56 · The Beret Network

The one business with the lowest barrier to entry for me — where I love the work and know I can provide infinite value — is maths and physics tutoring. So what's the end product? Eventually recruiting top talent from Oxbridge, LSE, UCL, scaling into the Chinese and American education niches. You already have someone to practice teaching on. This is the CEO mindset that differs from the researcher mindset: kill the ego completely, hire people who do the job better than you, ask them for advice, compensate them for their worth, learn to manage at scale. The end state might be ten to twenty percent of all Russell Group students working through this online tutoring platform for pocket money — and the word of mouth would be insane. Incentivising the students' side matters too. There will be so many mistakes to make. You have networks into London and Oxbridge; the tutors carry no commitment beyond a few teaching hours. Revision Centre seems to be the biggest player in the UK, but it's still far off. I need a pool of students accessible through networking events.

We could scale into apps tracking progress like Cal AI, software for checking in assignments, cold outreach on Facebook Marketplace where parents want their kids in Oxbridge. Get taught by Oxbridge students directly — the most direct plug. Royal, gothic vibes — that's the aesthetic. Something of scale. With word of mouth, more than two thousand tutors registered on the platform; then it becomes a market medium for value exchange. Or venture into digital products and packages. You could give the tutors berets, fountain pens, sponsorships from Montblanc — it's all management, optimising the endeavour. The tutoring business is the most viable one; it's the one where I have no problem doing the manual work myself. That's it — don't side-eye into something stupid. The question must graduate from "how do I generate the best admissions results" into "how do I recruit the best talent," then a recruiting team — and a fifty percent money-back guarantee when students don't get their results, which is bearable because reputation is everything.

BYJU'S — founded in 2011 by Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath — transformed from offline maths coaching into India's premier edtech unicorn, launched its flagship app in 2015, grew through interactive video and aggressive acquisitions to a peak $22B valuation, then faced severe financial, governance and operational crises. Study both halves of that story. Later you hire data analysts and software engineers to build the apps. The big markets are Asia — China, South Korea, India — plus real value in the UK. Start small, G. Start with tutoring one person. Then M&A into other firms, eventually Coursera-type scale, leveraging AI for tailored courses, personal reminders, checklists, personal guidance. I have such a strong outburst of ideas for this niche. What Duolingo has is a cute mascot — that works, especially for younger audiences; the same trick applies to tutoring. EdTech is worth a deep look: rising skepticism about the worth of college degrees, great content, digital courses — a way to scale without physical products.

So: you can charge £50/hr for A-levels and TMUA tutoring — honestly, with the UK's pricing, that's the floor. A generic student with A*A*A* tutors remotely at those rates because London is that expensive. You'd be dumb to go full-time at Starbucks — work ten hours a week for momentum, and pour the rest into freelancing and tutoring online. Find the market where you are valuable and know your worth: you're currently getting paid £5/hr minimum wage in Korea with the same skills that could charge £100/hr for TMUA tutoring — a small market that will pay. Then build courses, post videos — how to prepare for the TMUA, how to prepare for A-levels, how to cram, study-with-me sessions, night grinds, trading sessions, learning to code — a day in the life of a broke college student with dreams.

There are some Y13s in the UK who reached out on Reddit about the TMUA. I'll tell them openly what I did wrong — my bad scores, my rejections — and that my wish is for them to end up at better universities than I did, ideally Oxbridge maths. Host calls for free, do live problem-solving, make students solve live, build a WhatsApp group — a two-week bootcamp, a think tank preparing for the TMUA together. I'd be so grateful if they got into great universities and thrived, even if I never meet them. There's nothing to lose from taking risks when the worst case is McDonald's and Planet Fitness — I can go back there any time I fail.