September 3, 2025 • 23 mins
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In this episode of MarketPulse: Pros & Pioneers, we sit down with Seyam Hamed, a 24-year-old entrepreneur who went from tutoring in local libraries at age 16 to building a global online tutoring brand alongside his sister. Seyam shares his extraordinary journey from the traditional expectations of an academic path in physics at Durham University to dropping out and pursuing a purpose-driven mission in education.
Seyam opens up about how a single chance opportunity tutoring a student in Azerbaijan reshaped his business trajectory, launching him into the world of British expat tutoring across five continents. Discover how this young founder identified a high-demand niche and leveraged it into a thriving enterprise, offering structure and stability to students transitioning between curriculums.
We explore the personal and professional tensions behind his decision to leave university, what it's really like to work closely with family, and how he's maintained quality, consistency, and cultural awareness at scale. Seyam also reflects on expat living, the real lessons COVID taught him, and how the challenges of tutoring across time zones turned into an operational advantage.
If you're interested in entrepreneurship, education, or building a values-led business, this episode is packed with insights, reflections, and sharp advice from someone walking the walk—not just talking it.
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seyam-hamed
Website: https://www.semtuition.io
Email: seyamhamed@semtuition.io
#Entrepreneurship #BusinessPodcast #FounderStories #EducationBusiness #OnlineTutoring #ExpatLife #YoungEntrepreneurs #SuccessWithoutUniversity
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Paul (00:00):
From tutoring at 16 to running a global education
(00:03):
business, Seyam Hamed breaksdown how he carved out a niche
ditched journey to go all in,and what small businesses can
learn from his journey.
Seyam Ahmed is the co-founder ofFaeza and Seyam's Tutoring
Limited, an online tutoringservice that helps British expat
and domestic students excel inEnglish and maths and science.
(00:24):
and raised in London.
Seyam's journey into educationbegan with eight years of
tutoring experience before heand his sister launched their
business.
With firsthand knowledge of thechallenges students face when
transitioning betweencurriculums, Seyam has built a
tutoring service that goesbeyond academics.
They provides structure,confidence, and continuity for
young learners.
(00:45):
though he studied physics atDurham University, he left in
his third year to focus ongrowing the business, which he
now serves students across fivecontinents.
Seyam.
Welcome to the show.
How are you?
Seyam (00:57):
I'm doing well.
Thank you.
You sound like you know mebetter than me.
Based off that intro.
Paul (01:01):
That is the goal.
That is the goal becauseultimately the journey that
people have been on isfantastically inspiring.
It's quite humbling that some ofthe guests that we've had on.
And the journeys that we've beenon, regardless whether, you
know, you like like one of ourguests was a rock star in Russia
before he became an executivecoach in the US We've had,
Hollywood producers we've hadall sorts of phenomenal people,
(01:23):
but they're.
Celebrity status isn't asimportant as the journey that
they've been on.
And that, that for me is reallycrucial.
And it's fantastic to have ayoung entrepreneur on the show
Probably you're probably thethird young entrepreneur we've
had on the show and somebodythat's really caught my
attention as we've been talking.
So looking forward to digging indeep into the choices that you
made.
(01:44):
To Rewind back to the beginningof things, you started tutoring
at just 16 and then turned itinto a full fledged business
with your sister.
What was the moment when yourealized it could be something
more than just a side hustle?
Seyam (01:57):
Yeah, exactly.
So, that one's quite a bigquestion.
It's really important.
And I've spent a bit of timethinking about it a lot lately.
But in terms of.
The origin, I'd say it's quitehumble in terms of beginnings.
We initially started off withlike the goal of being in
person, so working in a locallibrary, hiring like a small
little classroom, if you want tocall it, you know, nothing
(02:20):
global, no experts, nothing likethat.
And I think the turning pointfor us was when we were handing
out leaflets.
So, yep.
Very traditional style ofmarketing.
Obviously we didn't know thatthe internet existed 2023.
But yeah, so we handed out someleaflets at some schools.
And that process, you know, ofspeaking to all of those parents
(02:40):
was quite quite big, quiteintense for us.
Very new.
Putting ourselves out there.
And then a few days after, youknow, the weeks after actually
we got a couple phone calls andI think that process of, you
know, giving an input and thenreceiving an output you know, we
realise okay.
We can bend the rules or we canmake the rules how we like.
So it was a completeindependence to control the
(03:02):
output in sort of what we wantedto do.
That's what I would say.
Paul (03:07):
It is amazing.
Like I, I just think back towhen I was at university and.
Stepping outta university andbecoming an entrepreneur wasn't
something that most people evenconsidered.
And we've all heard stories ofthe likes of Zuckerberg and co
who, you know, kind of, I did ayear and then dropped out and,
you know, right place, righttime.
Extremely successful, no doubt.
(03:28):
What was the reaction at homewhen you decided in your third
year at physics to drop out andbecome a tutor?
Can't, I can't imagine.
That was an easy conversation.
Seyam (03:36):
Yeah, it wasn't, I mean, I have both Asian parents, so
you know, they're very strict.
Very much focused on thetraditional path in terms of
career, in terms of education,that sort of thing.
But in terms of the reaction, Ithink it took a quite a fair few
conversations with my parents tokind of give them the confidence
that actually, you know, we'revery much in control of the
(03:57):
output and very much in controlof like the goals that we have.
So yeah, my parents weredefinitely a bit iffy about it.
But you know, very supportive.
Nonetheless.
It wasn't argumentative, it wasmore like, are you sure about
this?
You know, you're quite young.
The world out there is veryscary, very competitive.
So, you know, my parents, theysupported both of us.
Paul (04:18):
So third year of physics before you dropped out.
