TeachMe.To Closes New $5M Round

SAN DIEGO – TeachMe.To, one of the nation’s leading learning platforms, has momentum — and money — squarely behind it.

The online education company founded in San Diego in late 2021 that connects those who want to learn sports, music and arts with those who want to teach, has just finished a $5 million raise, and now has $7.5 million invested.

Co-founded by Nick O’Brien and Tyler Maloney, TeachMe.To helps students find and compare coaches, get a feel for the person they’re buying lessons from, and helps generate convenient times and locations for lessons.

Company CEO Maloney, the founder of Faves — a mobile app with more than 200,000 users — said the company has been able to grow because it fills a missing and needed niche.

“I think it’s an intuitive concept that people get,” Maloney said. “Who hasn’t dreamed of learning something new? The problem is that today the barrier to get started is so high. It’s scary to pick up a new skill, and none of us want to look like a fool. Throw on top of that the fact that most coaching websites look like they were built in the ’90s and lack review and pricing information, and what you get is a wall that few people are willing to climb.”

Financial Backing Grows

TeachMe.To’s latest round of the $5 million in funding was led by Bling Capital out of Miami, the No. 5-ranked Midas List seed investor.

There are post-pandemic trends, says Ben Ling, founder and general partner of Bling Capital, showing how flexible scheduleshave become the norm for employees. That opens the door to more lesson taking opportunities. 

At the same time, Ling said, coaches are increasingly choosing to teach their passions over traditional 9-to-5 jobs, opening the door to more lesson-giving opportunities. 

Add to those open doors the increased uses of Artificial Intelligence, and Ling said, the answer is clear to invest in TeachMe.To.

“We believe that in the next five years, AI will significantly accelerate this trend,” Ling said. “As automation takes over more routine tasks, both studaents and teachers will have more time to dedicate to enjoyable, in-person experiences. TeachMe.To is strategically positioned to thrive in this evolving marketplace.”

Maloney adds: “Everyone is riding the AI wave and we’re running the opposite direction.”

The company previously had a friends and family round that raised $500,000 and a pre-seed fundraiser that drew $2 million.

The company’s initial seed funding was led by 1984 Ventures — which has since come back and doubled down its investment and “a great vote of confidence for us,” O’Brien said.

Others who continue to back the company include Common Metal; Alumni Ventures; OpenAI CEO Sam Altman; Ben Lauzier, former VP of Product & Growth at Thumbtack; Vivek Patel, former CPO at Yelp; and Brent Turner, president of Rover.

“We’ve made a lot of enhancements that have given investors more confidence,” O’Brien said. “Despite a challenging fundraising environment, we’ve been able to raise money from our investors and as a result we’ve been able to grow our product and engineering team and accelerate the speed to build features users are asking for and give more runways.”

Company Growth

TeachMe.To showed 10X growth from 2022-23 and is on pace for more in 2023-24, O’Brien said, and is now across the U.S. with 2,300 instructors (including about 50 in San Diego County), he said, as it becomes a category leader.

O’Brien said TeachMe.To has been gaining ground in repeat usage from its customers – “and that’s been a powerful indicator of the success in the marketplace,” he said.

He said the lead the company is developing in in the market as it “carves out and sort of defines local learning as a category” also comes at an auspicious time post-COVID when people are not taking virtual guitar lessons on Zoom, but rather going into a space with others to learn.

O’Brien said the company’s internal growth has led to expansion across the United States across multiple categories.

Whereas once pickleball lessons were TeachMe.To’s most popular category, golf and tennis have caught up. He said there’s also been a rise in people booking lessons in guitar playing, vocals, piano, baseball and basketball.

“There is a lot of variety and we’re trying to really open up the market to support that variety,” he said.

TeachMe.To’s Beginnings

O’Brien and Maloney say they founded the company after a search for a way to learn how to kiteboard led them down a lonesome road with few instructors, and websites that lacked reviews, pricing and ways to book lessons online.

As the two looked at how other lessons like golf, tennis and guitar could be accessed (or lacking in accessibility), they realized finding a way to match people was a common problem across the spectrum.

They wondered, O’Brien said: “How many more people would try something new if it was just a little easier to get started?”

So TeachMe.To was born, and today continues to concentrate on helping students find a book a coach with relative ease as well as compare coaches across price, location and availability.

TeachMe.To
FOUNDED: 2021
FOUNDERS: Nick O’Brien, Tyler Maloney
CEO: Tyler Maloney
HEADQUARTERS: San Diego
BUSINESS: Online marketplace
FUNDING: $7.5 million (Seed)
EMPLOYEES: 25
WEBSITE: TeachMe.To
CONTACT: 650-900-3835 or nick@teachme.to
SOCIAL IMPACT: TeachMe.To has provided coaches pro bono for volunteer organizations across the country
NOTABLE: Company has grown nationally to include more than 2,300 instructors (about 50 in San Diego County) in less than four years’ time.