You could say Clark Co-founder and CEO Megan O’Connor was destined for a career in edtech.
The child of an educator, as a child, Clark observed her mother work as a teacher by day and tutor by night — something many in that profession often do to supplement their income, as the average starting salary for teachers in New York is around $43k.
“The administrative hours she put into tutoring on the side were huge and disproportionate to the time she was able to spend helping students,” O’Connor said. “It made me realize that there had to be a better way.”
O’Connor began working at Pencils of Promise, a nonprofit that helps bring quality education to developing nations. It was there that she worked closely with Microsoft and discovered a passion for tech. She decided to take her newfound interest and apply it toward easing the burden of administrative tasks for independent educators.
“Through my mother’s tutoring company, I met my co-founder Sam Gimbel who was also innovating in the freelance space,” she said. “It was a natural fit, and from there Clark was born.”
Clark is a tech solution that helps tutors grow and manage their businesses. Using the online platform, independent educators can simplify some of their administrative responsibilities and completely automate others. Its capabilities include automated scheduling, payment management and student progress report generation.
Our goal is to partner and help every educator grow and scale their business."
One of the company’s newest enhancements is The Syllabus, a content platform that allows tutors in the Clark community to collaborate and share ideas with one another.
“One of the most important jobs in our society is that of a teacher. Our goal is to partner and help every educator grow and scale their business,” said O’Connor. “We want to work with the teacher, the tutor and the parent to eliminate all communication gaps for every student, making it as easy as possible for all stakeholders to be involved in a student’s education.”
Founded in 2016 with three employees, the company now has a team of 11 full-time workers and has raised a total of $3.2 million to-date.
