Three-year growth 938%
Teachers have heavy loads on their shoulders, and when they burn out, classrooms suffer. That is why ensuring that capable substitute teachers are available on demand is critical — and it’s why the Senya team is bullish about providing a better experience for both subs and students. The company started under different ownership in 2018 as Ready to Teach. When Dave Wilson joined the crew as CEO, the team reworked their old business model to create Senya — so schools can “say adios to sub shortages.” Senya’s model allows substitute teachers to earn bonuses on top of the rates they receive from schools, motivating them to sub more consistently and receive high ratings from the schools. Happier subs, happier schools, happier students. Sounds like an A+ model.
Justin At Senya, it’s about making life better for schools and substitute teachers. Without subs, teachers lose prep time or aides get pulled from classrooms. People burn out. Sometimes teachers stop taking days off because trying to get a sub is miserable. Everything we do at Senya is trying to solve these problems.
Rachel I came on in 2018 when the company was “Ready to Teach,” and we had just signed on our first school: Noah Webster Academy in Orem. How we filled substitute jobs back then was that schools would call me, I’d post a job, and then go through a spreadsheet of subs, messaging or calling until I found one.
Then when Covid hit, Ready to Teach kind of died. An investor came in and bought us out. We hired Dave and a few other people, but we weren’t built to expand. Our fill rates weren’t great — the percentage of requested substitute teacher assignments that are actually filled — subs were stressed, and schools didn’t know if they were going to get subs. When Dave came on, he looked at everything and threw it out.
Dave Initially, I didn’t want to be a part of this. When they said to me they were looking for somebody to help with this little education company, I felt like, “That’s great. Have fun and good luck.” I was doing really well in sales at an ed company in Orem. But I was intrigued when they presented this as the Uber model for substitute teaching. Nobody else was doing it this way.
I spent a few months visiting our schools and asking two questions: Why are you still using us, and what do we need to change? Everyone said, “We like Rachel.” Then they unloaded: The app was horrible, the sub quality was bad, and fill rates were horrible. So, Rachel and I started brainstorming. The first thing was, we needed a new app. We all wanted to figure out how we could motivate subs to take more jobs and improve their quality.
We came up with a bonus program. Liz and the developers have built this incredible app that automatically upgrades subs. If a sub completes five jobs in a month, the app automatically upgrades them from silver to gold, giving them a bonus out of Senya’s own profit margin. Once subs complete 15 jobs in a month, then they’re at the highest tier. We’re not charging the schools more; we’re willing to take our own profit margin and give it right back to the sub.
Subs also need to maintain at least a four-star average or they’re back on the lowest tier. That motivates subs to show up, be professional, and not cancel last minute. When we first tried it, subs who normally worked once or twice a month were suddenly taking 15 jobs. Fill rates skyrocketed. When I first interviewed schools, our fill rates were in the 40 percentages. We would love to make sure the schools Senya is in have their fill rates be as close to 100 percent as possible.
Rachel Our team doesn’t see a problem and say, “That’s just the way it is in this industry.” We work hard to get it fixed.
Dave One of my biggest priorities is internal people. I want everyone to feel this is the best place they’ve ever worked. People can come to me with ideas, disagree, contribute. That translates to how they treat customers — schools say they’ve never been treated so well.
Elizabeth Everyone helps each other and is so appreciative. There is no ego. One of our favorite things is seeing Dave get really excited about an idea. That passion is infectious. Schools notice too.
Justin We also don’t lock schools into contracts. We have some schools that use us as a supplement, and eventually they drop everything else because Senya is just easier. We tell schools, “We want to earn your business every single day.” They love that. Senya has never felt like it’s just about making money — it’s about helping subs, schools and students.
“If every employee feels extremely valued and listened to, that is going to transition over to how they treat the customers — and it does. Our customers have said ‘This is the best place. We’ve never been treated so well.’”