“Amazing teachers are everywhere. You just have to find them,” says Michael Harker, founder and CEO of Reach.One from his home porch in Salt Lake City.

Harker wants to build an online supplemental education platform that feels something like a MasterClass for k-12 education―and it couldn’t come at a better time. The pandemic revealed cracks in our education system that left many parents critical of the education their children were receiving. And Harker believes asynchronous video lessons can fill in the gaps. 

Harker harbors no fantasy that Reach.One’s supplemental education platform will replace traditional education. The number of subjects and classes that private and public schools offer would be extremely difficult to capture online, not to mention the process a whole year of learning a subject takes. “Socialization cannot be replaced,” he says. “There are models and ways to create different methods of socialization, like the public school model of campus. We are just focusing on finding inspirational teachers right now, not creating a distinguished k-12 school in replacement of private and public schooling.” 

Still, he does want to reinvent the wheelhouse of engagement and extracurricular. “I am a lifelong learner and student of the world. I believe that this is in part due to the phenomenal teachers I had in K-12. My high school Chemistry teacher was engaging—she made learning fun, even a somewhat dull subject as Chem1A. Her level of influence was that she lent me her perspective on the subject.” 

This is what Reach.One aims to do: engage and inspire students by lending them the teacher’s point of view.

Building the MasterClass of education

The online supplemental educational market is overflowing with new platforms. According to University of Southern California associate professor Morgan Polikoff and educational consultant Jennifer Dean, from their co-authored book, “The Supplemental-Curriculum Bazaar: Is What’s Online Any Good?,” teachers across the nation use the internet as a database to find engaging and innovative ways to lead their classrooms. 

If the internet seems to be the leading platform where students and educators alike discover compelling ways to learn and teach a subject, then Reach.One might be onto something. “There’s something very compelling about education, accessibility, and discovering engagement methods online,” says Harker. The answer to the big question is if you want to find those who are the very best at something—look at the big picture, education itself. 

Online platforms like MasterClass have 281,000 subscribed visitors per month, with famous instructors like the author Joyce Carol Oats teaching classes like “the art of the short story.” Although the company has been hush-hush about their exact figures, according to Forbes their revenue doubled in the last year—displaying another successful path for online supplemental education. 

“MasterClass unlocked part of the idea of how you find someone who is the very best at something. We do this but with the focus on real-life, everyday teachers,” explains Harker. Rather than getting celebrities to conduct their classes, they use real-life teachers who understand education as a practice and philosophy. 

“Vetting teachers is tricky: you want to vet them in a way that other parents will accept. We use our international school network from New York to Hong Kong to gain access and see what type of awards, accolades, and how engaging they can be through the camera. We really use the awards, nominations, and accolades as a way to shortlist candidates.”

Getting a student to think critically, to look at something from different perspectives, and to remain engaged is part magic and part theater. “Good teachers are everywhere; you just have to find them.”

Building a foundation to provide accessibility

It’s no wonder that some of the most popular online courses are in STEM subjects. It is an exciting time for people, especially those thinking about careers, to pursue the sciences. “Students want help with math, science, and STEM. Not only are STEM classes going to be readily available for our subscribing students, but we want to provide students with access to other subjects they wouldn’t normally have access to like: music, voice, entrepreneurial classes, economics, personal finance, empathy, how to work with other people and so on. 

“We want to create classes in areas that are outside what schools have the budget for. I am excited to provide different angles of the world, enabling them to become the best versions of themselves. There are a lot of online classes—like on Coursera—that offer STEM subjects. We want to infiltrate this as well, but we want to take it even farther by providing access to students across the globe not only to different subjects but to education in total.”

And Harker wants Reach.One to fill those gaps. “If you look around the world, from the US to African nations, 258 million kids who are not able to receive an education. Accessibility is huge. I wanted to create something that could provide more to those who need more in education as well as those it’s providing access to those across the US who have poor access based off of the distribution system foundational to education.”

To make his platform even more accessible, with each subscription purchased, one subscription to classes is provided to a student in need. “Our mission is to elevate and equalize. We want to start with the US then move globally. My partners, Doug Wrenn, Peter Tamale, and Dee Ann Kerr, all have a history in education and passion for it. So our values align on this, and it’s an exciting time for us.”

Investing in our future

Supplemental online education isn’t just a trend—it’s a movement. Within the first round of seed investing, Reach.One is extending the opportunity to invest first to their employees. 

