The Writing Center: Crafting The Perfect Document

A college admission essay can make or break your application. Nathan Labenz, founder of The Writer Center, wants you to take no chances. In the words of the founder, The Writing Center teaches people to write by helping them craft documents that really matter to them. So far, the company has focused on admissions essays, but they will soon broaden their services.

In August of 2006, during his travels abroad, Nathan leveraged his prior experiences to create a basic online personal writing services company to finance his expeditions. But the demand for his services grew much quicker than he expected: within eight weeks the launch, he had earned enough money to finance his year abroad and decided to grow the venture, hiring his fellow peers from the Harvard Writing Center.

Nathan sees great market potential in admissions support, especially in assisting students from Asia applying to university programs the United States. Due to the fact that many of these students are applying for MBAs, executive education could be a potential expansion opportunity for the The Writing Center. In an admittedly crowded space, Nathan insists on high quality tutors (handpicked by himself from prestigious institutions) who he pays nicely to produce quality work. The tutors are trained to not only optimize college admissions, but also develop concrete skills for prospective students to help ease the transition to demanding college work.

Applywise and EssayEdge seem to be two major competitors. Local premium tutoring services offered in upper-middle class society are also cleaning up in the pre-college advisement. Moving forward, I would like to see The Writing Center expand into all aspects of the college admissions process in order to compete on a broader scale. The company is poised to so; it is led and comprised of mostly Harvard students or graduates, which could help establish a premium brand. I imagine that students looking to get into certain universities will appreciate guidance from graduates of the most selective university in the country. Nathan's biggest challenge will be retaining talent, as tutoring is often a recent-grad's springboard to other opportunities.