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Sapio
Our goal is to prepare people for the demands of the new job market in this rapidly changing technology landscape by arming our users with the real skills employers are seeking
$X,000,000
Y% undefined $X,000,000
Z
6 years ago
Overview

Quick Pitch

Sapio is a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book in-person learning experiences online or from a mobile phone or tablet.

Whether it be a private mentorship session with a top investment banker in your country, an evening class with an influential blogger, or a podcast with a successful entrepreneur, Sapio connects hungry learners and subject matter experts on topics they truly care about. And with world-class customer service and a growing community of users, Sapio is the easiest way for people to monetize their knowledge and build their personal brand as thought leaders.
 

Product/Service Details

Through our bite-sized learning and industry-relevant training programs focused on emerging market skills, we arm our users with the tools to make well-informed choices in careers, or personal life changes. Sapio is an accessible, actionable and aspirational online marketplace that seeks to enable mass customization in learning. From a learner perspective, we offer high-quality, applicable and transferrable educational content that teaches users to clarify the “whys” and the “how’s” of their goals, before we teach the “what’s”. Learning sessions are currently offered in two formats - private one-to-one sessions and small group sessions, each lasting 60-90 minutes.
 

We are currently in the process of launching our digitized products which will include podcasts, online mentorship and video Q&A services, thus enabling users to directly communicate with thought leaders globally.
 

Problem/Opportunity

While the global economic landscape has gone through monumental change in the past two decades, the formal education system has by and large failed to keep up. It is clearly no longer fit for purpose – as evidenced by the fact that 91% of what people learn at university is completely inapplicable in their careers.

Historically, education has been a key facilitator of social mobility – and the problems within learning and education today have resulted in a drastic decline in social mobility. The Millennial generation is the first generation in human history to have a less positive economic outlook than their parents, and Gini coefficients are increasing across the world. A total of US$98.8 billion* is being spent globally on ‘adult supplemental learning’, but available solutions are still expensive and inefficient. The world is crying out for a different approach to learning.

This presents not only a multi-billion dollar business opportunity, but also an opportunity to deliver scalable social impact across multiple geographies.

*Includes expenditure on courses, online content, and books/materials on self-improvement and professional development paid for directly by consumers only. Excludes B2B and government spending. Excludes expenditures in Mainland China. Excludes any program leading to certification or accreditation by any academic or professional body. Excludes expenditure on supplemental learning or enrichment for K-12.


Solution

Sapio does not purport to be able to design a curriculum that is comprehensive enough to cater to the different learning needs, styles and objectives of all learners – no one can. The solution is to encourage more and more talented domain experts to engage in the activity of teaching, even if they do so on a casual and informal basis (much like how Airbnb has encouraged millions of people to engage in the activity of hospitality).

Sapio is a sharing economy platform. The sharing economy fundamentally seeks to unlock latent pockets of supply, thereby increasing options for end-users (learners), and driving costs down. Every Sapio learning session is only 90 minutes long, and is conducted live and in-person. Learners are able to choose from a wide selection of options, and pick learning sessions that are directly pertinent to their needs – allowing for maximum benefit, and minimum investment both in terms of time and money.

Already, Sapio has served >2,000 learners, and has built an ecosystem of >100 domain experts. The average class size is 27, and the average ticket price is $34 – resulting in $918 in gross revenue accruing to each expert over 90 minutes (i.e. approximately $600 per hour), which constitutes a strong incentive to not only share their knowledge and insights, but also to ensure high levels of delivery and service. And we’re just getting started – we aim to serve 100,000 learners in Singapore by the end of 2018.


Traction & Accomplishments

Thus far, Sapio has hosted >2,000 learners, and built an ecosystem of >100 experts, all of whom are thought leaders within their respective domain areas. In addition, Sapio has secured partnerships with >50 reputable venue owners, ensuring that learning sessions can be conducted within safe, comfortable and centrally-located spaces across Singapore.

In addition, Sapio has also secured channel partnerships with organisations including the Singapore University of Social Sciences, IndoChine Group and MOX, with an aggregate reach of 75,000. We are continuing with efforts to expand this reach on a daily basis. This serves as an organic distribution channel that ensures high levels of relevant engagement without the need to burn capital on expensive third-party advertising.
 

How We're Different

We recognise that there are a variety of learning platforms, particularly e-learning platforms. However, we offer something completely different, and we do not view them as competition.

Firstly, the nature of our content is highly focused and targeted. We are first and foremost a self-improvement platform that seeks to help learners ‘up their game’ in various practical areas, namely (a) Career (b) Business (c) Startups (d) Money (e) Wellness (f) Relationships and (g) Parenting, which are the seven top-selling categories of non-fiction content in bookstores worldwide. Most other learning programs have unfocused content strategies, and simply strive to bring generic and disparate content together under the broad umbrella of ‘learning’ – appealing to users’ intellectual curiosity rather than their fundamental desire to improve their circumstances in life.

Secondly, the source of our content is distributed. We do not engage in curriculum design and have a light-touch editorial and censorship policy. We trust that the best way to build a formidable inventory of knowledge is to tap on our community and ecosystem, rather than attempt to prescribe a one-size-fits-all formula.

Thirdly, the user experience we offer is fully interactive – learners have the opportunity to interact with experts and ask them questions in-person and on-the-spot, resulting in a much higher degree of personalization and customization. Most learning platforms (whether live or digital) only offer a one-way flow of information that is not responsive to context and circumstances.

 

Team

Benjamin Lee, Co-Founder and CEO

Originally from Singapore, Ben has lived in 7 countries and travelled to more than 70. He comes from a family of educators, and has personally taught >100 seminars and lectures at universities around the world, including Columbia, INSEAD, LSE and LBS. He has founded 8 companies in the past 12 years, two of which have been acquired. In addition, he has invested in and/or served on the boards of 6 other companies, mostly within the media and internet space. He is also on the advisory boards of four international NGOs. He has an LLB (Hons) from University College London and an MSc in Management from King’s College London, and had brief stints working for large international law firms and banks.

Most notably, Ben is a battle-hardened entrepreneur who has tasted the bitter disappointment of failure – and has learnt invaluable lessons along the way. His last startup, Sugar, was the market leader in 3 countries with more than 90,000 users, attaining a high media profile and a valuation of $13 million before eventually failing. He is more than happy to share his learnings from the experience.

 

Nellie Wartoft, Co-Founder and COO

Originally from Sweden, Nellie relocated to Singapore seven years ago, and quickly emerged as a top-billing corporate recruiter at Michael Page. She has interviewed thousands of candidates and served high-profile clients in a diverse array of industries, including banking, consulting, media and technology. She quickly discovered that there was a serious skills mismatch in the talent economy, and that many candidates were pigeon-holed by their limiting experiences in education. She also witnessed, first-hand, the frustrations of talented and ambitious young people who lacked a suitable platform to showcase and develop their potential.

Nellie started her first business at the tender age of 17, and has won awards at both the national and regional level for her entrepreneurial acumen. She is also a former TED curator and speaker, and an alumnus of Toastmasters International. She volunteers her time as an academic mentor at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, as part of a joint program with Alibaba

Contact

Brianna Welsh – [email protected]

+65 8751 3382

 

Benjamin Lee – [email protected]
+65 8750 0052

Everything you wish you’d learnt in school.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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