Tade\u00a0Oyerinde\u00a0and Teddy Solomon know a few things about building communities that last.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Afterall, Oyerinde is the founder and chancellor of the online school Campus, while Solomon is\u00a0the\u00a0co-founder\u00a0behind the college social app Fizz.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The two spoke at TechCrunch\u00a0Disrupt\u00a0this year, breaking down the strategies that helped them\u00a0scale their companies\u00a0while retaining\u00a0consumer\u00a0interest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Campus offers associate degrees in areas like information technology and business administration. It also offers certificates in specialities like cosmetology and phlebotomy. There are more than 3,000 students enrolled in Campus, and it employs more than\u00a0100 professors\u00a0on at least a\u00a0part-time\u00a0basis, Oyerinde says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Oyerinde said Campus decided to launch \u00e0 la carte<\/em>\u00a0courses since employers,\u00a0in particular,\u00a0have\u00a0been asking for classes that can teach their employees individual skills like vibe coding.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n He\u2019s\u00a0realized that a lot of people are looking to upskill and believes that in the\u00a0future,\u00a0everyone will have some sort of membership or subscription service that helps them develop new skills.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone in this room, not just\u00a0two-year\u00a0degree-seeking people, will be able to go to Campus and learn with us,\u201d he told the audience. \u201cLive, online classes, taught by amazing people.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco<\/span> Oyerinde\u00a0makes use of\u00a0the Pell Grant to help keep the school affordable for most people.\u00a0He\u00a0also has a team of billionaires on his company\u2019s cap table \u2014 like OpenAI\u2019s Sam Altman and Discord\u2019s Jason Citroen \u2014 meaning he doesn\u2019t feel much pressure to focus on profits above all else, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t need the money,\u201d he\u00a0continued. \u201cWhat they really want is to fundamentally shape the way that education works in this country for the\u00a0better.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Fizz, meanwhile,\u00a0operates on\u00a0more\u00a0than 200 college campuses<\/a>\u00a0and at one point\u00a0operated\u00a0in high schools across the country. It\u00a0has raised more<\/a>\u00a0than $40 million with investors including Owl Ventures and NEA. <\/p>\n Since launching in 2021, Solomon said the company had adopted features like a\u00a0peer-to-peer\u00a0marketplace\u00a0that\u2019s listed more than 100,000 items, and a video element so people can write more than text posts. \u00a0<\/p>\n Now, the company is looking to build a product called Global Fizz to expand the product beyond the U.S. Solomon spoke more about that on TechCrunch\u2019s Equity podcast, where he mapped out the future of the company. <\/p>\n Solomon told the audience that the company is looking at ways to monetize, focusing on ads in particular.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019ve already worked with companies like Perplexity,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u00a0are subscription models that have worked well with apps, but right now\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0focused on our ads business, and\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0focused on building\u00a0a great product\u00a0that keeps our users around and makes them happy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n After all, he said, \u201cThe users are everything.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Teddy.jpg?w=454\")