Oh.
To go and tutor.
like I know that science is abig part of what you enjoy
tutoring as well.
I'm guessing, and correct me ifI'm wrong, that you realised
that you the professional degreethat you were taking took you
away from what it was youactually wanted to do as opposed
to bringing you closer.
Seyam (04:39):
Funnily enough, a lot of people who complete a degree in
physics, they either go intoconsulting or they go into
finance.
So those skills that, you know,you gain as a physicist are kind
of quite transferrable in thoseparticular.
Fields.
But for me, I couldn't work inan office.
I couldn't travel on the tubeinto Central London from the
suburbs of, you know, eastLondon and whatnot.
(05:00):
I just couldn't do that.
I think for me personally, Ineed to enjoy what I'm doing and
I think there's very few peoplewho inherently believe that to
the point where they justrefuse.
Going through that, you know,path, they kind of end up
sucking it up.
They might pick up some badhabits in order to kind of get
through those tough times.
(05:20):
And for me, you know, I reallywanted to prioritise things like
health.
That was very important to me.
I really wanted to focus on mymental wellbeing and also just.
Being able to have the time andenergy to exercise have a good
diet, that sort of thing.
And I think those things arereally hard to maintain when you
have a job that you just, itjust kind of sucks your energy
(05:42):
and sucks yourself.
So, you know, no disrespect toanybody who's in consulting or
finance or any of those kinds offields, but for me personally, I
really have to enjoy what it isthat I'm doing and, you know, to
get into that flow state.
Paul (05:57):
Do you think that.
Covid impacted on your viewpointinto starting your own business
and made you realise that therewas more important things than
work perhaps.
Seyam (06:05):
Well, I'd say Covid taught me a lot about, you know,
starting an online business andthe power of being able to run a
business online.
So Covid was actually probablythe first kind of.
Point to which online tutoringbecame quite big.
You know, nobody was going toschool, nobody was taking
classes.
(06:26):
So we were kind of, everybodywas figuring out, you know, what
is the best way to deliveractual class lessons.
So I think everybody was kind offorced to figure this out.
And you know, a lot of schools,especially state schools at the
time, were really laggingbehind.
They would have about 60, 70, 80students on one call.
And actually my brother, he wasin year eight or year seven, I
(06:49):
think, at the time of Covid, andI was actually looking at the
class and the work that he wasdoing.
I saw the attendees, it wasliterally 50, 60 students, no
cameras, no face, and a studentsorry.
The teacher would just kind ofgo on going over some like very
basic math stuff.
It was like fractions.
And so clearly it wasn't, youknow.
Adapted for his style oflearning or adapted to his
(07:12):
level.
I think he was way beyondfractions at that time, so a lot
of schools lagged.
I think tutoring businesses kindof liked the idea of, you know,
doing online lessons is veryconvenient.
For both the parents and thetutor.
And, you know, it's quiteminimal in terms of costs for a
business, you know, as opposedto having a brick and mortar
(07:34):
classroom kind of thing.
So, yeah I'd say it was quite agood opportunity covid that came
from it, despite all of thechaos during Covid.
Paul (07:43):
You specialise in British expat students.
Why?
What's the journey to, why didyou specialise in expat
students?
Seyam (07:49):
Yeah, so expat students wasn't really our goal.
We didn't know any expat.
We didn't do any outreach to anyexpat families.
Again, it was kind of one of thelucky things that kind of
happened to us and we kind ofseized that opportunity.
We have a neighbor back home inLondon, and so they have a
family member who.
(08:09):
Was somewhere in the Middle Eastand and they have a son, or they
had a son who was moving fromBaku to British Boarding School.
And so they basically wanted,you know, someone to help him
transition.
From that curriculum, you know,the as maths curriculum that
they were doing to thecurriculum, you know, in, in a,
in the British schools.
(08:31):
So, you know, we, I workedpersonally with this student for
about 8, 7, 8, yeah, seven,eight months myself.
And one of the things that Ireally liked about it was kind
of like the aha moment was I gotto tutor quite early with him.
So I was in the UK.
He was four hours ahead of me,and I was able to do lessons
(08:51):
quite early as opposed to in theevening, which is when, you
know, most students in the UKhad their tutoring lessons.
So I was like, okay, hang on.
It's really convenient for me todo these lessons quite early.
And actually there's plenty ofstudents, British students who
are living abroad who would liketo have a connection with a
British tutor.
So, you know, adding one-on-onehair it made sense to kind of go
(09:15):
towards expat market or theexpat student market.
It's really convenient if you'rea tutor in the UK to tutor
somebody further east.
So, I think that was my ahamoment.
And in particular with thatstudent we got lots of
referrals, lots and lots ofreferrals, and then those
families referred lots of peopleand very quickly we expended to
(09:36):
all of those different countriesacross the world.
So, it was luck.
I really believe it was luck,but also I.
You know, with luck you have tokind of take the opportunity,
you have to recognise theopportunity and make sense of
it.
It's not just, you know, luck iswhat it is.
You've got to take action.
You've got to do the moves, ifthat makes sense.
Paul (09:55):
when the door opens, you've gotta walk through it.
I agree completely.
Seyam (09:59):
Yeah, absolutely.
Paul (10:00):
And then you took it one step further and became an expat
yourself, right?
Seyam (10:04):
I have certain reservations about life in the
UK.
I won't go into too much detailas to, you know, what, how I
feel about it, but for mepersonally, it was quite
important for me to leave the UKand kind of live abroad and, you
know, live outside in a foreigncountry, foreign culture that
sort of thing.
And my first kind of step intothat was when I had an
(10:25):
internship in consulting as wellin Vietnam.
