Steinhardt senior creates app which links students to tutors
It’s called Studor, and it’s an on demand student tutor marketplace
With midterms coming to an end, we can all recall a time where we found ourselves trying to cram in everything we learned — only to find out that there’s a ton of things we completely zoned out in.
Meet Noah Hyams, a senior in Steinhardt that created an innovative and practical solution to this problem with his app called Studor. Geared toward NYU students who can’t wait around for office hours or find any friends free to tutor them, Studor is an on demand student tutor marketplace designed to seamlessly connect students and tutors.
We sat down with Noah in order to ask him how he got to where he is and found out where he’s headed with Studor.
How did you come up with the idea for Studor?
I was an RA at NYU and I was having trouble with the Math classes I was taking. It frustrated me how I was in a building with smart students, but unable to find someone who could help me out. Here I am, stuck at a problem and frantically texting my friends or waiting for office hours. I thought to myself, “There has to be an easier way to do this.”
How did Studor get started?
I went to a Hackathon at NYU in October 2014. One person at the Hackathon asked me, “Do you code? Do you design? What do you do?” I didn’t know how to do any of those at the time. All I had was an idea. A guy walked up to me while I was working with another team on something else and said “Noah, I believe in your idea. Lets do this.” We worked on it together, presented, and ended up winning first place. That’s when we decided to take it to the next level.
What were the biggest challenges?
The hardest part was finding the right people for my team. I look at it like dating. We all spend so much time trying to find the right person and for a startup, it’s just as important to find the right team.
What’s the next step for Studor?
We currently have more than 200 people actively using the app. We’ve also launched our website and have it available for use on the app store. The next step for us is to touch up on the technical aspects, find a dedicated CTO (Chief Technical Officer), and prepare the platform for more people.
Is there any advice you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?
My main advice would be to make sure that what you’re doing is actually solving the problem. Understand the problem and really look at if what you’re creating is actually solving the problem in the best way. Make sure you’re more passionate about solving the problem at hand instead of becoming the “creator of an app”.