Cindy Mi is an entrepreneur also known as the founder and CEO of the online-class startup called VIPKid.
Early life and education
Mi was born in Hebei, China. When she was 14, she moved to Harbin, a city in Northeast China. The move cost her half of a semester of school. She was really behind the rest of her new class in Math.
Mi taught herself English and later on worked as an English tutor. She started tutoring students in English at the age of 15. At that time, she worked for a local language school, where she provided after-school tutoring sessions to other young Chinese students. Eventually, she became part of the local language school’s leadership team and expansion efforts.
Mi earned her MBA in 2011 at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business and MBA Exchange Student at Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management in 2012.
Career
Cindy Mi is very passionate about the power of education to empower and transform students, parents, and teacher. Prior to founding VIPKid, she was a co-founder of ABC English and was a classroom teacher.
Her first business venture was a brick-and-mortar tutoring service, which she started in 2000. Unfortunately, the business was a failure. Instead of giving up, Mi’s failure didn’t stop her and even inspired her to establish another business. This time it’s an online-focused English teaching service.
VipKid
In 2013, Cindy Mi founded a China-based online teaching and an educational company called VIPKid. It is an online educational company for Chinese learners of English and is one of the leading online educational services in China; growing 40% month over month and attracting more investments from Northern Light Venture Capital, Matrix Partners, Innovation Works, Sequoia Capital, YF Capital, Bryant Stibel, and Learn Capital.
Following its inception, the VIPKid began to develop a curriculum that would involve pairing Chinese students ranging from 4 to 12 years old with their English speaking tutors. The VIPKid focused on contracting native English speakers from the US and Canada to teach Chinese students. They even developed a video chat platform that would allow the two groups to communicate even better. This platform was formally launched in 2014.
In 2017, they launched a new service called Lingo Bus that allows them to teach Mandarin to young students. This program which teaches students between ages 5 to12, is a subsidiary of the wider VIPKid brand. It has experienced rapid growth fueled by the strong Chinese market for English lessons. The company’s focus on one-on-one communication helped them grow. In the same year, the company reported that it raised $200 million in the initial series of funding. The next year, it raised an additional of $500 million in the series D+ funding. Combined, this amount gained the company’s valuation to $3 billion, a fact that received considerable media coverage, which resulted in VIPKid being cited as an example of a rising Chinese company in the global economy. It also makes them the most valuable Educational technology startup in the world.
The VIPKid continues to grow and a startup that connects English teachers with an audience of students and the 35 other countries for live language tutorials, is helping them to grow even more. The company’s size has soared high at that time. From 20,000 teachers and 200,000 paying students from different countries, it raised to 40,000 teachers and 300,000 students.
VipKid Growth
In 2018, Mi spoke about VIPKid’s announcing the expansion of international markets, new curriculum additions, and product lines that will serve students up to 18 years old. She also highlighted that the teachers in VIPKid will have the opportunity to teach more students than the usual number at different ages; and learning levels, reaching new students all over the globe. She even emphasized that VIPKid’s growth would not be possible without the passion and skills of teachers on the platform; because of this, they have grown to over half a million students in 63 countries.
Finding people who had the same interest in education, and the technical skills required to build an online platform as unique to VIPKid’s needs is the biggest hurdle Mi has experienced. Figuring out how to create a sense of community among an ever-growing number of teachers, who live in disparate parts of the US and Canada was another challenging part for Mi. She specifically recruits North American teachers because, for her, they are encouraging, very caring and fun. The success of VIPKid reflects a nationwide interest in learning the English language. It also highlights the mentality of the new generation of Chinese parents, who are less intrigued in top-down demands and test-driven results and more interested in imparting in their children a true desire to explore and learn.
Cindy Mi’s mission is to inspire and empower every child for the future.