Survey: 100% of Wharton Students Used Quarantine to Launch Their Startups

"Guys," Stephanie Gomez (W '21) texted her group of friends after the first week of spring break, "we have so much time on our hands now – let's make a startup." The group threw around ideas until, finally, Ivy Tutors was born.

Some may say that an SAT tutoring company is not a startup, but a "group-of-students-that-made-a-Squarespace-account" doesn't have the same ring to it. In fact, three months after COVID-19 hit the US, there had been a 230% increase in the number of undergraduate-run tutoring companies. 

Of the nearly 100 startups that were created during COVID, half were focused on exploiting highschoolers for their money. The other half attempted to scam adults out of their money.