St. Louis Inno is publishing profiles of its 2024 Startups to Watch this week. See the entire list of honorees below.
TOP TUTORS FOR US
CEO: Angelica Harris
What it does: Top Tutors has created an online standardized test preparation and tutoring service that connects minority high school students with minority tutors currently enrolled in college. Harris created Top Tutors for Us while a student at Washington University, developing its tutoring strategy from her own experience preparing to take the ACT Test for college admission.
The latest: Since its founding in the fall of 2022, Top Tutors has launched its tutoring platform, partnering with high schools and colleges to have students and tutors use its platform. It has inked pilot contracts with St. Louis Public Schools, NOLA (New Orleans) Public Schools and Kipp St. Louis. It has also partnered with Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization Educating Students Together College Access Program. Top Tutors has brought on more than 160 tutors to its platform, providing tutoring to 250-plus students.
Why you should watch it: Harris developed Top Tutors out of her own experience preparing for the ACT test. She originally scored a 16 out of 36 and later improved her score to a 32. She said her success came from focusing on improving her academic skill building across a range of subjects, rather than just focusing on how to prepare for the test itself. She said the students who use Top Tutors so far on average have improved their ACT score by 4.9 points. Beyond improving test scores, Top Tutors' goal is to increase diversity in education by both increasing diversity in those educating students while closing the gap in ACT test score disparities. Black students in 2023 had an average ACT score of 16, compared to the overall average of 19.5.
What’s next: Top Tutors sources tutors for students through a matching algorithm and personalizes its tutoring based on an assessment test that students complete to determine which subjects for which they need the most tutoring. The startup plans to continue improving its technology to boost its tutoring capabilities while also focusing on bringing more students on its platform.
More about Top Tutors For Us
Founded: 2022
Founder: Angelica Harris
Employees: 8
Capital raised: Top Tutors has self-funded its operations. It won a $75,000 equity-free grant in 2023 from local startup funder Arch Grants.