And for me, I loved livingthere.
I absolutely loved living inVietnam.
I think the most important thingfor me was the cost of living.
You know, when you're earning inpounds and you're living abroad
it's really good.
It's a really powerful way tokind of leverage your money.
But also as well as that, Ireally liked the culture.
(10:47):
That was really important to me.
I really loved going outside andleaving my room when I was in
London, in the UK.
I'll be honest, I didn't reallyleave my room as much.
'cause I think especially inLondon when you step out you
probably have spent a tenor onthe tube for a coffee, whatever,
for breathing.
So, you know, I really lovegoing out in Vietnam and just
(11:07):
kind of figuring it out andexploring the pe, the people
around me and the area aroundme.
So yeah, I became an expat.
And so, you know, I still am anexpert.
I probably will be for a bitmore time.
But yeah, that's, yeah.
Paul (11:22):
I think it's, I think it's beautiful because you've.
Identified something that manyof us just don't, even in even
into mid to late age, don'treally identifying ourselves in
that you can build a life thatyou want by creating a work that
works with that.
so a lot of people are anythingother than go and get the
(11:44):
traditional corporate jobs
Seyam (11:46):
Yeah.
Paul (11:46):
And
Seyam (11:46):
then spend
Paul (11:46):
most of their life complaining that.
They don't have time to spendwith their kids, or they don't
have the opportunity to go outand be with their friends or be
flexible or experience foreigncultures and you've created
something for yourself that,that is a good, solid income.
That'cause let's be honest,regardless of as we said before,
the before the call, regardlessof what's going on in the world
Seyam (12:07):
The.
Paul (12:08):
you know, people still need to put their kids through
school and will sacrifice to puttheir kids through school.
So it's very important.
Seyam (12:14):
Yep.
Paul (12:14):
What's it like running a What's it like, running a
business with your family?
Seyam (12:17):
I think it, it has really been a blessing in terms of like
the productivity in terms of hergiving me like the trust and
confidence to kind of lead andmake those kind of like
difficult decisions for thebusiness.
I'd say.
She's very supportive and weboth support each other.
So I'd say it has been ablessing.
My sister trusts me and I trusther.
(12:38):
We're both actually very good atour job.
I will say that for sure.
We're both very good tutors.
We lead our team and we actuallyreally love what we do, and I
think that's the most importantthing.
And it's a mutual respect thatwe have for each other because
of how much we enjoy what we do.
Paul (12:55):
And you are both in the process of kind of scaling that
business up.
Now as demand grows, you'rebringing other tutors on board,
right?
Seyam (13:01):
Yeah, exactly.
So we are definitely scaling,actually not as rapidly as some
other companies are.
But we are looking for morestaff, you know, somebody to
kind of other people to kind ofhelp us out deal with all of the
referrals that we get and kindof, you know, spread us more and
our teachings and techniquesthat we have.
Paul (13:20):
And at the Seyame time you've kind of cut out.
I guess you've cut yourselves aspace in the tutoring world,
right?
Like it's not a new business,it's not a new industry, and
it's quite a busy, quite acompetitive landscape, I'd say
in terms of what's out
Seyam (13:36):
Yeah.
Paul (13:37):
So how do you guys differentiate yourselves from
some of the bigger businessesthat you've mentioned?
Seyam (13:41):
I think it is really competitive.
But I also think the market ishuge.
The market is so huge that rightnow we've niched down in terms
of the customers that we take.
We've to the point niched downto just British expats, so I
think.
In terms of, you know, what abusiness should do is just niche
down in terms of customers andfocus on what your ideal
(14:02):
customer looks like.
In terms of how we differentiateourselves I'd say we're both
just very experienced for IH assoon as we finished our GCSE
exams, which we both absolutelysmashed.
We started tutoring.
So we worked with students inprobably not so great tutoring
companies or tutoring businessesto some really great tutoring
(14:24):
businesses.
So our experience for our age.
Definitely speaks for itself.
I'd also say that we have wehave quite good personalities.
We really bounce off with thestudents that we work with, and
we actually bounce off quitewell with the parents that we
work with.
And the thing is, the parentsrecognize, you know, when their
kids look up to somebody.
(14:46):
In a positive way as opposed tosome random TikTok style,
whoever it is, you know, havingsomebody that your kid looks up
to, that's firstly a real personis, it speaks a lot.
So I'd say that's definitely howwe differentiate ourselves is us
to, in and our teaching stylesand abilities.
Paul (15:04):
It's an interesting angle there.
Do you find that Found primarilyby parents or are you found more
by the children who are lookingfor tutor in themselves, who
want to have a tutor and theycome across you?
What's chicken or the egg?
Seyam (15:18):
I'd say it's a parents I'd say the chicken.
The chicken, the parentsrecognize and see when their
kids progress.
It takes a few months.
It takes a lot of hard work, alot of concentration, but when
the parents start getting thesemessages from their teachers or
go to the parents' evening andthey see that their kid is
making changes at school, theparents absolutely recognize
(15:41):
that.
And so, you know, parents arevery proactive as well.
They have their own circles andso.
They'll very much speak abouttheir kids.
I mean, I'm sure you speak aboutyour son when you are out with
other families and you know,it's a big thing.
What parents do, they speakabout their kids and how they're
kind of getting the best forthem.
So parents speak to otherparents and very quickly, you
(16:04):
know, other parents recogniseoh, I want to get a bit of that.
I want that for my kids.
And so that's kind of, you know.
The way we'd go about it.
I'd say a lot of it is word ofmouth and we're really happy
with that.
In terms of the scaling processfor us, I don't think we intend
to scale to hundreds andhundreds of students.
I'd say that's definitelysomething a lot of companies.
