Calgary’s Next Economy: Educify tapping into education technology

It started as a passion to teach music.

Though Oluwaseun Adegunju has a background in geology and geophysics and years of experience in Canada and Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, the co-founder of Educify has also been teaching music for nearly 25 years.

After doing it for so long, Adegunju realized that he’d built a curriculum of sorts.

“I realized that I could actually pivot into education,” he said.

“One of the things that I was thinking about was that we have to kind of use technology as a leverage, in this case, in order to be able to reach our wider audience.”

There are other players in the online education market, but Adegunju said they have recorded courses where people can learn at their own pace.

“What we provide is one-on-one personalized learning. Whether you are online or in person with a tutor, a live person,” he said.

“In the case of students that are looking for test prep or exam prep or having challenges with something, they can actually have a conversation with a human.”

Educify is a connection point for teachers and students in a wide range of areas – including music – and they are adding more all the time. Both students and teachers can join the site to create a learning collaboration.

Teachers have a rigorous review process to ensure the highest standards are being met, Adegunju said.

“Number one, we promise ease of use. We want it to be easy and very intuitive for people to use, to understand how to use the platform,” he said.

“The second thing that we are focusing on is the quality of the tutors.”

They have three primary target areas: tutoring, lifelong learners (coding, music, etc), and people who are hoping to learn a second language.

Shaping their education technology message

Adegunju, along with co-founder Tobiloba Adegunju, said being a part of the fall cohort for the Alberta Catalyzer – Velocity program, has been an eye-opening experience.

Oluwasen said that they’ve been able to focus on specific areas that help them build their business model.

“Really the reason, number one, helping us with shaping our marketing messaging, which is key, being able to communicate properly to the audience, or, let me say to the customers, that’s number one,” he said.  

“Number two, it has helped us to be able to understand funding a little bit more.”

He said learning more about dilutive funding versus non-dilutive options, plus creating a powerful marketing message have helped them accelerate their education technology business.

The immediate term goal is to create more awareness of their offerings. Not just in Calgary, either.

“We want every area in Canada to be touched. We want them to be aware of us in the positive light, and we want them to know that we exist and what we offer,” Adegunju said.

After that, he said they want to focus on the customer experience.

“What is going to be lifetime value for those people. What will keep them coming back?” Adegunju said.

Within the next three years, he’s hoping to have 100,000 students on the platform. They want that to be students from across North America and into Europe. As the student demand increases, so too will the education offerings, he said.

Then, they can move into group lessons and possibly corporate training, Adegunju said.

• Join Alberta Catalyzer to fast-track your startup with know-how and expert guidance. Alberta Catalyzer offers merit-based, pre-accelerator programs for early-stage tech entrepreneurs in Alberta at no cost. These programs are developed and delivered by Platform Calgary and Edmonton Unlimited, with support from partners and organizations across the Alberta Innovation Network. They are made possible by the generous support of the Alberta Scaleup and Growth Accelerator Program, run by a consortium led by Alberta Innovates. The consortium includes the Government of Alberta, Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan), The City of Edmonton through Edmonton Unlimited, and the City of Calgary’s Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund allocated $35 million over three years to retain business accelerators. It’s part of the Alberta government’s goal to help create 20,000 jobs and increase technology firm revenue to $5 billion by 2030.