Tech

Check out the pitch deck that persuaded Stripe backer Union Square Ventures to invest in a 22-year-old’s virtual high school

Virtual high school startup Sora recently announced it had raised $2.7 million in a seed funding round backed by the likes of Twitter and Stripe investor Union Square Ventures.
Cofounder Garrett Smiley, 22, says the school’s mission is to create a “super high-quality community” with alternative classes on subjects such as “the physics of sharks” and the workings of Iron Man’s suit.
Business Insider got an exclusive look at the pitch deck Sora used to bring investors on board.
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Earlier this week, Atlanta-based edtech startup Sora announced it had raised $2.7 million in a seed funding round backed by the likes of Twitter and Stripe backer Union Square Ventures and Village Global.

Founded in 2019, long before COVID-19 forced millions of students around the world to switch to remote learning, Sora is effectively an online private school, which offers students one-to-one tutorials and helps them design their own personalized curricula.

While students do have to complete standard courses in subjects like maths and English, the platform emphasizes lateral thinking, with seminar titles such as: “Could we build the ‘Iron Man’ suit?” or “The physics of sharks.”

The firm was set up by Garrett Smiley, a 22-year-old Atlanta native, and friends Indra Sofian and Wesley Samples. The school currently has 39 participants, each paying between $300 and $800 a month.

“We don’t believe schools are in the business of content creation anymore, just typing in Google search engine search specifically you’ll probably find world-class resources to learn a subject,” Smiley told TechCrunch. “So for us, to be a super successful school, we knew our role was creating this super high-quality community.”

Business Insider got an exclusive look at the (redacted) pitch deck Sora used to bring investors on board. Check it out below:

Sora

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Check out the pitch deck that persuaded Stripe backer Union Square Ventures to invest in a 22-year-old's virtual high school

Check out the pitch deck that persuaded Stripe backer Union Square Ventures to invest in a 22-year-old’s virtual high school

Sora