• Betterfly Buys Music Instructor Listings Site Teachlist

    Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

    Leena Rao currently works as a writer for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was... → Learn More

    Betterfly , a website that helps people find tutors, trainers, teachers an other individual providers of self-improvement services, has acquired music instructor listings site Teachlist.com (which now forwards to Betterfly’s music listings). Now most of the more than 10,000 instructors will be listed on Betterfly and can offer their services to the platform’s community. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

    Betterfly, which launched into beta in May, provides consumers with detailed profiles of “Betterists” in more than 1,000 categories, from piano teachers to weight loss coaches to Spanish tutors to yoga instructors. Basically, the site lists any teacher can teach a self-improvement skill.

    Users can search by more than 20 variables such as location, appointment availability, client reviews, friends’ recommendations and value. Instead of featuring a business, Betterfly lists the individual “Betterists, making the site more appealing service providers. For example, the site will list the actual hair stylists or personal trainers rather than salons or gyms they work for.

    For providers, Betterfly provides customizable web pages where they can list qualifications and services, as well as the ability to post instructional videos and lesson plans, create blogs, and allow clients to make appointments on the site’s booking system.

    Betterfly’s founder Joshua Schwadron says that he thought of the idea after he moved to New York a few years ago and wanted to find a local piano instructor and found it difficult to find a well-reviwed local instructor on sites like Yelp and Citysearch.

    And Betterfly is steadily seeing traction with its service Since May, Betterfly has accumulated 100,000 users of the service. And the company just raised a round of funding from Chicago-based investment firm Lightbank.

    Schwadron says that Betterfly has already attracted a wide range of high-quality “Betterists” such as Rebecca Brody, a dating specialist who appeared on MTV’s Made; Graziella Baratta, a former Miss United States 2008 and now offers fitness and dance instruction; and several PGA tour golfers who offer golf lessons.

    The site is similar in theory to Seattle-based Teachstreet, which also focuses on connecting independent teachers with students. But Betterfly seems to provide a broader group os service providers such as hair stylists, fitness instructors and more.

    Company: Betterfly
    Website: betterfly.com
    Launch Date: 2010
    Funding: $1.5M

    Betterfly is the world’s most diverse marketplace for people who want to better themselves and others. We connect talented individuals, known as Betterists, directly with the people who want their skills - making it easy for people to learn, look and feel better. A better way to find the right people: You won’t see any companies in our search results, just skilled people. Why? We think that knowing the name of a great teacher, trainer or stylist is more important...

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