After a Career in Public and Private Education, Jinu Mathew Turns to Tutor Doctor

The path that led Jinu Mathew to Tutor Doctor was winding, marked by both teaching and administrative roles in both private and public education, but his goal has always been the same: to improve the educational resources available to students and their families.

Mathew graduated from Vanderbilt University with a bachelor’s of science degree in secondary education and mathematics and a master’s in education, leadership, policy and organizations. He also holds a certificate of advanced studies in educational leadership from Hofstra.

That suite of degrees prepared Mathew for a career in education that ultimately left him dissatisfied. He says he wanted a level of control over the programs and materials he was working with that the school systems, both public and private, would not accommodate.

For a time, Mathew found the freedom to design and execute his curriculum with his own private tutoring company called Math Peaks, but he found that he was unable to scale the business to the size he wanted.

“I was the only tutor at my company, and I tried to duplicate myself, but I didn’t have the infrastructure nor the knowledge to do it correctly,” Mathew said.

After two years, Mathew closed his tutoring company and went back to public education as an assistant principal, where he soon found himself disappointed with the curriculum. “They were teaching to standards that in my mind were pretty low,” he said.

So, once again, Mathew decided to leave public education and find something where he felt he could institute more effective methods of teaching and learning. This time, he wasn’t going at it alone.

Mathew’s wife had come across an ad for a Tutor Doctor franchise that was up for sale in Keller, Texas. He was immediately interested in the opportunity, which he thought might give him the support to build the operation he wasn’t able to on his own, but he was predictably concerned about the rigidity of the franchise’s curriculum.

Mathew began researching both Tutor Doctor and other supplemental-education franchises, and his fears about the brand’s inflexibility were quickly assuaged.

“I wanted a program that I could customize myself; that was the top priority,” Mathew said. “A lot of the other franchises I looked at, they used worksheets — the same worksheets for every student — and there was no flexibility. Students just worked from these sheets, and there was no customization. When I talked to Tutor Doctor, it was completely different.”

Mathew found in Tutor Doctor a robust suite of programs and tools that could be customized to the needs of each student. Crucially, the franchise’s corporate team further assured Mathew that he could use his expertise to shape the curricula for his students.

“They were excited to bring me on because of my experience,” Mathew said. “That fact alone showed me that they were genuinely interested in providing the best education services for students; they weren’t just looking for business people to come in and run the business by focusing on the bottom line.”

Mathew closed a deal for his Tutor Doctor in November 2016. Since then, he’s grown the business from roughly ten tutors to nearly 40, and overall sales have soared as he’s become more involved with the communities his office serves.

Mathew attributes the steady growth of the business to his strong partnership with the brand, with both sides pulling their weight to provide the best possible services for students.

“Regarding consultations and working with families, I took to that immediately. That’s essentially the work I was doing in the school system as an administrator, and I’ve always enjoyed working with families to develop strategies to help them and their kids,” he said. “There was a bit more of a learning curve for the business components. I don’t have much experience with marketing and running a large business, and I’m still learning that stuff, but Tutor Doctor has helped me every step of the way.”

After nearly two years with Tutor Doctor, Mathew says he’s found with the franchise what he had been looking for throughout his career: an environment where each student can receive the dedicated attention they need, with programs customized to their learning requirements.

“It is everything it seemed to be when I was researching the franchise,” Mathew said. “There’s almost nothing we do, outside of SAT and ACT prep, which are by definition standardized, where the curriculum is the same for each student. I’ve taught and worked in a number of different environments, and Tutor Doctor allowed me to use that experience to build programs that I truly believe in.”

As Mathew continues to establish himself as an integral component of his community in Keller, the Tutor Doctor franchise is looking to expand its footprint throughout Texas, bringing on new franchise owners in a number of markets, including Colony, Carrollton, Lewisville, Fort Worth, Mesquite and Metro Dallas.

“We’ve seen our model take off in every market we’ve entered, and Texas is no exception,” said Scott Thompson, Senior Vice President of Franchise Development for Tutor Doctor. “It’s been exciting to see Mathew’s business grow so quickly, and we’re eager to replicate his success with new owners throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston markets. Every owner we work with has a different set of skills and experiences, and like Mathew, they all have something unique to offer. We know we’re going to find some amazing new owners in these markets, and we can’t wait to work with them.”