Paper’s fast learning curve
How an online tutoring startup is becoming a one-stop shop for student support
What I realized during my time in the classroom was that there was this fundamental inequity in the system.”
From educator to
entrepreneur
We recognized that we had an opportunity to invest in other offerings that would let us better support the student.”
Students in the driver’s seat
Paper’s portfolio of products—what it decided to build and what shape each offering took—is based largely on feedback from students, teachers, and administrators. That approach to innovation in learning was embraced by Cutler and Cipriani shortly after they conceived the initial idea for the Paper online tutoring service. The founders thought sessions would take place over video chat, but student feedback caused them to pivot. “It became clear from our conversations with the students that the idea of video conferencing with some stranger was highly uncomfortable and felt very invasive,” Cutler says. Cipriani had developed some video conferencing software, but they junked it and decided on a messaging-based service. Students can upload photos and PDFs, but never do they turn on a camera. “That was very counterintuitive to me, but our engagement went up as a result,” Cutler says.







A portfolio that grows methodically








Lessons on expanding a product portfolio from Paper
- 1
Users know best. Everything at Paper, from its initial tutoring service to a growing portfolio of new products, was developed with input from students.
- 2
Dedicated teams. To avoid distracting other groups, Camp Paper, the company’s biggest new product initiative, was developed by a small, dedicated team—a startup within the startup.
- 3
The mission is your guide. The goal to close the inequity gap in education acted as a North Star for all of Paper’s new product ideas.
- 4
Don’t buck trends; ride them. Young people were most comfortable communicating through text; trying to force video chat on them proved a distraction.
- 5
Be patient, iterate and obsess over customer feedback. Paper Live went from video to text; Camp Paper, from summer camp to after-school program, all because that’s what customers wanted.