How Jay Veal Wants to Improve Tutoring in BIPOC Communities

Jay Veal is a technology guru, but when he began working in the education space, he came up with an idea he had to put in motion.

Veal is the founder and CEO of Black Tutors of Social Media (BTSM), an online platform that connects young people of color with Black-owned tutoring services in their area. BTSM is an expansion of Veal's education and tutoring organization, INC Education. 

BTSM offers tutoring, entrepreneurial services, financial literacy education, college tours, mentoring, and travel programming. The organization looks to connect with Black-owned private tutoring companies to help provide their services to BIPOC communities nationwide.

BTSM manages a directory of tutors and resources for students of all ages across STEM and other various subjects.

"The mission for BTSM is to address the gap of locating Black-owned private tutoring companies, as opposed to non-minority-owned private tutoring companies and centers globally," Veal told Lifewire in a phone interview.

"With the minority family in mind, we were created to be a haven where families could find resources that looked like them and operated like them for their educational and social needs."

Itching to Expand

Veal first broke into entrepreneurship when he shifted to working in the education industry after working in tech. He said he didn't think he would be in the education space, but it felt like a perfect fit after teaching high school math.

He launched INC Education five and a half years ago, and after a year in business, he recruited his mother to assist with operations. INC's mission is to provide a holistic world-class training and education experience that not only increases and retains knowledge, but drives sustainable results.

"I started my journey knocking door to door, grassroots, bootstrap, no venture capital. No Series A funding," Veal said. "My first year was a little rough, but I had the grit to keep going."

In the beginning, Veal was a sole tutor, which he said was a struggle. His tutoring brand now has 110 tutoring consultants across five cities and the nonprofit has 13 members and growing. 

"We have put together and assembled one of the smartest teams in tutoring and education that this nation has to offer with people coming from UT [University of Texas], Harvard, Cornell, Howard, Spelman, TAMU [Texas A&M], and more," he said. 

INC Education has served more than 10,000 students since its inception, but Veal was itching to expand the nonprofit's reach last year, so he started BTSM. The edtech company offers free tutoring to BIPOC students in disadvantaged areas. It takes donations to help those same students go on college tours, explore their entrepreneurial ideas, gain mentors, and more. 

Hardships and Expansion

Veal said he's struggled to fund his ventures and gain government contracts. As a result, he's bootstrapped INC and BTSM for the most part, and he's exploring starting a crowdfunding campaign and applying for grant programs. Veal hasn't raised any venture capital to date.

"Being a minority founder where less than 3% of Black and brown businesses get funding is tough," Veal said. "We have to keep moving the needle forward with our agenda, no matter how someone views the impact we are trying to build."

With BTSM, Veal said it has been hard finding Black-owned tutoring companies to add to its portfolio. Despite hardship, Veal is focusing on connecting with companies to expand his company's platform. He said that one of the most rewarding aspects of his career has been seeing what he claims are approximately 95% of his students across INC and BTSM experience some form of academic growth, measured by factors such as improved grades and college acceptances.

Over the next year, Veal is looking to expand BTSM's team, gain nonprofit status, and add more Black-owned tutoring companies to the organization's platform. 

"Revenue is what runs a business, but the impact is what drives its sustainability," Veal said.