(16:26):
New ones as well, especiallyyoung entrepreneurs.
They focus too much on scalingand bringing on as much students
as possible.
Instead of focusing on just ahandful of students, a handful
of parents, and figuring out,you know, what is their ideal
customer in terms of theirpersonality, and just kind of
building it up from there asopposed to rushing to find
(16:47):
tutors to cover hours, and thenthose hours not being covered.
And it just becomes very chaoticvery quickly.
Paul (16:54):
I think it's a fair comment and one of my next
questions was gonna be how whatmistakes do you see other guys
in your spheres doing?
So that, that leads in quitenicely.
I guess it speaks to.
Finding people that you cantrust and who align with you
properly as opposed to just, youknow, the traditional call
center approach, for example, ofputting bums on seats.
it's very much about findingpeople who can be credible and
(17:18):
can help provide that.
I guess it boils down tocustomer experience, right?
Like whether the customer's achild or whether they're an
adult.
It's that Seyame.
You want them to come away andhave a smile on their face.
You want them to smile eitherfrom, directly from the
interactions they've had withyou or the results that they're
getting because of theirinteraction with you.
I'd imagine it feels good at theend of the, when you go to bed
(17:38):
on a night that you've had thatimpact on so many young people.
Seyam (17:41):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I live in East Asia, so I'm plus
seven, eight hours sometimesahead of the UK.
And so sometimes I'll finish mylessons at four o'clock in the
morning, half, four in themorning.
And I like doing that.
I'm really happy to do thatbecause I really love the work
that I do.
And you know, I get to sleepquite well.
I'm not grouchy in the morning.
(18:02):
I'm like, oh, I overslept, orwhatever it might have been.
So certainly it's a veryrewarding job and I'm very
fortunate to be able to work onthis full time.
I'd say.
Paul (18:13):
Looking back now to when you were a kid, do you think
that you could tell that you'dend up doing what you are doing
now?
Do you think the indicators werethere?
Seyam (18:21):
I don't know.
I honestly don't know.
I thought life would kind offigure itself out and I'd be
somehow happy working in, youknow, some cor some sort of
corporate job.
I thought, you know, there wasgonna be a phase in life where I
figured out, okay, I need tostart being like an adult and
suddenly all my emotions aregonna be, you know, geared
towards.
It ha having a corporate job.
(18:43):
But one thing I will say, and mymom says this to me a lot, and I
don't think I ever reallyunderstood it, but she used to
sometimes tell me like, Seyam,you're quite lucky, like you
just, you, I always seedifferent aspects of your life.
Like you just, you have certainluck in your life and you know,
it maybe it sounds egotisticalsaying that I absolutely don't
(19:03):
mean it to, but I think it isjust one of those things like it
just worked out, like I madesure to kind of.
Have my head screwed on.
Firstly, that was veryimportant.
Made sure that I figured out howto take care of myself, the
basic stuff, being able topresent myself correctly to the
world, you know, speakingconfidently to the world,
backing myself to people thatare not, you know, giving me the
(19:26):
respect that I feel like Ideserve.
Those definitely carried me to,to where I am right now.
I would say.
Paul (19:33):
I love it and it sounds like a fantastic journey, which
you're still only, let's behonest, still only just getting
started on.
So, absolutely
Seyam (19:39):
Yeah.
Paul (19:39):
wish you all the luck for the future as well.
What's coming up in 2025 for youguys?
Seyam (19:44):
Yeah.
In terms of 2025, so probablyour next, my next country
actually.
So right now Faeza and I wereboth expats living together in
Taiwan.
It was kind of her first.
Leaving the nest situation, Iwould say she studied at home in
London, so she didn't have tolive out the Seyame way I did.
(20:04):
So for her, you know, shedefinitely, I encouraged her to,
you know, leave the UK, explorethe water.
I know my mom's upset that heronly daughter left London and
the UK, but it really has helpedin terms of her growth, in terms
of my growth.
Absolutely.
So in terms of what's next,definitely growing and
(20:25):
continuing to grow and build oursystems.
A more online and social mediapresence, I would say to kind of
just teach new tutors the bestway to kind of go about their
tutoring lessons and kind ofshare my hindsight, you know,
I've got plenty of experience.
Share my hindsight with newtutors so that they can.
(20:46):
Avoid the same mistakes that Imade, but also know when to
recognise those mistakes.
Probably, yeah I'd say Danprobably leaving live, living in
my next country, which isprobably gonna be South Korea or
maybe Japan.
I haven't decided yet.
But in a few months time, I'lllet you know.
Paul (21:02):
Well, when this goes out this episode is recorded just
after the US tariffsannouncement back in April.
So anybody who's watching thiswill
Seyam (21:10):
understand some
Paul (21:11):
of the ideas and thoughts that must be going through
Seyam's head, or you've got alot of
Seyam (21:15):
figuring out to do over
Paul (21:16):
Yeah.
the coming months.
Seyam (21:17):
Yeah.
Lots of figuring out Absolutely.
Paul (21:19):
Fantastic.
Well, it sounds like anextremely exciting journey,
Seyam.
If people are listening andmaybe they know some expats who
might be interested to find outmore, or they know their
parents, like how can theycontact you?
Where can they find out more?
I.
Seyam (21:32):
Yeah find me through LinkedIn.
I'm very active on LinkedIn.
I post quite regularly.
I share lots of experiences withtutoring.
I think LinkedIn is a verygrounded app.
I think that's the word I'ddescribe.
It's very grounded.
I'm not a huge fan of some ofthe other apps like Instagram,
Facebook, but LinkedIn is verygrounded.
