Andrew Grauer was your average over-achieving student at Cornell University. When he tore his meniscus and couldn’t get to some of his classes in hilly, icy Ithaca he was worried about his performance dropping off. He reasoned that if he had the notes from class there’s no harm in missing – a phenomenon most teenagers have figured out at one point or another. But in Andrew’s case an idea was born with his older brother Jared – a Cornell Law student at the time – to mass produce notes and other study materials in an effort to make money off of disabled, but mostly, lazy college students.
For only $39.95 a month a student can have access to notes, study guides, past exams, flash cards, and more. Over 7 million resources from more than 4,500 universities across the nation are available now via Course Hero. And if you are an uploader then you get free access to all the other resources available. Close to a decade of work has paid off, as Course Hero is scheduled to gross approximately $10 million this year. Tutoring services in the United States have been estimated to exceed $100 billion over the next few years and Grauer has tapped strongly into that market.
Andrew is the CEO and co-founder Jared plays a large role in the company as well as engineer Gregor Carrigan. The Grauer’s father, Fred, is also on the board. He brings valuable experience as the former chairman and CEO of Barclays. Suffice it to say as the database of Course Hero grows, the sky is the limit.
I love this idea! Talk about a great problem solved! I mean, after I read this I went and looked at it. Its a great idea and its nice how the students provide the notes. I didn’t take a close look at it but are the student “sources” rated? Like whats to prevent me from uploading my “notes” which are little more than doodles? And it would be a bit difficult to get a wide range of schools, but that’s where the student provided sources come in handy.
This is a brilliant idea! It definitely would appeal to those students who don’t want to go to class or who have to miss, or even to students who do go to class, but want extra study resources. I’m surprised I haven’t heard of it before! But the company would also require a lot of start up work from the founders to get people from all these different colleges to submit notes. After it’s set up, it would probably be self-perpetuating, though. Interesting entrepreneurial idea!
This is a brilliant idea because the market for it will never run out! There will always be college students who need a little extra help in their studies. I am a varsity athlete and sometimes this causes me to miss some classes for tournaments. I can get notes from a friend, but it would be really helpful on the road to go over notes from qualified students to make sure my notes are up to standard. I agree with the comments above that there needs to be a system of only taking notes and tests that are up to par. Andrew did a great job of seeing a problem in his own life and creating a solution that can be implemented in a business plan.
This is really cool – I would love to have course hero at GCC. I would use it even if I was in the class because I tend to take bad notes. Nice find, not something I had heard about before!
I think this is a wonderful idea because it is something that every college student can relate to. I know that I would personally be interested in paying if I knew that I could have access to the notes from my classes. I would want to know that if I’m going to pay, the notes would be of quality, though.
this is a really cool idea! i personally see it as a way for me to avoid going to class but i think it has other great advantages. if a student gets injured like Andrew then it would be a great help, but my first thought was a student who gets sick for a long period of time. i think theirs students who are unable to continue studies because of illnesses. this product would allow them to continue their education and feel a part of their class again.