Online learning part of sharing economy

Anthony Cabraal, chief marketing officer and co-founder of Chalkle.

Anthony Cabraal is chief marketing officer and co-founder of Chalkle.

First up, what is Chalkle?

Chalkle.com has been going for around three years. It's a website that makes it easy for anyone, or any organisation, to organise a class or course so they can share their skills or knowledge, and it also allows learners to browse for classes and book online. It's free for anyone to use to set up a class, and lets teachers control their classes and the prices they charge.

How does the business make its money?

We take a $2 plus GST fee for each learner who signs up, and to cover the online processing.

You mentioned Chalkle has been going for three years now. How has the company changed over that time and why?

Chalkle was birthed over a mid-winter cup of coffee in Wellington in 2012. The founders - Silvia Zuur and Linc Gasking - started by organising classes where 'anyone could teach'. So they connected people who were keen to learn with teachers to run classes on everything from accounting and astronomy to bonsai, wordpress and zombie makeup.

In that incarnation, Chalkle ran more than 600 classes and and generated interest to launch classes in new areas. So the focus of the business now is on being a technology platform that allows anyone to set up and run their own class. In October last year we launched chalkle.com as we know it now.

What have been the biggest challenges for the company operating in what's a pretty nascent space in New Zealand?

When you're trying to push a new concept into the world, I think messaging is everything. It's been a challenge for us to clearly understand and articulate how we best fit into people's lives, so we've been testing and learning a lot over the past three years.

Also, we're working in an online startup business that's operating in an emerging market where things also need to happen in the real world. It's just a real challenge to manage funding and energy to sustain through the startup period, because nothing ever happens as fast as anyone would like it to.

Also community-driven education is a very broad landscape in New Zealand - there's a mix of existing institutions, funding changes, innovators and people bringing new ideas to life - so another challenge has been finding the best place for us to fit into that so we also serve the existing community.

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More generally, what's your take on how the sharing economy is developing in New Zealand?

The bigger global brands in the sharing economy seem to be landing; companies like Airbnb and Uber have arrived. New Zealand's often touted as a place to test ideas that could work globally, and as a culture I think we're open and progressive; seeing how a shared marketplace like Trade Me has become such a part of our culture is a great sign.

Our business is part of the Enspiral co-working space, which is also home to startups like Loomio that are starting to gain some global attention for leading the way in technology that fosters an open, sharing and collaborative culture. So I think New Zealand is really well placed to embrace technology and build businesses that can change our culture and create a more open world.

What's next for Chalkle and what would you like to see it ultimately become?

Chalkle is slowly growing and we're still working out what's next. We're currently supporting some great community initiatives across the country and we're keen to expand to include more. At the moment we're actively looking for partnerships with larger organisations that are interested in being part of what we're doing, and building the next wave of community education in New Zealand.

Ultimately, we're also hoping to take the same model overseas and want to help contribute to the sharing economy globally.