You can read my experience, havea look at all of the
(21:53):
testimonials and just kind ofhear my thoughts and maybe
Rantings as well.
Maybe sometimes they're rants,but you can see that there
through LinkedIn.
Paul (22:04):
Fantastic.
Well, I'll absolutely make sureyour LinkedIn link is in there
along with your email in theshow notes.
thank you very much for being afantastic guest and sharing your
journey with us, Seyam, it'sbeen a privilege.
Thank you.
Seyam (22:14):
My pleasure.
Thank you so much, Paul.
Paul (22:17):
And thank you everyone at home for watching or listening
along.
I.
No doubt that you've enjoyedtoday's episode.
We'll have be back next weekwith another fascinating story
from somebody else, and I willsee you in the feed.
Bye-bye.
From tutoring at 16 to running a global education
(00:03):
business, Seyam Hamed breaksdown how he carved out a niche
ditched journey to go all in,and what small businesses can
learn from his journey.
Seyam Ahmed is the co-founder ofFaeza and Seyam's Tutoring
Limited, an online tutoringservice that helps British expat
and domestic students excel inEnglish and maths and science.
(00:24):
and raised in London.
Seyam's journey into educationbegan with eight years of
tutoring experience before heand his sister launched their
business.
With firsthand knowledge of thechallenges students face when
transitioning betweencurriculums, Seyam has built a
tutoring service that goesbeyond academics.
They provides structure,confidence, and continuity for
young learners.
(00:45):
though he studied physics atDurham University, he left in
his third year to focus ongrowing the business, which he
now serves students across fivecontinents.
Seyam.
Welcome to the show.
How are you?
Seyam (00:57):
I'm doing well.
Thank you.
You sound like you know mebetter than me.
Based off that intro.
Paul (01:01):
That is the goal.
That is the goal becauseultimately the journey that
people have been on isfantastically inspiring.
It's quite humbling that some ofthe guests that we've had on.
And the journeys that we've beenon, regardless whether, you
know, you like like one of ourguests was a rock star in Russia
before he became an executivecoach in the US We've had,
Hollywood producers we've hadall sorts of phenomenal people,
(01:23):
but they're.
Celebrity status isn't asimportant as the journey that
they've been on.
And that, that for me is reallycrucial.
And it's fantastic to have ayoung entrepreneur on the show
Probably you're probably thethird young entrepreneur we've
had on the show and somebodythat's really caught my
attention as we've been talking.
So looking forward to digging indeep into the choices that you
made.
(01:44):
To Rewind back to the beginningof things, you started tutoring
at just 16 and then turned itinto a full fledged business
with your sister.
What was the moment when yourealized it could be something
more than just a side hustle?
Seyam (01:57):
Yeah, exactly.
So, that one's quite a bigquestion.
It's really important.
And I've spent a bit of timethinking about it a lot lately.
But in terms of.
The origin, I'd say it's quitehumble in terms of beginnings.
We initially started off withlike the goal of being in
person, so working in a locallibrary, hiring like a small
little classroom, if you want tocall it, you know, nothing
(02:20):
global, no experts, nothing likethat.
And I think the turning pointfor us was when we were handing
out leaflets.
So, yep.
Very traditional style ofmarketing.
Obviously we didn't know thatthe internet existed 2023.
But yeah, so we handed out someleaflets at some schools.
And that process, you know, ofspeaking to all of those parents
(02:40):
was quite quite big, quiteintense for us.
Very new.
Putting ourselves out there.
And then a few days after, youknow, the weeks after actually
we got a couple phone calls andI think that process of, you
know, giving an input and thenreceiving an output you know, we
realise okay.
We can bend the rules or we canmake the rules how we like.
So it was a completeindependence to control the
(03:02):
output in sort of what we wantedto do.
That's what I would say.
Paul (03:07):
It is amazing.
Like I, I just think back towhen I was at university and.
Stepping outta university andbecoming an entrepreneur wasn't
something that most people evenconsidered.
And we've all heard stories ofthe likes of Zuckerberg and co
who, you know, kind of, I did ayear and then dropped out and,
you know, right place, righttime.
Extremely successful, no doubt.
(03:28):
What was the reaction at homewhen you decided in your third
year at physics to drop out andbecome a tutor?
Can't, I can't imagine.
That was an easy conversation.
Seyam (03:36):
Yeah, it wasn't, I mean, I have both Asian parents, so
you know, they're very strict.
Very much focused on thetraditional path in terms of
career, in terms of education,that sort of thing.
But in terms of the reaction, Ithink it took a quite a fair few
conversations with my parents tokind of give them the confidence
that actually, you know, we'revery much in control of the
(03:57):
output and very much in controlof like the goals that we have.
So yeah, my parents weredefinitely a bit iffy about it.
But you know, very supportive.
Nonetheless.
It wasn't argumentative, it wasmore like, are you sure about
this?
You know, you're quite young.
The world out there is veryscary, very competitive.
So, you know, my parents, theysupported both of us.
Paul (04:18):
So third year of physics before you dropped out.
Oh.
To go and tutor.
like I know that science is abig part of what you enjoy
tutoring as well.
I'm guessing, and correct me ifI'm wrong, that you realised
that you the professional degreethat you were taking took you
away from what it was youactually wanted to do as opposed
to bringing you closer.
Seyam (04:39):
Funnily enough, a lot of people who complete a degree in
physics, they either go intoconsulting or they go into
finance.
So those skills that, you know,you gain as a physicist are kind
of quite transferrable in thoseparticular.
Fields.
But for me, I couldn't work inan office.
I couldn't travel on the tubeinto Central London from the
suburbs of, you know, eastLondon and whatnot.
(05:00):
I just couldn't do that.
