Tade Oyerinde and Teddy Solomon talk about audience building at TechCrunch Disrupt

Tade Oyerinde and Teddy Solomon know a few things about building long-lasting communities.

Besides, Oyerinde is the founder and Chancellor of the online Campus, while Solomon is the co-founder of the Fizz college program.

The pair spoke at TechCrunch Disrupt this year, breaking down the strategies that helped them grow their companies and keep consumers interested.

The campus offers associate degrees in areas such as information technology and business administration. It also offers certificates in specialties such as cosmetology and phlebotomy. There are more than 3,000 students enrolled at the Campus, and they employ more than 100 part-time professors, says Oyerinde.

Oyerinde said the Campus decided to start à la carte training since employers, in particular, have been asking for classes to teach their employees skills such as vibe coding.

He has realized that many people are looking to advance and believes that in the future, everyone will have some kind of membership or subscription service that helps them have new skills.

“Everyone in this room, not just the two-year degree seekers, will be able to go to the Campus and study with us,” he told the audience. “Live classes, online, taught by amazing people.”

Oyerinde uses the Pell Grant to help make college affordable for more people. He also has a group of billionaires at his company’s table — such as OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Discord’s Jason Citroen — meaning he doesn’t feel too much pressure to focus on profit above all else, he said.

“They don’t need money,” he continued. “What he really wants is to change the way education works in this country for the better.”

Fizz, meanwhile, does a lot of work more than 200 college campuses and at one time worked in high schools across the country. They has raised a lot more than $40 million with investors including Owl Ventures and NEA.

Since launching in 2021, Solomon said the company has adopted features like a peer-to-peer marketplace that has more than 100,000 listings, as well as video so people can write more than text.

Now, the company wants to create a product called Global Fizz to expand the business beyond the US.

Solomon told the audience that the company is looking at ways to raise money, especially advertising. “We’ve already worked with companies like Perplexity,” he said.

“There are subscription models that have worked well with apps, but right now we’re focused on our advertising business, and we’re focused on creating a great product that keeps our users close and happy.”

After all, he said, “Users are everything.”