VIPKid founder's bad grades lead to an educational venture

World
Europe

17:13

By CGTN's World Insight

China's online language learning market is very competitive, but Cindy Mi, the founder and chief executive of online education company VIPKid, has gained attention after a recent report by Bloomberg was published stating the organization is finalizing a deal of 500 million US dollars with a valuation of more than 3 billion US dollars, possibly making this the world's largest online education startup.

Cindy began creating her path at an early age. She left high school at the age of 17, and co-founded ABC English, a language teaching company, with her uncle, and this is where she learned to spear-head business development.

CGTN's host Tian Wei interviewed Mi as she explained why she left school so early and how she started up her business.

VIPKid is a leading Chinese online education firm that offers an American elementary education experience to Chinese students aged 4–12. / VIPKID Photo

Through the development of VIPKid, she challenged the conventional English teaching method. From its humble beginnings as a real-time tutoring firm aimed at China's tens of millions of English learning students aged 4 to 12-year-olds, VIPKid has grown to become one of China's leading education startups.

"It's the love of teaching," she answered when she was asked how she could go from being a 17-year-old dropout to a well-known young entrepreneur in the education sector in China. She said, smiling, "I found myself fascinated with the experience of spending time with children every day."

Mi added, "I didn't do quite well in middle school and high school." And this is what motivated Mi to focus on personalized learning. Mi believes it is very important to try this with every child: "As an unsuccessful student, I probably should seek another way."

Mi described the entrepreneurial route as an interesting experience, even though it's hard in the beginning. "I would send flyers to parents at seven in the morning. Then I will drive to different campuses to deliver lunch to employees. In the evening, I will teach from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., then go home and grade papers from 10 p.m. onward." She said she also studied her own English books.

After working all day long (literally), Mi said she remembers the experience as a growth period.

Although Mi was only 17 years old at that time, she looked mature for her age. Parents chose to believe in her, but she said this wasn't the only reason. “When they asked me what the program is about, I told them my experience of learning English, and they felt very convinced."

World Insight with Tian Wei is a 45-minute global affairs and debate show on CGTN. It airs weekdays at 10:15 p.m. BJT (1415GMT), with rebroadcasts at 4:15 a.m. BJT (2015GMT).