Tade Oyerinde and Teddy Solomon know a few things about building communities that last. Oyerinde is the founder and chancellor of the online school Campus, while Solomon is the co-founder behind the college social app Fizz. The two spoke at TechCrunch Disrupt this year, breaking down the strategies that helped them scale their companies while retaining consumer interest.
Campus offers associate degrees in areas like information technology and business administration. It also offers certificates in specialties like cosmetology and phlebotomy. There are more than 3,000 students enrolled in Campus, and it employs more than 100 professors on at least a part-time basis.
Oyerinde said Campus decided to launch à la carte courses because employers have been asking for classes that can teach their employees individual skills. He believes that a lot of people are looking to upskill and that in the future, everyone will have some sort of membership or subscription service that helps them develop new skills. He told the audience that everyone, not just degree-seeking students, will be able to go to Campus for live, online classes taught by amazing people.
Oyerinde makes use of the Pell Grant to help keep the school affordable. He also has a team of billionaires on his company’s cap table, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Discord’s Jason Citron, meaning he does not feel much pressure to focus on profits above all else. He stated that these investors do not need the money, but instead want to fundamentally shape the way education works in this country for the better.
Fizz, meanwhile, operates on more than 200 college campuses and at one point operated in high schools across the country. It has raised more than 40 million dollars from investors including Owl Ventures and NEA.
Since launching in 2021, the company has adopted features like a peer-to-peer marketplace that has listed more than 100,000 items, and a video element for posts. Now, the company is looking to build a product called Global Fizz to expand beyond the United States.
Solomon told the audience that the company is looking at ways to monetize, focusing on ads in particular. He mentioned they have already worked with companies like Perplexity. While subscription models have worked well for other apps, they are currently focused on their ads business and on building a great product that keeps users happy. After all, he said, the users are everything.