Sclipo is a company out of Barcelona that has decided to tackle the “social learning” space. Using the service, anyone can become a teacher and hold classes in everything from giving a Geisha Makeover to Wacom Golf. I had the pleasure of getting a few words with Gregor Gimmy, the founder of Sclipo.

Here is what he had to say.

Gregor, This Is Your Life

I was born in Munich, Germany. I studied Business & Engineering and started my career in management / strategy consulting. I specialized in product innovation strategy and moved to Silicon Valley, where I worked for IDEO in Palo Alto, CA, advising companies “what product / service they should do next”.

After IDEO, I was co-founder and CEO of Metazoa, an early web 2.0 knowledge sharing site for biotech researchers. Metazoa was acquired and I went to build software at Siebel in San Mateo, CA. After Siebel, I moved to Barcelona Spain, where I started a product innovation consultancy. Mid 2006, I had the idea for Sclipo. After an initial prototype, I started Sclipo as a new company with a serious business plan in Jan 2007.

What Is Sclipo?

Tell me a little about Sclipo, what was the problem you were trying to solve?

Sclipo is a social network for sharing and teaching through video and webcam. Sclipo’s focus is on informal learning (opposed to formal learning at online universities). Members can upload as many skills-videos (tutorials, how-tos, lectures, etc.) as they want and share them through their own Academy with friends, family and people anywhere. In addition, people can teach personal classes – live! – to people anywhere on the globe via webcam (and make some money).

Sclipo helps solve 3 problems of informal, web-based education:

1. Quality boost: Most education on the web is textual. Video, which is Sclipo’s main medium, boost teaching quality.

2. Personalized teaching: Most educational content is 1-fits-all format. eHow, Videojug, YouTube all have great tutorials. But, what if details remain unanswered or the learner’s level is more advanced that the one taught in a video. Sclipo’s platform allows members to teach personalized courses through webcam.

3. Monetizing informal teaching: Informal teaching on the web is free. This limits the quality and amount of teaching. At Sclipo, members can charge for their classes taught through webcam. This benefits students and teachers. Say you live in London and want a personal class from the flamenco guitar guru in Sevilla. Traveling from London to Sevilla is much more expensive than paying 50 Eu per hour over webcam. The guitar teacher will find new students way beyond his local Sevilla network.

User Engagement

For a site like this a constant supply of fresh videos is absolutely crucial. Do you find it difficult to get users to submit content? How do you encourage user participation?

We encourage participation by providing members useful tools beyond “video-upload”, in particular webcam teaching and enabling a new source of revenue. For students, participation comes from the fact that they can get personalized classes.

Monetization

What are your plans for monetizing Sclipo?

In the short term, the main revenue source is advertising. In the mid-log term it will be commissions on revenues our members generate via live webcam classes.

The Burning Question

I try to ask all of the entrepreneurs that I interview this. As entrepreneurs, do you have any advice for people who have an idea but just don’t know where to start or how to get it off the ground?

Ask yourself if you would sacrifice a 1 mio per year salary in lieu making your idea reality. If you doubt, than not getting off the ground has probably to do with a lack of passion and confidence that the idea makes sense.

Web 2.0 Roundup

Sclipo has taken a seat in the growing “learning on demand” market. They are trying to solve, with informal learning, the growing problem of making learning available to those who are connected, but might not have the time or ability to travel to a physical classroom. As with any social video site, their biggest concern is developing a community that will really want to generate the content that they will need to survive.

Solving a problem this large not only requires a platform that is easy to pick up and use, but a team that is willing to get out there and show people that they want to use it. A classroom has no value if it is filled with 100 students without a teacher. Sclipo has made a great start, lets all hope they keep it up.

If you want to learn more about Sclipo, go visit them today.

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