AI Marketing
Private Tutoring Platform
We engineered a two-sided marketplace with payment escrow and automated scheduling to validate a new market entry.
- UAE
- 2025
Outcomes
- Stripe Connect escrow, released on completion
- Payments
- Auto-converted to each student's timezone
- Scheduling
- Hosted in-platform in session-specific rooms
- Lessons
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.
Technologies used
Front-end
- JavaScript
- ReactJS
- HTML5
- CSS3
Back-end
- NodeJS
DevOps
- AWS
- Docker
- Github CI
Database
- MySQL
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.
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.
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