From a garage in San Francisco
to the world's classroom
In 2019, our founders Alexandra and Marcus noticed a frustrating gap: while online education was booming, truly personalized 1-on-1 tutoring remained inaccessible for most learners. Good tutors were expensive, hard to find, and often limited to local geographies.
They set out to build a marketplace connecting learners everywhere with expert tutors worldwide — at prices that made sense for both sides. The result was Fluent Forward: where a student in São Paulo can learn Japanese from a native speaker in Osaka, or a professional in Dubai can master Business English at 11pm.
Today, Fluent Forward is the world's leading online tutoring marketplace. We're proud of what we've built, but even more excited about where we're going. There are billions of people who deserve better access to education — and we're just getting started.
Our Core Values
Global Access
We believe world-class education should be available to everyone, everywhere, regardless of geography.
Human Connection
Behind every lesson is a meaningful relationship between a student and a mentor. We make that connection possible.
Radical Quality
We verify every tutor, monitor every review, and continuously raise the bar for what great tutoring looks like.
Trust First
Students and tutors alike deserve a safe, reliable platform. We protect both sides of every interaction.
Our Journey
Fluent Forward founded in San Francisco with 50 beta tutors
Launched publicly; reached 10,000 students in first 3 months
Series A: $15M raised. Expanded to 50 countries
1 million lessons milestone. Launched mobile apps
Series B: $48M. Reached 50,000 tutors worldwide
1.2 million students. Named #1 online tutoring platform
Meet the Team
Passionate people building the future of personalized learning.
Alexandra Chen
CEO & Co-founderFormer Google Education PM. EdTech veteran.
Marcus Williams
CTO & Co-founderEx-Stripe engineer. Full-stack wizard.
Priya Sharma
Head of Tutor SuccessEx-Coursera. Obsessed with tutor quality.
David Kim
Head of ProductPreviously at Duolingo. Loves language learning.
Sarah O'Brien
Head of Trust & SafetyEx-Airbnb. Built safety systems at scale.
James Nakamura
Head of MarketingPreviously at Wistia. Growth & community focus.