Sramana Mitra: You have to pick and choose the partner that you go to business with because you’re basically risk sharing. You both have to invest to get a new brand up and running. Todd Zipper: Yes. That’s where our expertise comes in around leveraging the brand that already exists and trying to cater to
Sramana Mitra: Going from curriculum to a more broad soup-to-nuts set of services and, accordingly, raising the percentage of the royalties that you get paid is a massive strategic move. Todd Zipper: It’s risky. I’d like to say we are in the private equity game because I’m going to be a million dollars in before
Sramana Mitra: Is there a particular subject material or type of degree that you specialize in? Todd Zipper: Good question. We are, essentially, generalists. Initially, my thesis when I saw the opportunity at Learning House was that I didn’t want to work with one particular subject area. Let’s say, teaching. That’s a big program online. Another big
Sramana Mitra: Who are the customers? Is this something that you sell as a software solution to other education institutions who are trying to launch or run an online program or are you actually running this as an outsourced service on behalf of these educational institutions who have a brand? What is the business model? Todd
Todd Zipper: Around late 2005, one of the entrepreneurs bought a business that became what Kaplan Higher Education is today. This individual had an idea to start a marketing business focused on higher education using TV commercials. We called it LendingTree meets eHarmony. It had a matching algorithm. We went on to build a brand
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. The white-labeled education services business is scaling rapidly, and institutions of all sizes are building online programs. Learning House operates in the small, regional college and university segment, and has built a nice business. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your personal journey.