Campus and Fizz founders share strategies for scaling consumer tech

At the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, the founders of online school Campus and college social app Fizz shared their strategies for scaling consumer-focused platforms in the U.S. market. Both companies have established distinct footprints by targeting specific student and campus needs, balancing community engagement with growth.

Key metrics for the two platforms include:

• Campus enrollment: More than 3,000 students are currently enrolled in the online school.
• Campus faculty: The institution employs more than 100 professors to support its student body.
• Fizz reach: The social app currently operates on more than 200 college campuses.
• Fizz funding: The company has raised more than $40 million from investors to fuel its growth.

Campus, led by founder and chancellor Tade Oyerinde, offers associate degrees and certificates in various fields. To address specific employer demands, the platform launched à la carte courses covering individual skills such as “vibe coding”—a term used to describe a specific software development skill set. To keep the school affordable, Oyerinde utilizes the Pell Grant, which is a form of U.S. federal financial aid for students. The company’s cap table—the list of its shareholders—includes investors such as OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Discord’s Jason Citroen. According to Oyerinde, these backers are not driven by immediate financial returns. “They don’t need the money,” Oyerinde said. “What they really want is to fundamentally shape the way that education works in this country for the better.”

Fizz, co-founded by Teddy Solomon, has taken a different path to community building since its launch in 2021. Backed by investors including Owl Ventures and NEA, the platform has expanded its features to include a peer-to-peer marketplace that has listed more than 100,000 items. For monetization, Solomon stated that Fizz is focusing on an advertising business rather than subscription models, and has already worked with business partners like Perplexity. Looking ahead, the company plans to expand beyond the U.S. by building a new product called Global Fizz.

Why it matters

The founders’ approaches offer a blueprint for scaling consumer-facing products by prioritizing user engagement and specific market needs—whether in education or social networking—rather than just rapid growth.