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Cindy Mi

Founder & CEO, VIPKid · 1 appearance on the record.

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founderexecutive@wenjuan_mi ↗t.vipkid.com.cn ↗Wikipedia ↗

Cindy Mi is the founder and CEO of VIPKid, an education technology platform launched in 2013 that connects students with North American English tutors. Prior to building VIPKid, she co-founded the tutoring company ABC English.

13statements → 10claims → 7claims resolved → 86%fully supported → 4/5average certainty → 1.08/5average debate potential → 1said about them ↓

6 supported 1 partly supported 0 contradicted 3 not checkable as stated how the 10 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

10 assertions · 1 insight · 2 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 10 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 7 are resolved, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Cindy argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
VIPKID has grown to more than 60,000 teachers
“And today VIP kid has more than 60,000 teachers. It's almost three times of the supply.”
Cindy Mi Jan 16, 2019 ▶ 9:54 Cindy Mi and Qi Lu Share Advice for Entrepreneurs Building Global Companies · Y Combinator

Everything Cindy Mi said on the Y Combinator Startup Podcast that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Partly supported
Chinese families spend 15% of income on supplemental education versus US's 2%
“The market size is about fifteen billion US dollars parents spending every year. And then Chinese parents value education as investments. So from around 15% of our household income goes to supplemental education. Compared to two percent in the US.”
Cindy Mi Jan 16, 2019 ▶ 8:21 Cindy Mi and Qi Lu Share Advice for Entrepreneurs Building Global Companies · Y Combinator
Assertion Supported
VIPKID has grown to more than 60,000 teachers
“And today VIP kid has more than 60,000 teachers. It's almost three times of the supply.”
Cindy Mi Jan 16, 2019 ▶ 9:54 Cindy Mi and Qi Lu Share Advice for Entrepreneurs Building Global Companies · Y Combinator
Insight
Daily 15-minute language practice beats weekly two-hour classes
“If one can spend 15 minutes a day to learn the language, it's much more effective than 15 minutes times seven put into a two hour weekend class because More frequency helps memorizing better and utilizing the language in a much more effective way as a tool.”
Cindy Mi Jan 16, 2019 ▶ 11:25 Cindy Mi and Qi Lu Share Advice for Entrepreneurs Building Global Companies · Y Combinator
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Cindy Mi: VIPKID took 18 months to reach product-market fit
“It took us a year and a half to understand that product market fit.”
Cindy Mi Jan 16, 2019 ▶ 15:09 Cindy Mi and Qi Lu Share Advice for Entrepreneurs Building Global Companies · Y Combinator
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sinovation Ventures helped VIPKID recruit three of its first four students
“We started with actually four students. Because we cannot find the fifths. Or the fifth students. Yeah, and Sinovation Ventures, Dr. Kaifu Lee. They had to help us find the first three.”
Cindy Mi Jan 16, 2019 ▶ 17:16 Cindy Mi and Qi Lu Share Advice for Entrepreneurs Building Global Companies · Y Combinator
Assertion Supported
Cindy Mi: VIPKID reduced one-on-one tutoring costs for parents by over 50%
“We have lowered significantly the one-on-one learning experience, the cost for the parents by more than 50%.”
Cindy Mi Jan 16, 2019 ▶ 21:55 Cindy Mi and Qi Lu Share Advice for Entrepreneurs Building Global Companies · Y Combinator
Assertion Supported
Cindy Mi: VIPKID pays teachers about $20 per hour
“VIPKID brings value to our teachers in a way that we pay our teachers about 20 US dollar per hour.”
Cindy Mi Jan 16, 2019 ▶ 25:06 Cindy Mi and Qi Lu Share Advice for Entrepreneurs Building Global Companies · Y Combinator
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Cindy Mi: Single Weibo post drove 2,000 VIPKID sign-ups in one day
“And she posted on, on Weibo. So about 2000 parents sign up for the day, and we took her three months to call them back.”
Cindy Mi Jan 16, 2019 ▶ 28:01 Cindy Mi and Qi Lu Share Advice for Entrepreneurs Building Global Companies · Y Combinator
Assertion Supported
Cindy Mi: VIPKID employs 10,000 colleagues
“I think for VIP kids, the core of its success is because parents, teachers, our colleagues, all 10,000 of them, ultimately what we want is student success.”
Cindy Mi Jan 16, 2019 ▶ 54:33 Cindy Mi and Qi Lu Share Advice for Entrepreneurs Building Global Companies · Y Combinator
Disclosure
VIPKID executives start their day listening to 10 customer support calls
“Our team are many of our wake up calls are a set of 10 customer phone calls from the previous day. Some of us would do it nine a.m. On the way to work seven a.m. On the way to like doing on the in the gym, or for me, six to 30 a.m. To listen to all those custo…”
Cindy Mi Jan 16, 2019 ▶ 56:43 Cindy Mi and Qi Lu Share Advice for Entrepreneurs Building Global Companies · Y Combinator
Assertion Supported
Cindy Mi dropped out of high school to tutor English part-time
“So I dropped out of high school when I was in, in the 11th grade, but nevertheless, I was very lucky because I started tutoring young kids English when I was 15 years old part time.”
Cindy Mi Jan 16, 2019 ▶ 2:52 Cindy Mi and Qi Lu Share Advice for Entrepreneurs Building Global Companies · Y Combinator
Assertion Supported
Texas provides the largest share of VIPKID teachers
“Texas is our largest teacher state.”
Cindy Mi Jan 16, 2019 ▶ 10:37 Cindy Mi and Qi Lu Share Advice for Entrepreneurs Building Global Companies · Y Combinator
Disclosure
Cindy Mi personally interviewed VIPKID's first 20 teachers
“I personally interviewed and persuaded our first 20 teachers.”
Cindy Mi Jan 16, 2019 ▶ 35:41 Cindy Mi and Qi Lu Share Advice for Entrepreneurs Building Global Companies · Y Combinator

The other half of the tape: Cindy Mi's own voice is left out of every number here. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →

Statements about Cindy Mi, by other people (1)

Assertion Supported
Qi Lu: Cindy Mi co-founded an English school at age 17
“You actually co-founded An English training school when you were at 17 with your uncle believe it or not, with your uncle.”
Qi Lu Jan 16, 2019 ▶ 4:28 Cindy Mi and Qi Lu Share Advice for Entrepreneurs Building Global Companies · Y Combinator

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Cindy Mi and Qi Lu Share Advice for Entrepreneurs Building Global Companies · Y Combinator Jan 16, 2019 34m
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