Building Engaged Audiences: Insights from Tade Oyerinde and Teddy Solomon at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025
The TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 event once again brought together some of the most innovative minds in startups and entrepreneurship. This year, one of the standout discussions came from Tade Oyerinde, founder of Campus, and Teddy Solomon, co-founder of Fizz. Their conversation, focusing on building and maintaining engaged audiences, provided valuable strategies and perspectives relevant to startup founders, marketers, and educators alike. For those interested, you can read the full details at TechCrunch.
Innovative Approaches to Online Education with Campus
Tade Oyerinde’s vision with Campus is a compelling example of leveraging technology to provide accessible education. Campus offers associate degrees and specialized certificates in practical fields such as information technology, business administration, cosmetology, and phlebotomy. With over 3,000 enrolled students and a team of more than 100 professors, their reach and impact are substantial.
A distinctive angle Oyerinde shared was their decision to offer à la carte courses. This move emerged from employer demand for tailored upskilling opportunities, teaching very specific skills like vibe coding that help employees improve quickly without committing to a full degree. The emphasis on live online classes taught by engaging instructors aims to create a dynamic learning environment fostering both skill acquisition and community.
Oyerinde’s anticipation that everyone will eventually subscribe to services for continuous skill development signals the growing trend toward lifelong learning subscriptions—akin to platforms like Netflix but for educational growth. Importantly, Campus leverages funding such as Pell Grants to keep education affordable and benefits from backing by vision-driven investors like OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Discord’s Jason Citroen. This allows the company to prioritize social impact over immediate profitability, which is a refreshing stance in today’s startup ecosystem.
Building Community and Affordability in EdTech
The integrity with which Campus is built can inspire many startups aiming to balance business goals with genuine user engagement and social good. Highlighting the role of scholarships and grants also elevates the conversation on accessibility, a critical topic in current EdTech discussions.
Fizz’s Campus-Centered Social Platform and Growth Strategy
Teddy Solomon’s Fizz presents a complementary yet distinct model of community building through a social app targeted at college students. Operating on over 200 college campuses and previously extending to high schools, Fizz has rapidly grown since its 2021 launch and has attracted over $40 million in funding from investors like Owl Ventures and NEA.
Solomon’s discussion about expanding Fizz’s capabilities was particularly insightful. The introduction of innovative features like a peer-to-peer marketplace—listing over 100,000 items—and video posts enhances user interaction beyond standard text updates. This evolution keeps the platform engaging and relevant.
Importantly, Fizz’s future plans for Global Fizz, a product designed to scale beyond U.S. borders, open doors for conversations about social media’s role in fostering global student connections. Solomon’s candidness about revenue strategies, with a current focus on ads rather than subscriptions, demonstrates a pragmatic approach to monetization that prioritizes user happiness and retention.
User-Centric Monetization and Product Development
By placing users at the heart of product and monetization decisions, as Solomon emphasized—“The users are everything”—Fizz exemplifies an approach that many social startups can learn from. Their collaboration with advertisers like Perplexity also shows an early, thoughtful integration of advertising without compromising the user experience.
Constructive Reflections and Opportunities for Future Coverage
The article from TechCrunch beautifully summarizes key points from the Disrupt session, giving readers a well-rounded view of how these two companies are shaping their respective markets through community engagement and innovation.
One potential area for deeper exploration could be a comparative look at the specific challenges each founder faces with audience engagement across different demographics—online learners versus social media users. Additionally, insights into how Campus and Fizz plan to tackle evolving privacy and data security concerns, especially in educational and social platforms, would add further depth given today’s digital landscape.
Moreover, exploring the broader ecosystem impact—how partnerships, regulatory shifts, or technology trends influence their growth—would provide readers with a more holistic understanding.
Still, the article accomplishes a great job conveying the passion and strategic thinking behind both companies, and it offers valuable lessons for startups looking to build engaged and sustainable audiences in the digital age.
For more detailed insights, read the full article at TechCrunch.