to just grow for the sake of growing.”
Eyre Writing Center offers virtual classes meant mostly for middle school students as a supplement to regular schooling. There are several classes — with a maximum size of 15 students — each semester that teach writing fundamentals as well as more advanced topics. The school also publishes student work in an online magazine during the summer.
All curriculum has been created in house. There are several instructors that change each semester. The plan is to employ certified teachers down the road.
Chen did not disclose revenue but said Eyre has had positive cash flow since it started.
The startup has been marketing the product directly to consumers, but Chen plans to move to a model that includes business partnerships and subscriptions.
"I'm interested in more enrollments coming from the B2B side. We have zero partnerships now because, frankly, I just can't handle it, so I've been turning all of them down."
Once she's able to adjust the business model, she plans to seek angel investment to fund the creation of software that includes a thorough writing assessment for students. With a full-time employee joining the team, Chen is considering making on-demand videos to accommodate the high demand for classes.
While Chen was an investment banker, she continued to teach writing on the side for years as a volunteer. During that time, she noticed the low quality of many students' college essays. With a desire to make a greater impact in the world, she decided to start the education company. She co-founded the startup with Prateek Kumar, a Latham native and fellow Harvard grad. Sam Benkelman, a linguistics grad from Harvard, is a startup partner.
"Students would show me their writing, and honestly, it's a sense of urgency,” Chen said. “It's a sense of urgency because I think our education system is extremely broken, especially on the humanities side."
Chen said she noticed the difference that small class sizes make in education after she began attending Trinity School, a selective Ivy prep school in New York City, on scholarship. She experienced the same benefit during her liberal arts education at Harvard University.
"It really impacted me to this day because I didn't feel like a family should have to pay $80,000 a year to have a really quality liberal arts education,” she said.
While Eyre is not meant to be a nonprofit, Chen said it's meant to be accessible to students who need it. Tuition right now is $425 per semester.
"My general philosophy of that is … I think McDonald's has fed more Americans than soup kitchens,” Chen said. "I'm not going to gouge families. I don't do any private tutoring with hundreds of dollars rates — I don't believe in that.”
