Dear Ben,
Lessonface is no scam. The vast majority of students active in our platform find their teachers through our simple site navigation and our matching system, which does, in fact, exist.
Lessonface is a competitive marketplace. There are so many excellent instructors already operating in the community, with significant momentum that is visible to students, that it can be hard for other great teachers to be seen and to gain bookings. So to address that we do enable teachers to bring their own students to the platform to not only utilize our many features but to gain stats and reviews with legitimate students, and the fee we charge on those lessons is 5% of a teacher's set rates, which includes credit card processing fees. Credit card processing fees, as you likely know, are the fees you would need to pay with a payment gateway on your own website, too. So we are making between .5-1.5% of the lesson fee on these lessons after the processing fee. It's not a money-maker for us, in other words, considering all the work we put into running the platform and in marketing it over the past 12+ years, and again, certainly not a scam. This student referral system is completely optional, and there are no other fees to join for teachers.
You are welcome to contact us directly if you'd like to further discuss our policies.
Best,
Claire
CEO, Lessonface PBC