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Esports & Education · EdTech Marketplaces

Private Tutoring Platform

We engineered a two-sided marketplace with payment escrow and automated scheduling to validate a new market entry.

Private Tutoring Platform
Focus
MVP, SAAS, THIRD-PARTY-INTEGRATION
Delivered
19 May 2023
Location
UAE

Outcome

Students pay into escrow and teachers are paid on completion via Stripe Connect, no dispute reaching either party; timezone-aware scheduling, embedded video.

The Vision & Challenge

  • An EdTech entrepreneur identified an opportunity in the UAE for a marketplace connecting students with qualified private teachers. The market lacked a single, trusted platform that could vet instructors, manage logistics, and guarantee secure transactions for online, one-to-one lessons.
  • The central friction was establishing trust. For the platform to succeed, it had to solve critical operational challenges from day one. Students needed assurance their payment was safe, teachers needed a guarantee of compensation for their time, and the entire booking process had to be simple and reliable.
  • The client engaged Robust Devs to design and build the Minimum Viable Product. Our role was to construct the core digital infrastructure-a functional platform that could onboard users, facilitate bookings across timezones, process payments securely, and host the lessons themselves.

The challenge

  • The commission-based model required a payment system that could hold funds in escrow, protecting both students from non-delivery and teachers from non-payment.
  • Scheduling lessons between users in different timezones presented a significant logistical hurdle that, if handled poorly, could lead to user frustration and churn.
  • To provide a complete service and justify its fee structure, the platform needed to host the lessons itself, requiring the integration of a stable, third-party video service.

How we solved it

  • We integrated Stripe Connect to create an automated escrow system. Funds are captured at booking, held securely, and released to teachers upon lesson completion, with an admin module for handling exceptions.
  • We engineered a scheduling system that allowed teachers to set availability in their native timezone. The platform then presents these slots automatically converted to the local time of any student browsing the site.
  • A third-party video SDK was embedded directly within the platform's booking interface, creating private, session-specific video rooms for each lesson without sending users to an external application.
The escrow states behind a tutoring booking. When a student books, the card is charged immediately, but the funds move into a Stripe Connect escrow held by the platform where neither party can reach them. If the lesson takes place, the money is released automatically to the teacher less the platform commission. If it does not, it returns to the student, with an admin module for resolving the cases that need a human. Teachers set availability in their own timezone and the platform converts it for whoever is browsing.

Technologies

What we built it with

Front-end
  • JavaScript
  • ReactJS
  • HTML5
  • CSS3
Back-end
  • NodeJS
DevOps
  • AWS
  • Docker
  • Github CI
Database
  • MySQL
Integrations
  • Stripe Connect
Project screen

Automated Payment Escrow

To build foundational trust in the marketplace, we designed a transaction system that protects both parties. When a student books a lesson, the payment is captured and held by the platform. The funds are automatically released to the teacher’s account, minus the platform's commission, only after the lesson is successfully completed. This removes the financial risk inherent in connecting strangers online, and 56 lessons have been paid for this way.

Integrated Lesson Environment

The entire user journey, from booking to learning, occurs within a single system. A teacher sets their schedule, and the platform handles the timezone conversions for prospective students. Once a lesson is confirmed, both users access a dedicated, secure video room directly from their dashboard. This contained experience provides a professional and reliable service that keeps users on the platform.

How we built it

Put the money in escrow through Stripe Connect, so neither side has to trust the other before the lesson. A commission marketplace fails if students fear non-delivery or teachers fear non-payment. Funds are captured at booking, held, and released to the teacher on lesson completion, with an admin module for exceptions, which is the mechanism behind 56 lessons paid out without a dispute reaching either party. Teachers set availability in their own timezone and students see it converted to theirs automatically, and a third-party video SDK is embedded in the booking interface so every lesson runs in a private room inside the platform rather than on someone else's app.

In the client's words

“Escrow was the thing. Neither side had to trust the other first, and we have not had a dispute.”

NDA - Signed

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