Hahow Makes Learning More Accessible

Built by four individuals in their 20s and with a name based on the Taiwanese word for “school,” the Hahow platform is populated with offers to teach courses on unusual hobbies such as food illustration, balloon art, and beatboxing.

Hahow cofounder and CEO Arnold Chiang says that traditional educational settings place students on narrow educational tracks, with those who take the sciences track expected to aspire to a medical degree and those on the humanities track expected to go into the law. “But many people finish four years of university with no idea of what they want to do afterwards.” An information engineering major might well be more interested in areas completely unrelated to computing. The idea that an engineer might want to learn anthropology or design but be unable to take such classes or be able to take them only at prohibitive cost inspired Chiang to look for ways to provide Taiwanese with better access to education in new fields.

Hahow spent a tremendous amount of time discussing its many diverse class listings with the teachers offering them.

Basic beginnings

“Are social labels and stereotypes keeping us from finding out whether the people around us know things we want to learn? Can we create a platform that enables people to exchange skills, and explore the possibilities around them?” Those kinds of ideas led to the creation of Hahow’s predecessor, Skillhopping, a knowledge sharing platform. 

When Chiang pitched his idea to his friend Austin Huang, a graduate of the networking and multimedia program at National Taiwan University, in August 2013, right after completing his military service, the two agreed on the plan immediately. Huang then invited Daniel Wang, also a program alumnus, aboard as well. Since all three already had jobs, they built the website on their laptops, working in coffee shops in the evenings and on weekends.

Skillhopping users registering on the site would list their personal areas of expertise and the skills they were interested in acquiring, for the reference of other users. When users found someone with a skill they hoped to learn, they sent an invitation to chat and arrange an exchange.

Within two months of its launch, the Skillhopping website listed more than 4,000 skills, convincing Chiang and his partners there was tremendous potential in a multidisciplinary learning platform. But Skillhopping suffered from two issues: its exchanges required one-on-one meetings, which limited them to particular times and locations; and its partners lacked a business model. After studying the developing market for online courses both within Taiwan and abroad, Chiang, Huang, Wang, and Peter Huang (a new partner who joined the team because he liked the concept) quit their jobs in November 2014, leased space in a coworking space, and threw themselves into their new online learning venture.

At the outset, the four men would crowd around a small table every day to discuss website design and research business models. After months of feverish activity, they launched Hahow—the first online learning site in Taiwan to combine fundraising with streaming educational videos—in April 2015.

The process for teachers hoping to offer a class on the platform is pretty straightforward. Would-be teachers first produce a three-minute video introduction, decide the cost of the course, and set a target number of students. They then post all of this information on the platform, where interested users can pre-purchase the course. The proposed course has 30 days to achieve its funding and sign-up goals. If it reaches those targets, the teacher then shoots the actual class videos and posts them on the site.

The Hahow team believes that everyone has something of value to share. The company’s founders are aiming to break down outdated educational frameworks by providing a platform that enables ordinary people to share their potential with others.

An educational stage open to all

With more than 100 classes having achieved their funding targets so far, Hahow has upended the general public’s ideas about teaching and learning. Interestingly, the teachers’ average age is under 30, and roughly half of them are themselves still students. “We hope to dismantle the notion that teachers must be overseas-educated elites or possess vast amounts of experience,” says Chiang.

The Hahow team offers planning advice at no charge to would-be teachers. It also provides those who don’t know how to shoot their classes with a place to film and assistance in doing so. It typically takes more than a month of back-and-forth discussion before a proposal lists on the platform. In the event that a proposal succeeds in becoming a full course, Hahow takes a percentage of the students’ tuition fees. If it fails, Hahow charges nothing. Trying to help more would-be teachers succeed is time consuming, and the team often find themselves working into the wee hours. 

Chiang says that entrepreneurs have to be jacks-of-all-trades to manage all of the legal, accounting, marketing, and client service duties associated with starting a company. He adds: “We’re trying to create radical change, hoping to use the least possible amount of capital to change the rules of the game and disrupt the tutoring framework.”

Committed to not selling advertising, Hahow derives its operating income entirely from classes that achieve their fundraising targets. After starting the business with just three proposals, they have since grown to more than 100 successfully opened classes. The four founders went without salaries for a full year as Hahow slowly found its footing. But their hard work has paid off. The Hahow website receives more than 100,000 visits a month, has more than 20,000 registered users, and has a 20% repeat purchase rate. This has generated enough income for the company to rent its own office, and for the team to begin planning their own mini film studio.

Moving forward, Hahow will continue to embrace the passion and innovativeness of young people to unlock boundless educational possibilities. “Every time I see these brilliant course videos online, I feel like I’ve done something right,” says Chiang.

A group of young people works around a single large table, channeling their collective passion and creativity into unlocking the limitless potential of education.