The One About Huayi and Bilin Academy
Plus an amazing Tech Chicago Week turn out, our first virtual event, and more!
Our EdTech and Social Impact Happy Hour during Tech Chicago Week was a huge success! We had almost 200 RSVPs and over 100 of you came out for drinks and networking. Whiskey, tequila, and rosé seem to be our drink of choice. Well done, everyone!
Thank you again to all of our wonderful sponsors: Three Cities Social, REACH, Archer Career, Bilin Academy, D2 Venture, gener8tor, High Impact Tutors, and Lightcast.
Community Wins
NextWaveSTEM received an Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) After School Programs Grant for $120k.
Enlight is launching their pilot program, deploying their “Book of Everything” devices in Ghana.
Financial Aid Frenzy was accepted into Builders + Backers Summer 2024 Idea Accelerator Program.
Entiendo was the regional winner for Startup Grind Chicago’s 8th Annual Pitch Battle. They are now a finalist for the Startup World Cup in SF in October!
SCOPE launched out of stealth. Join their waitlist!
High Impact Tutors just received a renewal for Forest Park Middle School and also signed Lyons Middle School.
Our very own Ruben Abarca was named in the Negocios Now Top 50 Latinos “Who’s Who of Chicago Business.”
ASL Aspire was one of 50 winning teams at the 2023-2024 Tools Competition.
Academic Atlas was selected for Phase Two of Future Founders’ 2024 Startup Bootcamp.
Archer Career partnered with Falkor8 and Code Your Dreams for Resume For Your Future, a professional development bootcamp for startup interns before the Fall semester begins.
OpenClass sponsored the 2024 CSTA Annual Conference and is celebrating its 5th birthday.
SuperBetter was named “Best for You NHS” App of the Month
Founder Spotlight
This month’s spotlight features Huayi He, founder and CEO of Bilin Academy, a platform that offers multilingual classes and tutoring on various subjects from professional, licensed teachers internationally. Huayi was also one of the EdTech Institute’s very first members. Continue reading to learn more about her story.
Windy City EdTech (WCE): Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from and how did you come to entrepreneurship?
Huayi: I grew up in China and initially came to the U.S. to pursue a business degree. However, my lifelong dream of teaching led me to switch paths and obtain an education degree, eventually becoming a high school math teacher. Although I had always wanted to teach, becoming an entrepreneur was never part of my plan. In 2018, I was captivated by the idea of providing children the opportunity to learn from teachers in different countries, allowing them to explore subjects and interests in their target language. Seeing nothing like this on the market, I began working with art teachers to offer art classes in English to children in Asian countries. Over time, this passion project grew into what is now Bilin Academy.
WCE: What does your company do? What big problem are you trying to solve?
Huayi: Despite the benefits and growing demand, providing a quality bilingual or multilingual education presents significant challenges for parents. Local schools often lack sufficient resources for language instruction. Accessing native-speaking instructors and culturally diverse content can be particularly difficult in regions with limited representation of the target culture and language.
We seek to address these challenges by making multilingual education more accessible, effective, and enjoyable. Our online platform provides live, interactive classes, connecting educators and learners worldwide in real-time, offering a broad spectrum of learning experiences. These include affordable language lessons led by native language instructors, K-12 subject-based curricula in different languages, and a wide array of extracurricular classes, as well as free activities, seminars, and parent workshops.
Through Bilin Academy, learning is not just an act but a cultural exploration without boundaries.
WCE: Can you share the story behind the founding of your company? What inspired you to start it?
Huayi: I’ve been passionate about teaching, language learning, and intercultural connections from a young age. Bilin Academy is a project that brings all my passions together.
When I was learning English in China, it was difficult to find an environment where I could use and practice the language. This made English learning a boring and tedious process of repetition and memorization, which was not effective at all. Thirty years later, while trying to teach my children Chinese in the United States, I find myself facing the same issue. There is not enough exposure to the Chinese language outside the home to make it relevant. Even in a large city like Chicago, the options for bilingual education are very limited.
We started off offering online art classes integrated with English learning for ELL children in China, providing an immersive language environment where kids can engage in activities they love while learning a second language. As the program grew, the idea expanded into an online class marketplace that offers a multilingual, international learning experience to children. Now, we offer classes to teach everything from art to strategy games, calligraphy, design, speech, and debate in various languages to children worldwide.
WCE: What sets your product apart from others?
Huayi: What sets us apart is our distinctive educational approach and curated marketplace business model.
At Bilin Academy, we go beyond traditional language learning by offering a diverse range of classes, all taught in the teacher's native language and seamlessly integrated with language acquisition. This approach allows children to achieve fluency in their target language while engaging in activities they love. It also nurtures genuine cultural immersion and language practice, a rare and highly sought-after combination for parents. Our goal is to foster cross-cultural understanding, promote global citizenship, and prepare young learners for a future in an increasingly interconnected world.
Another unique aspect is our curated, managed marketplace model. We strictly vet our instructors and curriculum before listing them on our marketplace, ensuring both safety and quality. In addition, we offer personalized assistance to families in selecting and booking classes. We understand their educational needs and provide tailored suggestions and guidance. It simplifies the search for high-quality bilingual or multilingual education resources and alleviates the immense pressure of independently sourcing them.
WCE: How can our community help you?
