TEACHING TECH

AVENTURIST

TEACHING TECH The Kids Are ALRIGHT

FORGET THE OLD SCHOOL: THIS TEENAGE START-UP FOUNDER IS HARNESSING TECH TO GIVE EVERY STUDENT A CHANCE TO MAKE THE GRADE

BY JESS SWANSON

In 2019, Matias Aviñó was all set for his big break at the eMerge Americas Start-up Showcase, an annual venture-backed tech event held at the Miami Beach Convention Center. But first, security would have to let the 11-year-old founder inside. “They thought my mom was just taking me there because there was no one to babysit me and they didn’t want to let me on the floor,” says Matias, now 15 and a sophomore at Miami’s Belen Jesuit Preparatory School. “Everyone thinks that some middle-aged white man has to be the founder.” Once eMerge Americas President Melissa Medina Jiménez assured security that the sixth grader and his mother, Lourdes Aviñó, were indeed the founders of YTeach—a peer-to-peer tutoring platform launched in 2018—the duo was granted access. The event’s judges went on to select YTeach as one of 10 finalists out of 100 early stage start-ups. Matias is the youngest cofounder to ever participate in the event, which he attended again this year.

“It’s a huge game changer that we’re starting to see younger faces in the tech industry,” Matias says. “A misconception we’ve had to face is what a typical team looks like: We’re a mom and son who co-founded this together and not a team of five 40-year-old men.”

YTeach was born out of Lourdes’ daily after-school question to her children: “What did you do to help someone today?”

One day in fifth grade, Matias—who had a penchant for coding and the inner workings of video games—responded with his idea for an app that would connect students who might be too nervous to ask teachers for help in class with an after-school peer tutor.

“Matias literally handwrote the business plan and pitched it to us,” Lourdes recalls. “You sort of tell your kids to dream big, reach high, push yourself, get out of your comfort zone—now I had to do what I preached.”

Mother and son got to work, delving into a new world of UX/UI design, cold calls, and presentations. Matias’ vision was for the platform to be a subscription-based model, paid for by schools and available to all students at no cost, while peer tutors would earn community service hours in exchange for their participation. YTeach launched at Belen Jesuit Preparatory School during the 2019-2020 school year and has since expanded to more than 40 schools across the country, including in Kentucky, California, and Connecticut. More than 1,000 tutoring sessions have taken place on the app, and close to 10,000 students have logged into YTeach.

Matias, who is on the crew team and tutors on YTeach in history and math in his spare time, credits his success to time management. He dedicates Sundays to getting ahead in either his classes or YTeach business plans.

This year, the Aviñós signed their first elementary school, launched an “Uber-style” tutoring service that allows students to submit a request to all tutors in that subject who are available for an immediate session, and debuted an analytics dashboard that allows schools to monitor the highest performing peer tutors, the top subjects requested for tutoring, and the number of logged community service hours by day, week, and month.

“There’s definitely momentum and awareness, along with students getting more comfortable on the app,” Matias says. “The goal is to help impact as many students positively.” (yteach.com) «

Matias and Lourdes Aviñó co-founded the tutoring platform YTeach, which they’ve shared at eMerge Americas.