"Simply stated, an entrepreneur is someone who starts a business. But more than that, it’s someone who recognizes a need, envisions an ambitious solution, and can then sell that vision."
Myles Hunter Tweet
Myles Hunter is the CEO and Co-Founder of TutorMe, a virtual, on-demand tutoring platform available 24/7 in over 300 subjects.
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Thank you so much for giving us your time! Before we begin, could you introduce yourself to our readers and take us through what exactly your company does and what your vision is for its future?
Myles Hunter: First, thank you for inviting me to share with the Valiant CEO community! My name is Myles Hunter, and I’m the Co-Founder & CEO of TutorMe. Our team at TutorMe focuses on providing high-quality, on-demand academic support to students that need it most. We do this by connecting students with a live tutor in a matter of minutes.
While we have a consumer vertical, our most important work is in institutional partnerships with K-12 schools and systems, universities, public libraries, supplementary education programs, and companies that provide TutorMe services to employees and their families as a corporate benefit. Through these partnerships, we’re able to create access to TutorMe and over 16,0000 tutors for more than 1.5 million students who would otherwise never be able to tap into such a valuable learning resource available on-demand 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
NO child ever says I want to be a CEO/entrepreneur when I grow up. What did you want to be and how did you get where you are today?
Myles Hunter: Believe it or not, I actually wanted to be a plastic surgeon. My childhood best friend’s dad was a plastic surgeon, and it just seemed like a really cool profession to me when I was a kid. The reason why I didn’t pursue it was because it would take so many years of school, and I really struggled in high school. Other people I went to school with had expensive private tutors, and that wasn’t something we could afford, so I had to spend so much extra time studying and often felt lost and isolated along the way.
That experience is part of what led me and our other co-founders to start TutorMe. We knew there had to be a better way.
Tell us something about yourself that others in your organization might be surprised to know.
Myles Hunter: Many people are surprised to find out that I’m half Chilean and my first language is Spanish. In line with that, I only listen to music in Spanish, almost entirely reggaeton!
Many readers may wonder how to become an entrepreneur but what is an entrepreneur? How would you define it?
Myles Hunter: Simply stated, an entrepreneur is someone who starts a business. But more than that, it’s someone who recognizes a need, envisions an ambitious solution, and can then sell that vision.
That’s a key component—you’re always going to be the primary salesperson of your vision, company, and products in one form or another. You have to start by selling the vision before there’s a product or even a company; you have to sell the promise of the idea to the investors; you have to sell potential team members on joining the company and aligning with the vision; and then, you have to sell the product and services in the field. As an entrepreneur, you’re the first salesperson for the company, and that dynamic endures even as the company grows.
Plus, you have to be a little bit crazy to throw your whole life behind an idea that you believe in when others haven’t quite recognized its value yet. Sometimes as an entrepreneur, that’s when you know you’re on to something: People will tell you that you’re crazy, and you say, “Yeah, isn’t it great!”
What is the importance of having a supportive and inclusive culture?
Myles Hunter: It’s everything! You have to start at the very foundation of the company. We want our team members to thrive, and embracing inclusivity and diversity at TutorMe makes us better as a team. As you build out and start to scale, if you haven’t taken the development of your culture seriously, there will be poison in the water that you won’t be able to extract. You have to be intentional with it from day one and all along the way because if you aren’t, you’ll get to a point where it’s too late. The house of cards will come down. So, we take it very seriously. It doesn’t mean we’re always going to be perfect. We always have to learn and improve, and each one of our diverse team members helps us make sure we’re doing that. We want to always see our team members as people first, and do whatever we can to support them to thrive.
How can a leader be disruptive in the post covid world?
Myles Hunter: We built TutorMe as a fully remote company from day one because we believe that talent is not and should not be geographically constrained. We trust our team members to work from anywhere, and we know there are students and expert tutors everywhere, too. In fact, our entire business model is built upon being radically unbound by geographic constraints. The proof is there—we recruit great talent, we trust our people, and as a result, we’ve grown more than 6x in two years.
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If a 5-year-old asked you to describe your job, what would you tell them?
Myles Hunter: I would ask, “Have you ever struggled with letters, numbers, or understanding things when you are learning?” I would tell them that I have, too, so we built a place online, where you can meet nice people who will help you. That way you’ll never have to feel lost or alone when you’re learning. Pretty cool, huh?
Leaders are usually asked about their most useful qualities but let’s change things up a bit. What is your most useless talent?
Myles Hunter: I am passionate about spicy food and am a genuine hot sauce aficionado. I don’t mean something like ordering the spiciest variation of a dish at a restaurant—I want the real heat. I can remember competing with people both as a child and an adult to see who can eat the hottest pepper or deal with the hottest sauce, and quite frankly, most people who think they like it hot just can’t hang. I can’t say it’s a totally useless talent though; it’s led to a lot of great experiences and many fascinating conversations with people.
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Thank you so much for your time but before we finish things off, we do have one more question. If you wrote a book about your life until today, what would the title be?
Myles Hunter: “How Did I Even Get Here?”
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Myles Hunter for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Myles Hunter or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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