Good News from the Middle East

1st Place of 'Idea Track' MIT Arab Competiton Goes to Tutorama

Israa Elkhatib

School can be tough, and at some point, many of us have stumbled upon that difficult lesson, where we felt we needed some extra help to understand. Tutorama, an online platform, provides students who face difficulty in understanding school lessons with the opportunity to get that extra mile of education. BarakaBits asked Tutorama, the 1st place winner of the ‘Idea Track’ in this year’s MITEF Arab Competition, a few questions to learn more about their platform. Check out what they answered below:

1- What is the inspiration (the story) behind Tutorama and its name?

 “Both my partner Omar Khashaba, a graduate of the London School of Economics and Cornell University with degrees in Law, and I, Mohamed Khodeir, a recent graduate of the University of Toronto with a degree in Computer Science specializing in Artificial Intelligence, used to tutor on the side while studying at university, he in London and I in Toronto. We both saw amazing turnaround stories with kids who were labeled “stupid” or “incapable” all of a sudden performing at the very top of their class. And it was all because they had some gap in their knowledge that no one had bothered to identify. Tutorama was born out of the realization that school is often not the whole solution to education and the belief that any child can achieve amazing things if they can get the right support system. Personalized education is our mantra. Our name was actually a working title. A play on words combining tutoring with panorama. It wasn’t meant to be permanent but it kind of grew on us.”

2- What makes Tutorama special? That is what is the core benefit received from your product or service? 

“Tutorama gives parents access to a carefully curated database of tutors, all of whom are top academic performers who have undergone rigorous technical assessments. Through web and mobile platforms parents can easily schedule and pay for sessions, as well as monitor their child’s progress, all online. The tutoring sessions can either take place online or off, depending on the learning preference.”‘Our mandate is to provide effective and affordable solutions for personalized education. Tutorama’s initial feature set is just the start and we have a lot more in store for the future.“

3- Why did you apply for this competition, in particular? In other words, other than to win, what do you hope to gain from this competition?

“MITEF Arab Startup Competition is one of the, if not the most high-profile entrepreneurship competition in the Arab World. We knew we’d meet the best of everything, i.e. the best startups, angels, VC’s, accelerators etc. in the region. We were also really enticed by the idea of meeting a pan-Arab audience who might be able to provide feedback on the kind of traction Tutorama might see in different Arab markets and ways in which we might be able to hyper-localize.”
4- How can individuals and organizations who may be interested in supporting Tutorama reach out to you?
To receive updates as we approach our launch feel free to visit our website tutorama.me and fill in  your contact details.
You can also follow us on Twitter @tutorama_me or contact us at:                              
 Omar Khashaba: khashaba@tutorama.me                                                                                            
 Mohamed Khodeir: khodeir@tutorama.me

Although it was their first competition and they didn’t expect to win, they were super excited that they now hold the opportunity to grow and educate more people! This amazing platform is initially targeting K-12 students and is hoping to extend to university level students, sometime in the near future.

Show them your support by visiting their website, and don’t forget to share and leave a smile 🙂 !