"In-service training for teachers is not up to date"

A quarter of all German teachers use the services of the start-up Fobizz. In an interview, founder Diana Knodel explains how she achieved this - and why the market is so attractive.

Diana Knodel has always had a heart for education. The current founder once studied educational psychology, then toured through various stations and finally founded Fobizz. Initially very small, the number of employees has multiplied in the corona pandemic, and the turnover is now in seven figures. Yet the start-up actually only offers what teachers would get for free from the federal states: Continuing education. So where does the success come from? Knodel tells us.

Ms. Knodel, you offer training for teachers. Hasn't that already existed?

The federal states do indeed offer in-service training. But they are often time- and location-bound. That's why in-service training for teachers is often not up to date. We, on the other hand, have focused on an asynchronous model, which means that teachers can access the content on our platform at any time and from anywhere, whether during free periods or on Saturdays on the sofa. That's what makes Fobizz so attractive.

According to your own figures, you have 200,000 users. That would be a quarter of all teachers in Germany. How many actually use the platform regularly?

All of those who are registered with us have taken at least one continuing education course. Of course, no one uses the portal as frequently as Whatsapp, but usually two or three times a year. In addition, there are of course "power users" who undergo further training very often and are extremely committed.

Our goal is to ensure that teachers do not have to pay for training themselves.

Diana Knodel, Fobizz

How did you get teachers to sign up for Fobizz in the first place?

After all, federal states offer in-service training themselves - and unlike Fobizz, they do it for free. We started very small a few years ago, but with a very digital-savvy target group: computer science teachers. They then took it to the schools. In the meantime, we're talking to a lot of schools and federal states that buy the training licenses for the entire staff from us. Of course, there are also teachers who buy the training courses themselves. Our goal, however, is for teachers not to have to pay for this themselves, but to have it financed through the schools or a state license.

How expensive is that?

With larger deals, it's always a matter of negotiation. Federal states certainly get a certain discount because they buy a corresponding number of licenses. For individuals, training usually costs between 20 and 50 euros, depending on how elaborate the training is on the site.

They don't produce the videos on the website themselves, but let teachers do it. How does that work?

If you want to create an online training course, you first have to apply to us. In the application, the teachers describe exactly what they want to show, how they envision the training, and what experience they have. In the next step, they then go through their own advanced training, which deals with technical equipment and requirements for a good Fobizz online advanced training. For example, the in-service training should be interactive, not just a pure video; it should be short and crisp, yet precise.

For teachers, this can be monetarily rewarding.

Diana Knodel, Fobizz

Sounds time-consuming. Most teachers don't work all day. But they don't have that much time either.

For the teachers, it can be worth it monetarily. We give them a share of the revenue from their training courses, and some of the more sought-after ones have 30,000 to 35,000 views. That's a lot. Most of the teachers who contact us don't do it for the money, but because they are very motivated and committed and want to share their knowledge with others. And through our outreach, they now also get quite good visibility as an expert in a particular field. At the same time, we help those who don't get as many clicks with suggestions on how they can do better. Because most teachers are used to giving feedback and are happy to do so. So we get really a lot of feedback on every online training, often very detailed. And if something doesn't go so well, we find out quickly and can correct it.

How much has the pandemic helped you grow?

Extremely. Before the corona pandemic, which has now lasted 2.5 years, we were maybe five or six people. Then everyone had to go to the home office and suddenly everyone wanted to know: How can I work with iPads? How do I organize lessons digitally? What tools are there for organizing entire classes? That drove demand strongly and we are now over 30 people and make a seven-figure turnover.

Is there any of that money left over?

We are profitable, but at the moment we are investing the profit primarily in growth and new products. Because we want to offer even more, currently only for teachers, but possibly for other target groups in the long term. Then a VC could also be interesting, but so far we're financing ourselves out of our own pockets.

What other industries do you have in mind?

Generally speaking, all industries are of interest for the time being. Some time ago, we tried to set up a platform for other industries as well. In fact, we had already built everything and had a few users. But we quickly realized that we couldn't handle both and so we shelved the project. Maybe we'll bring it up again in a few years.

Thank you very much for the interview.

Personal details: Diana Knodel is the co-founder of Fobizz. She has a background in computer science, psychology and educational research, worked as a research assistant and product manager at XING and team leader in the IT industry before founding Camps in 2014 and Fobizz in 2018.