Ethan Binder is a rising junior at Lafayette College and also a born-and-raised Rhode Islander. He also happens to be the founder of GoPeer, a platform designed to connect high school students with local, college-age tutors.
Binder got the idea for the startup by watching his driven younger brother as he struggled to juggle the demands of college applications and an aggressive course load. When older tutors or mentor figures at his school proved difficult to find — or at the very least, relate to — his brother ended up relying on a Brown University student he met by chance for guidance and assistance in their stead.
The relationship proved to be enormously impactful for Binder’s brother. The small age gap between the two helped foster deep understanding and removed the intimidation factor that sometimes accompanies working with someone much older. Additionally, the tutor’s passion for education and the subjects he was teaching inspired the younger Binder brother to look at his work with fresh eyes.
“I felt there must be other students like my brother who are in the same boat, who [weren’t] finding connection with other mentors,” Binder said. “There must be other college students who are really excited [to teach].”
The more he thought at about it, the more problems he could identify within the educational landscape. He considered friends who’d dropped out of classes and programs they loved because poor grades (or the potential for poor grades, without help) could keep them out of a certain college, grad school, or job. “I understand that grades are important, but you should be learning what you’re passionate about, and grades shouldn’t deter you,” Binder said.
Nor should the high cost of professional tutoring, which Binder found had veered into unattainably expensive territory for students.
The mission for GoPeer then became clear: to “help students get those grades in the courses that they are passionate about, so they can follow what they love,” Binder said.
"If we help one student, that will be incredible.”
Binder began his work on the project in the fall of 2016 by forming a team of additional co-founders: Zura Mestiashvili and Erik Laucks, both Lafayette sophomores studying engineering.
Together, they began building GoPeer’s website and mobile app from the ground up, without the help of third parties or formal investors (although some venture capitalists did express interest, Binder said he wanted to keep the vision their own, for now). “We’re a very lean startup; we handle everything,” he said. Payment processing, security — you name it, they’re on it.
Once the program goes live, interested students will have access to GoPeer’s database of rigorously screened and verified tutors, searchable by location, subject, travel distance, and a host of other customizable filters. Students can then check tutor bios, chat with tutors and read different tutor ratings. When they’re satisfied with their choice, they can request and book a tutor for $25/hour. For those offput by the fee, Binder said that the GoPeer team would be launching a program to help sponsor students who can’t afford to pay.
While Binder hopes to eventually bring GoPeer across the country (and the world), for now, he’s concerned with launching the website and mobile app for primary use in Rhode Island on September 5.
Starting in Rhode Island makes since, he said, because it’s what he knows. His younger sister is still in high school in the area, and peers and parents have already expressed excitement about the launch. Potential tutors, too; so far, he’s in the process of onboarding more than 100 of them, from every college in the state, he told me.
A cornerstone of GoPeer is having these younger tutors function like a “favorite camp counselor,” so making sure they are excited about their work has been paramount, Binder added.
Even though the launch is still a bit over a month off, Binder and his team have plans to develop an online tutoring option for users in the future. For now, though, they’re excited about their program and the impact they hope it will have.
“In the beginning, when we launch our service, if we help one student, that will be incredible,” Binder said. “That would be insane, that would be amazing. That would be ‘successful’ to us.”
GoPeer founders Zura Mestiashvili, Erik Laucks and Ethan Binder. Photo credit: GoPeer
