you want to do, rather than stuff you have to do.” About half of TakeLessons’ users are young, between 5 and 18 years old, he added.
TakeLessons has spent the past eight years developing an online platform that serves as a marketplace where consumers can find teachers,” Cox said. For teachers, TakeLessons provides Web-based services that help them schedule lessons and manage their accounts. Betterfly, on the other hand, focused on helping teachers and students interact online.
At TakeLessons, Cox said only about 9 percent of the music lessons are provided online; the rest are taught in person. The Betterfly acquisition should enable TakeLessons to shift more classes online, Cox said. TakeLessons also has strengthened its relationship with Google Helpouts, the live video chat technology that Google introduced almost three months ago. TakeLessons also will enable teachers and students to interact online with Microsoft Skype and Apple Facetime.
“We want to be agnostic about the technology, so we can book and bill no matter which platform teachers and students prefer,” Cox said.
TakeLessons has raised a total venture funding of $12 million, and Cox said, “We’re certainly well-funded enough to make this acquisition.” The company raised $4 million about a year ago in a follow-on round led by Triangle Peak Partners of Palo Alto, CA. Other investors include Siemer Ventures, Crosslink Capital, and SoftTech.
When asked if TakeLessons would follow up its first acquisition with more deals, Cox said that’s unlikely.
“Buying up a bunch of companies is not necessarily our game plan—unless it’s very strategic, with a high probability of being able to digest the [target] company very easily,” he said. “We’re at 62 people now, and it takes up a lot of resources just to absorb the code” from another software developer.
TakeLesson’s headcount today is about three times bigger than it was three years ago, and Cox said, “we’re certainly on a fast track for growth.” Still, the company has a long ways to go to match Amazon.