I think for me personally, Ineed to enjoy what I'm doing and
I think there's very few peoplewho inherently believe that to
the point where they justrefuse.
Going through that, you know,path, they kind of end up
sucking it up.
They might pick up some badhabits in order to kind of get
through those tough times.
(05:20):
And for me, you know, I reallywanted to prioritise things like
health.
That was very important to me.
I really wanted to focus on mymental wellbeing and also just.
Being able to have the time andenergy to exercise have a good
diet, that sort of thing.
And I think those things arereally hard to maintain when you
have a job that you just, itjust kind of sucks your energy
(05:42):
and sucks yourself.
So, you know, no disrespect toanybody who's in consulting or
finance or any of those kinds offields, but for me personally, I
really have to enjoy what it isthat I'm doing and, you know, to
get into that flow state.
Paul (05:57):
Do you think that.
Covid impacted on your viewpointinto starting your own business
and made you realise that therewas more important things than
work perhaps.
Seyam (06:05):
Well, I'd say Covid taught me a lot about, you know,
starting an online business andthe power of being able to run a
business online.
So Covid was actually probablythe first kind of.
Point to which online tutoringbecame quite big.
You know, nobody was going toschool, nobody was taking
classes.
(06:26):
So we were kind of, everybodywas figuring out, you know, what
is the best way to deliveractual class lessons.
So I think everybody was kind offorced to figure this out.
And you know, a lot of schools,especially state schools at the
time, were really laggingbehind.
They would have about 60, 70, 80students on one call.
And actually my brother, he wasin year eight or year seven, I
(06:49):
think, at the time of Covid, andI was actually looking at the
class and the work that he wasdoing.
I saw the attendees, it wasliterally 50, 60 students, no
cameras, no face, and a studentsorry.
The teacher would just kind ofgo on going over some like very
basic math stuff.
It was like fractions.
And so clearly it wasn't, youknow.
Adapted for his style oflearning or adapted to his
(07:12):
level.
I think he was way beyondfractions at that time, so a lot
of schools lagged.
I think tutoring businesses kindof liked the idea of, you know,
doing online lessons is veryconvenient.
For both the parents and thetutor.
And, you know, it's quiteminimal in terms of costs for a
business, you know, as opposedto having a brick and mortar
(07:34):
classroom kind of thing.
So, yeah I'd say it was quite agood opportunity covid that came
from it, despite all of thechaos during Covid.
Paul (07:43):
You specialise in British expat students.
Why?
What's the journey to, why didyou specialise in expat
students?
Seyam (07:49):
Yeah, so expat students wasn't really our goal.
We didn't know any expat.
We didn't do any outreach to anyexpat families.
Again, it was kind of one of thelucky things that kind of
happened to us and we kind ofseized that opportunity.
We have a neighbor back home inLondon, and so they have a
family member who.
(08:09):
Was somewhere in the Middle Eastand and they have a son, or they
had a son who was moving fromBaku to British Boarding School.
And so they basically wanted,you know, someone to help him
transition.
From that curriculum, you know,the as maths curriculum that
they were doing to thecurriculum, you know, in, in a,
in the British schools.
(08:31):
So, you know, we, I workedpersonally with this student for
about 8, 7, 8, yeah, seven,eight months myself.
And one of the things that Ireally liked about it was kind
of like the aha moment was I gotto tutor quite early with him.
So I was in the UK.
He was four hours ahead of me,and I was able to do lessons
(08:51):
quite early as opposed to in theevening, which is when, you
know, most students in the UKhad their tutoring lessons.
So I was like, okay, hang on.
It's really convenient for me todo these lessons quite early.
And actually there's plenty ofstudents, British students who
are living abroad who would liketo have a connection with a
British tutor.
So, you know, adding one-on-onehair it made sense to kind of go
(09:15):
towards expat market or theexpat student market.
It's really convenient if you'rea tutor in the UK to tutor
somebody further east.
So, I think that was my ahamoment.
And in particular with thatstudent we got lots of
referrals, lots and lots ofreferrals, and then those
families referred lots of peopleand very quickly we expended to
(09:36):
all of those different countriesacross the world.
So, it was luck.
I really believe it was luck,but also I.
You know, with luck you have tokind of take the opportunity,
you have to recognise theopportunity and make sense of
it.
It's not just, you know, luck iswhat it is.
You've got to take action.
You've got to do the moves, ifthat makes sense.
Paul (09:55):
when the door opens, you've gotta walk through it.
I agree completely.
Seyam (09:59):
Yeah, absolutely.
Paul (10:00):
And then you took it one step further and became an expat
yourself, right?
Seyam (10:04):
I have certain reservations about life in the
UK.
I won't go into too much detailas to, you know, what, how I
feel about it, but for mepersonally, it was quite
important for me to leave the UKand kind of live abroad and, you
know, live outside in a foreigncountry, foreign culture that
sort of thing.
And my first kind of step intothat was when I had an
(10:25):
internship in consulting as wellin Vietnam.
And for me, I loved livingthere.
I absolutely loved living inVietnam.
I think the most important thingfor me was the cost of living.
You know, when you're earning inpounds and you're living abroad
it's really good.
It's a really powerful way tokind of leverage your money.
But also as well as that, Ireally liked the culture.
(10:47):
That was really important to me.
I really loved going outside andleaving my room when I was in
London, in the UK.
I'll be honest, I didn't reallyleave my room as much.
'cause I think especially inLondon when you step out you
probably have spent a tenor onthe tube for a coffee, whatever,
for breathing.
So, you know, I really lovegoing out in Vietnam and just
(11:07):
kind of figuring it out andexploring the pe, the people
around me and the area aroundme.
So yeah, I became an expat.