Huayi: Explore our website and experience our classes! We are always improving our online platform to make sure it’s easy to use, and equipped with resources that meet the needs of different groups. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to reach out to me at huayi@bilinacademy.com!
Additionally, we are seeking partnerships with schools and exploring B2B sales channels. If you know anyone—district administrators, school officials, or parent-teacher association—who are interested in language and culturally-enriching programs, please introduce them to us!
WCE: Why are you building in Chicago? What do you love most about the city?
Huayi: I have lived in Chicago for 17 years. What I love the most about this city is its vibrant and supportive startup ecosystem, especially for diverse founders. I first joined 1871 which led me to various resources and connections. Then I connected with TechRise and P33 which have also provided amazing resources for diverse founders. I also can’t end without mentioning the EdTech Institute of Chicago where I found a warm and inspiring community of like-minded entrepreneurs that I cherish deeply. Bilin Academy wouldn’t exist and thrive without all this support.
WCE: What are some of the challenges you’ve faced in building your company?
Huayi: Building Bilin Academy with such diverse class offerings has presented several challenges. Managing a diverse customer base with varying educational needs and preferences has complicated our operations. Additionally, trying to grow multiple aspects of the business simultaneously has made it difficult to scale effectively. As we continue to expand, one of our most pressing challenges is creating a scalable and efficient management system that can accommodate this growth while maintaining high-quality service.
But with AI tools we have found new hope to solve these challenges. AI-powered customer service with multiple language capabilities can significantly reduce our customer service needs, ensuring that all of our customers receive timely and effective support. AI can also interact with potential customer leads and provide personalized recommendations, enhancing customer satisfaction and engagement.
WCE: What are you most proud of with your startup?
Huayi: I am most proud of our happy customers. We invested considerable time and effort in establishing genuine connections with our customers, which allowed us to develop a profound understanding of the needs of the families we aim to serve. In return, they have given us immense support. They share honest and passionate feedback about our business, which has been invaluable. They truly give meaning to our work and motivate us to keep going.
WCE: What are some key trends or changes in the tech industry that you believe will shape the future of your business?
Huayi: AI is undeniably one of the key trends in the EdTech industry. I don't believe the nurturing and coaching relationship between teachers and students and how teachers can inspire will ever be replaced by AI. However, AI can serve as an excellent tool to assist teaching. AI can provide more accurate and comprehensive evaluations of students and help teachers with repetitive tasks like grading and planning. This allows teachers to focus more on creating individualized learning experiences and building relationships with their students.
We encourage our teachers to use AI teaching tools, but our primary focus is on using AI to improve our customer experience and operations. We are currently building an AI bot to help users better navigate our offerings. In the future, we aim to expand our use of AI to dynamically customize the learning path for every student. For instance, if a student excels in certain topics but struggles with others, the platform can prioritize and recommend specific classes accordingly. Our teachers will be able to access student profiles to gain deeper insights into their individual needs.
Be sure to check out our previous founder spotlights!
Upcoming Events
Behind-the-Scenes: Venture Capital in 2024. Presented by Workbox Ventures —
August 8th from 2-6 pm — RSVP (Eventbrite)
Join Workbox at their newest location in Fulton Market, and get the inside scoop on the way founders and venture investors are approaching the current funding environment.
The EdTech Institute will be co-working before the afternoon panels and evening happy hour. If you plan on co-working, please RSVP with this link so I can provide an accurate headcount.
This will serve as our August in-person meetup. Hope you can make it!
Winning in the Windy City: a GTM strategy conversation for startups — August 19th from 12:30-1:00 pm — RSVP (Luma) (This will be our very first virtual event!)
Congrats on building a fantastic product! Now it’s time to focus on bringing it to market. But how do you build an effective go-to-market (GTM) strategy? Join the EdTech Institute of Chicago for an exclusive EdTech webinar, where we’ll cover the ten essential elements of building your startup’s GTM strategy.
Leading this interactive session will be Jonathan Pipek, CEO & Founder of Blue Manta Consulting. He’s spent the last 10+ years in B2B product marketing and now runs a GTM agency for early-stage B2B SaaS startups.
If you’ve ever wondered how to get started on your GTM strategy, you won’t want to miss this!
P.S. This will be an interactive session, so please bring your questions.
Northwestern Jumpstart Demo Day 2024 — August 21st from 4-5:30 pm — RSVP (Eventbrite)
The Garage’s pre-accelerator program, Jumpstart, is hosting its end-of-program Demo Day both in person and virtually on August 21st!
All of the Jumpstart teams will showcase and pitch their startups to an audience of Northwestern students, faculty, mentors, partners, and judges for the chance to win from a prize pool of $10,000 in non-dilutive capital.
Katia Shek will be presenting WizLab!
Stryke Sunset Cruise: Illuminating the Future Workforce — September 5th from 5:30-9:00 pm — RSVP (Luma)
Calling all Chicago EdTech founders, investors, university recruiters, and Stryke supporters! Join us to celebrate the launch of our workforce development platform, empowering the next generation of talent. Enjoy a night of networking, inspiring talks, an open bar, appetizers, a DJ, and beautiful scenery. Close out the summer with us on a mission-driven cruise!
This awesome and unique event is hosted by Crystal Kendzior! We hope you can attend!