Clutch Prep was founded by four members; Marcio Souza, Johnny Betancourt, Alain Fontaine, and Artem Volos.
Marcio Souza is a co-founder and CEO of ClutchPrep, which was founded in 2010. He started learning physics at the age of 11 and continued this passion by becoming a physics tutor to support others. He studied computer engineering at Florida International University, and gained experience working with the Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida. ClutchPrep is Marcio’s first founded organization.
Clutch Prep is an education platform designed to connect college students with the best materials and resources for success for the critical moment, hence the ‘clutch’ preparation. Clutch Prep is designed as an online resource of video tutorials of high-quality, in-depth and textbook specific explanations. As of recent calculations, close to 350, 000 students have been provided support, of which 90% of those clients surveyed better results after using this resource. The Clutch Prep platform focuses mainly on video tutorials for the sciences and mathematics, guiding students through each chapter of the textbook. Access to the videos are free of charge, as the main goal for this start-up is to grow as quickly as possible and learn as much as possible, in Marcio’s own words.
Clutch Prep has thus far received investment funding from Techstars and 500 Startups.
Marcio’s co-founding team are similar in story. Johnny Betancourt, a co-founder, started tutoring organic chemistry as a teaching assistant and has not stopped since. Alain Fontaine, another co-founder, is the chief technological officer and lead developer. Artem Volos, the last co-founder, handles operations and finance. His company team of employees consists of 13 different home countries and 7 different spoken languages.
As Clutch Prep’s mission is to improve the quality of educational support to college-level students, the founding team of Marcio and Johnny starting as both tutors early in their careers is incredibly fitting. Their motivation is spurred by their own tutoring experience and understanding of how students’ study, leading to the creation and compilation of hours of videos that provide detailed explanations of concepts that parallel the curriculum of their textbook used in class. In addition to their co-founding team, Clutch Prep has 25 employees of different genders, backgrounds, and languages spoken. This team assembly along with their story resonates a message that they clearly have identified a need for college students, and Clutch Prep is a solution to that need. Their videos are informative, well-edited, but most importantly, simple. There is little to no attention of having filler components in their videos; it’s all down to business.
Clutch Prep is a wonderful example of creating a product that is based on individual experience. Although I am not of an entrepreneurial personality, I identify strongly with their vision of providing educational support to address a need that they personally have identified through their work as tutors and support staff.
References:
https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=266847312&privcapId=265932826&previousCapId=265932826&previousTitle=Clutch%20Prep
http://www.businessinterviews.com/clutch-prep-marcio-souza
