Behind the Entrepreneurial Journey of 13-Year-Old Twins

As 13-year-old rising sophomores in the summer of 2020, Kaelin and Kyran Park saw a challenge in the decimation and closure of schools by COVID. They flung into action and started a company—a tutoring service to provide core academic and enrichment supports. The company, called Tutorly Ed, is a 100% free online tutoring service for students. It's led by students, and Kae and Ky (the names they go by) created it to give back to the community and create a safe learning space for those in need throughout the peak of the pandemic. Kae serves as the chief marketing officer of the initiative and is a high school multimedia major. Ky is the CTO and is a high school computer science major who hopes to work in the AI and technology fields.

As always, you can read, watch, or listen to the conversation below.

Michael Horn:     Kae and Ky, it's great to see you. Thanks, first of all, for being here and sharing your story.

Kae:                  Thank you so much for having us. It's really an honor to be here.

Horn:                No, no. Honor's all mine. I get to spotlight two budding entrepreneurs who are students. What I will say I love about your story is you all were not passive during the pandemic. You said, "We can do something about this." So I love for you each, just to introduce yourself, I obviously read a little bit of your bio there, but I love you each in your words to introduce yourself and what you're both passionate about. Ky, why don't you go first?

Ky:                   Okay. So my name is Ky and as mentioned before, I'm the co-founder and chief technology officer of Tutorly Ed, and I'm passionate about computer science. I want to go into AI as mentioned before. Part of my role in Tutorly Ed is managing all of the technology. So the website keeping up all of the logistics and kind of managing the tutoring team.

Kae:                  I am Kae Park. I am the co-founder and chief marketing officer. So at Tutorly Ed, I'm head of our board of creative directors and content creators. This is how we help expand our reach and engage in our community on all of our platforms. I'm passionate about anything from film to advertising. I'm all about the creative side. I can't wait to get more into this conversation.

Horn:                Yeah, let's dig in, I've put the website below there so people can check it out. It's definitely worth checking out. It's very well designed on both ends. But, set the scene for me before the pandemic started. Did either of you have dreams of starting something, being entrepreneurs, did you think this was something that students could or should do?

Kae:                  I mean, we always had this kind of spark for leading something new. We're both very passionate about very different things, but also similar issues, similar values. But it really was the pandemic that kind of opened our eyes to all of the challenges, newly introduced, whether it was the great amount of unemployment that was experienced, whether it was the rise for technological needs, because everything was virtual and distance learning, whether it was families being isolated financially and physically, everything changed essentially. We decided to create Tutorly Ed as our solution, not only to take our passion for leadership and creating something of our own, but also to help ease this harsh transition into a whole new lifestyle and help acknowledge these rising needs.

Horn:                So take me in then to that first thought, right? I'd love you to set the scene. So this is sort of your background. Have you come into it? The pandemic occurs. I imagine like many you're home for those first couple months. We're all trying to figure out what's up and what's down in this new world. Then when do you have that first thought that, "Gee, we ought to start something." What's the conversation the two of you have with each other and if you can almost take me into that moment of you all are having these conversations about, "We ought to create something." What actually did that conversation actually look like?