TeachersPayTeachers Is Growing Up: Paul Edelman's inspiration is growing up. Seven years ago, Edelman, formerly a New York City teacher, decided to create TeachersPayTeachers (TpT), an Etsy-like marketplace where teachers could buy--and sell--materials that they created. It's boomed: The site has more than 1.93 million registered users. Teachers have collectively published more than a half million resources on TpT and earned nearly $30 million. (Georgia kindergarten teacher Deanna Jump, made headlines when her personal earnings from TpT crossed the $1 million mark.)
Now Edelmann is turning to experienced hands to grow the site further. John Yoo, who joined TpT as head of product previously worked at Scholastic, developing big hits such as The 39Clues, will be the company's chief executive. He got his start as a teacher in New York City Schools. Shama Davis, TpT's new head of product, also spent a decade with Scholastic and has a master's degree in children's literature.
Edelman says that he plans to stay fully involved in the company but day-to-day management has been tougher as he's now based in France while the core team is in New York. (All told, TpT now has a full time staff of 32 people, including customer support and engineers scattered literally around the globe.) Edelman will also be developing TpT Labs, which he describes as "an experimental" forum for edtech ideas.
TpT plans to hold its first conference next year, during the summer of 2014. Any bets on the keynote speaker? Our money is on Deanna.