“Reach.One is everything to me right now. I have put 90 percent in with two other partners. At this stage, I’ve offered the opportunity for our employees to invest their own capital or capital removed from their salary in return for equity. We are passionate about teamwork and the mission we are on. It’s a healthy and exciting time for team engagement.”

We have all borne witness to the ever popular subscription model. These days, you can hardly make a one time purchase—take Adobe for example. Everything within the Adobe suite is based on a subscription model. Reach.One wants to expand the accessibility of subscriptions and what they mean for families—not just a single user. 

“We want to have one subscription for a family unit that is shared in the household. We are deciding our scale right now, but we want to help families sustain an educational plan that could be dually empowering parents to learn. For example, developing content for parents to learn empathy. The content for parents is clearly developing, but we’re excited about what the future has in store. 750 million illiterate people worldwide, we want to find a way for our financial model to give back.”

Reach.one’s financial model is unique in part due to their +1 model, typical of many for-profit companies, and also in part due to their 1:1 model. But how they price and attract subscribers is what will turn the wheels of this company’s engine. “There are so many places in the world, and the states, where people cannot afford to pay for education, let alone an asynchronous platform such as this. People who can afford to pay will, in turn, through their subscription, pay for another student who cannot. We plan to make our platform available offline, so wifi and connectivity are not critical to learning.” 

Through making their platform accessible through different touchpoints of interaction; online and offline, Reach.One can expect to quite literally reach various peoples from differing backgrounds. 

And Harker believes that through growing subscriptions, they can translate their mission domestically to perhaps one day even internationally. “If we can obtain enough subscribers, we can provide devices to rural areas where this technology isn’t readily available. As we discussed earlier—we are playing with pricing, and we have not nailed the pricing yet. Right now, we want to scale the company. Many companies have the 1 percent model—but it doesn’t quite go far enough, whereas 1:1 creates immediate aid. This is what we’re excited about. We hope that it will lead to greater infrastructural changes in education,” says Harker. 

The education system currently serves the upper tier of society that in turn neglects rural counties. Funding for public and private schools alike is greater in more affluent counties, which makes the diaspora of educational achievement in the United States exceedingly prominent.

It’s no secret that teachers are not paid enough in the United States. Even more, qualified, good teachers seek out higher paying jobs either out of need or want. Reach.One wants to play with this idea: how can they attract great teachers and incentivize them to engage and teach at their highest level? This is where their revenue share program comes into play.

“As of now, we have a revenue poll at 15 percent. For example, suppose we have 100,000 subscribers. In that case, we will take 15 percent of the revenue and give it to the teachers according to their traffic. A teacher’s share is dependent on their popularity and their success in subscribers. Of course, this has a bit of an angle. Some subjects may and will be more interesting than others. We are focusing on creating a program that will empower teachers in terms of creativity and flexibility. Great teachers are everywhere. You just have to find them.”

Vetting teachers of a high caliber is a daunting and difficult process. Especially when you are aiming to discover teachers that not only adhere to Reach.One’s requirements but also are teachers that parents will accept as quality educators. Harker thinks that he may have found a shortcut. 

“We have specifically vetted international school teachers from around the world: from Hong Kong to Utah. We also look at awards and accolades. The Teacher of the Year Award has proven to be a great resource to tap into when looking for exceptional teachers,” explains Harker.  

“We already have some great teachers lined up who we believe will help many students worldwide learn. Mainly, for measuring how to find these teachers, we ask questions about how they view their subjects, can they help students ask the right questions, and can they help a child to look at the world differently.”

It appears that the requirements for teaching with Reach.One really comes down to how successful they are at engaging students. Asynchronous platforms means that it may prove difficult to maintain high levels of engagement with varying levels of interaction. 

“We want our teachers to be charismatic and engaging, preferably with a master’s in education. Still, it’s not a requirement per se. But, they have to have multiple years of experience, have traveled and taught in various places. When we look at awards, it is not necessarily a criterion; it’s just another facet for us to use. It’s a way to see who is being recognized and at the top—like cheating the longer list.”

I believe that we can expect great things. With experts in education and seeking out teachers who understand educational philosophy and practice, Reach.One could have more impact than we could possibly imagine. “We are sure what exactly the future holds, but we know that education needs to be reimagined.” Reach.One is a step in the right direction.