And so, you know, I still am anexpert.
I probably will be for a bitmore time.
But yeah, that's, yeah.
Paul (11:22):
I think it's, I think it's beautiful because you've.
Identified something that manyof us just don't, even in even
into mid to late age, don'treally identifying ourselves in
that you can build a life thatyou want by creating a work that
works with that.
so a lot of people are anythingother than go and get the
(11:44):
traditional corporate jobs
Seyam (11:46):
Yeah.
Paul (11:46):
And
Seyam (11:46):
then spend
Paul (11:46):
most of their life complaining that.
They don't have time to spendwith their kids, or they don't
have the opportunity to go outand be with their friends or be
flexible or experience foreigncultures and you've created
something for yourself that,that is a good, solid income.
That'cause let's be honest,regardless of as we said before,
the before the call, regardlessof what's going on in the world
Seyam (12:07):
The.
Paul (12:08):
you know, people still need to put their kids through
school and will sacrifice to puttheir kids through school.
So it's very important.
Seyam (12:14):
Yep.
Paul (12:14):
What's it like running a What's it like, running a
business with your family?
Seyam (12:17):
I think it, it has really been a blessing in terms of like
the productivity in terms of hergiving me like the trust and
confidence to kind of lead andmake those kind of like
difficult decisions for thebusiness.
I'd say.
She's very supportive and weboth support each other.
So I'd say it has been ablessing.
My sister trusts me and I trusther.
(12:38):
We're both actually very good atour job.
I will say that for sure.
We're both very good tutors.
We lead our team and we actuallyreally love what we do, and I
think that's the most importantthing.
And it's a mutual respect thatwe have for each other because
of how much we enjoy what we do.
Paul (12:55):
And you are both in the process of kind of scaling that
business up.
Now as demand grows, you'rebringing other tutors on board,
right?
Seyam (13:01):
Yeah, exactly.
So we are definitely scaling,actually not as rapidly as some
other companies are.
But we are looking for morestaff, you know, somebody to
kind of other people to kind ofhelp us out deal with all of the
referrals that we get and kindof, you know, spread us more and
our teachings and techniquesthat we have.
Paul (13:20):
And at the Seyame time you've kind of cut out.
I guess you've cut yourselves aspace in the tutoring world,
right?
Like it's not a new business,it's not a new industry, and
it's quite a busy, quite acompetitive landscape, I'd say
in terms of what's out
Seyam (13:36):
Yeah.
Paul (13:37):
So how do you guys differentiate yourselves from
some of the bigger businessesthat you've mentioned?
Seyam (13:41):
I think it is really competitive.
But I also think the market ishuge.
The market is so huge that rightnow we've niched down in terms
of the customers that we take.
We've to the point niched downto just British expats, so I
think.
In terms of, you know, what abusiness should do is just niche
down in terms of customers andfocus on what your ideal
(14:02):
customer looks like.
In terms of how we differentiateourselves I'd say we're both
just very experienced for IH assoon as we finished our GCSE
exams, which we both absolutelysmashed.
We started tutoring.
So we worked with students inprobably not so great tutoring
companies or tutoring businessesto some really great tutoring
(14:24):
businesses.
So our experience for our age.
Definitely speaks for itself.
I'd also say that we have wehave quite good personalities.
We really bounce off with thestudents that we work with, and
we actually bounce off quitewell with the parents that we
work with.
And the thing is, the parentsrecognize, you know, when their
kids look up to somebody.
(14:46):
In a positive way as opposed tosome random TikTok style,
whoever it is, you know, havingsomebody that your kid looks up
to, that's firstly a real personis, it speaks a lot.
So I'd say that's definitely howwe differentiate ourselves is us
to, in and our teaching stylesand abilities.
Paul (15:04):
It's an interesting angle there.
Do you find that Found primarilyby parents or are you found more
by the children who are lookingfor tutor in themselves, who
want to have a tutor and theycome across you?
What's chicken or the egg?
Seyam (15:18):
I'd say it's a parents I'd say the chicken.
The chicken, the parentsrecognize and see when their
kids progress.
It takes a few months.
It takes a lot of hard work, alot of concentration, but when
the parents start getting thesemessages from their teachers or
go to the parents' evening andthey see that their kid is
making changes at school, theparents absolutely recognize
(15:41):
that.
And so, you know, parents arevery proactive as well.
They have their own circles andso.
They'll very much speak abouttheir kids.
I mean, I'm sure you speak aboutyour son when you are out with
other families and you know,it's a big thing.
What parents do, they speakabout their kids and how they're
kind of getting the best forthem.
So parents speak to otherparents and very quickly, you
(16:04):
know, other parents recogniseoh, I want to get a bit of that.
I want that for my kids.
And so that's kind of, you know.
The way we'd go about it.
I'd say a lot of it is word ofmouth and we're really happy
with that.
In terms of the scaling processfor us, I don't think we intend
to scale to hundreds andhundreds of students.
I'd say that's definitelysomething a lot of companies.
(16:26):
New ones as well, especiallyyoung entrepreneurs.
They focus too much on scalingand bringing on as much students
as possible.
Instead of focusing on just ahandful of students, a handful
of parents, and figuring out,you know, what is their ideal
customer in terms of theirpersonality, and just kind of
building it up from there asopposed to rushing to find
(16:47):
tutors to cover hours, and thenthose hours not being covered.
And it just becomes very chaoticvery quickly.
Paul (16:54):
I think it's a fair comment and one of my next
questions was gonna be how whatmistakes do you see other guys
in your spheres doing?
So that, that leads in quitenicely.
I guess it speaks to.
