As college tuition increases and the student loan debt crisis continues, three former executives from language learning app Duolingo are building a new startup aimed at making college education more affordable and accessible.
The company, tentatively named Outsmart Education (the name is not final yet), is headed by co-founders Daniel Falabella (CPO), former senior director of product for learning at Duolingo ABC; Gina Gotthilf (CMO), former vice president of growth and marketing at Duolingo; and Jorge Mazal (CEO), ex-chief product officer at Duolingo.
Outsmart announced its $13 million seed funding round on Monday, led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Karman Ventures, Latitud Ventures, and Lightspeed Ventures, as well as angel investors, including Lenny Ratchitsky (ex-product lead at Airbnb) and 20Growth, among others. The capital will be used for hiring and product development.
The idea for Outsmart came out of Mazal’s own frustration with the current system, he says. When Mazal moved to the U.S. to pursue his undergraduate degree, he didn’t have the resources to pay for it and had to find a way to finance his education through a combination of jobs, scholarships, and other means. When he went on to complete two master’s programs at Harvard and Wharton, he didn’t realize how much debt he would end up with.
“I was like a quarter million dollars in debt,” Mazal told TechCrunch. “I had to take a part-time job where I was picking up trash in my apartment complex every morning just to make ends meet, and, to me, that was just so representative of what’s broken in higher ed.”
Since the company is currently operating in stealth mode, it’s not yet able to share its specific plans. Despite this, the venture shows promise given the caliber of its backers.
“College-level education is a basic, universal human right,” Ethan Choi, partner at Khosla Ventures, told TechCrunch. “I’m actually a first-generation college student myself. Education has completely transformed my life and will impact my family for generations…I just think what [Outsmart is] doing will be world-changing.”
Outsmart arrives at a time when many families find it hard to pay for a college degree. For the 2024-2025 school year, the average tuition and fees at private ranked colleges rose by around 5.5% over the last year, whereas public schools saw a rise of over 2%. Overall, Americans owe approximately $1.6 trillion in student loans.
Mazal told us, “The mission that we’re trying to achieve is to dramatically increase access to higher education in a way that’s been unprecedented and that we believe can change the world.”
Many companies aim to help college students get access to affordable education, including platforms that compare college tuition fees, such as Tuition Tracker, as well as companies that offer inexpensive online schooling. There are also matchmaking platforms, like College Rover and College Simply, that help students determine which college is the best fit for them.
Since Outsmart is keeping the details of its offering under wraps, it remains unclear how, or if, it fits into these existing categories. Regardless, the founders themselves appear to be well-equipped to forge a path in the space. The trio worked at Duolingo for five years and have previously held positions at various other notable companies. Falabella has experience at Dropbox and Lucid Software, while Gottif previously worked at Tumblr. Mazal has worked at Lucid, MyFitnessPal, and Zynga.
Mazal believes Outsmart will be “better than the higher ed options out there in basically every dimension, in terms of access, affordability, personalization,” he said.