Finding people that you cantrust and who align with you
properly as opposed to just, youknow, the traditional call
center approach, for example, ofputting bums on seats.
it's very much about findingpeople who can be credible and
(17:18):
can help provide that.
I guess it boils down tocustomer experience, right?
Like whether the customer's achild or whether they're an
adult.
It's that Seyame.
You want them to come away andhave a smile on their face.
You want them to smile eitherfrom, directly from the
interactions they've had withyou or the results that they're
getting because of theirinteraction with you.
I'd imagine it feels good at theend of the, when you go to bed
(17:38):
on a night that you've had thatimpact on so many young people.
Seyam (17:41):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I live in East Asia, so I'm plus
seven, eight hours sometimesahead of the UK.
And so sometimes I'll finish mylessons at four o'clock in the
morning, half, four in themorning.
And I like doing that.
I'm really happy to do thatbecause I really love the work
that I do.
And you know, I get to sleepquite well.
I'm not grouchy in the morning.
(18:02):
I'm like, oh, I overslept, orwhatever it might have been.
So certainly it's a veryrewarding job and I'm very
fortunate to be able to work onthis full time.
I'd say.
Paul (18:13):
Looking back now to when you were a kid, do you think
that you could tell that you'dend up doing what you are doing
now?
Do you think the indicators werethere?
Seyam (18:21):
I don't know.
I honestly don't know.
I thought life would kind offigure itself out and I'd be
somehow happy working in, youknow, some cor some sort of
corporate job.
I thought, you know, there wasgonna be a phase in life where I
figured out, okay, I need tostart being like an adult and
suddenly all my emotions aregonna be, you know, geared
towards.
It ha having a corporate job.
(18:43):
But one thing I will say, and mymom says this to me a lot, and I
don't think I ever reallyunderstood it, but she used to
sometimes tell me like, Seyam,you're quite lucky, like you
just, you, I always seedifferent aspects of your life.
Like you just, you have certainluck in your life and you know,
it maybe it sounds egotisticalsaying that I absolutely don't
(19:03):
mean it to, but I think it isjust one of those things like it
just worked out, like I madesure to kind of.
Have my head screwed on.
Firstly, that was veryimportant.
Made sure that I figured out howto take care of myself, the
basic stuff, being able topresent myself correctly to the
world, you know, speakingconfidently to the world,
backing myself to people thatare not, you know, giving me the
(19:26):
respect that I feel like Ideserve.
Those definitely carried me to,to where I am right now.
I would say.
Paul (19:33):
I love it and it sounds like a fantastic journey, which
you're still only, let's behonest, still only just getting
started on.
So, absolutely
Seyam (19:39):
Yeah.
Paul (19:39):
wish you all the luck for the future as well.
What's coming up in 2025 for youguys?
Seyam (19:44):
Yeah.
In terms of 2025, so probablyour next, my next country
actually.
So right now Faeza and I wereboth expats living together in
Taiwan.
It was kind of her first.
Leaving the nest situation, Iwould say she studied at home in
London, so she didn't have tolive out the Seyame way I did.
(20:04):
So for her, you know, shedefinitely, I encouraged her to,
you know, leave the UK, explorethe water.
I know my mom's upset that heronly daughter left London and
the UK, but it really has helpedin terms of her growth, in terms
of my growth.
Absolutely.
So in terms of what's next,definitely growing and
(20:25):
continuing to grow and build oursystems.
A more online and social mediapresence, I would say to kind of
just teach new tutors the bestway to kind of go about their
tutoring lessons and kind ofshare my hindsight, you know,
I've got plenty of experience.
Share my hindsight with newtutors so that they can.
(20:46):
Avoid the same mistakes that Imade, but also know when to
recognise those mistakes.
Probably, yeah I'd say Danprobably leaving live, living in
my next country, which isprobably gonna be South Korea or
maybe Japan.
I haven't decided yet.
But in a few months time, I'lllet you know.
Paul (21:02):
Well, when this goes out this episode is recorded just
after the US tariffsannouncement back in April.
So anybody who's watching thiswill
Seyam (21:10):
understand some
Paul (21:11):
of the ideas and thoughts that must be going through
Seyam's head, or you've got alot of
Seyam (21:15):
figuring out to do over
Paul (21:16):
Yeah.
the coming months.
Seyam (21:17):
Yeah.
Lots of figuring out Absolutely.
Paul (21:19):
Fantastic.
Well, it sounds like anextremely exciting journey,
Seyam.
If people are listening andmaybe they know some expats who
might be interested to find outmore, or they know their
parents, like how can theycontact you?
Where can they find out more?
I.
Seyam (21:32):
Yeah find me through LinkedIn.
I'm very active on LinkedIn.
I post quite regularly.
I share lots of experiences withtutoring.
I think LinkedIn is a verygrounded app.
I think that's the word I'ddescribe.
It's very grounded.
I'm not a huge fan of some ofthe other apps like Instagram,
Facebook, but LinkedIn is verygrounded.
You can read my experience, havea look at all of the
(21:53):
testimonials and just kind ofhear my thoughts and maybe
Rantings as well.
Maybe sometimes they're rants,but you can see that there
through LinkedIn.
Paul (22:04):
Fantastic.
Well, I'll absolutely make sureyour LinkedIn link is in there
along with your email in theshow notes.
thank you very much for being afantastic guest and sharing your
journey with us, Seyam, it'sbeen a privilege.
Thank you.
Seyam (22:14):
My pleasure.
Thank you so much, Paul.
Paul (22:17):
And thank you everyone at home for watching or listening
along.
I.
No doubt that you've enjoyedtoday's episode.
We'll have be back next weekwith another fascinating story
from somebody else, and I willsee you in the feed.
Bye-bye.
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