Meet the co-founder and CEO of Tomorrow’s Education
Christian Rebernik is co-founder and CEO of Tomorrow’s Education. His company is currently developing a university in your pocket called Tomorrow University of Applied Sciences (ToU). He has worked in technology for more than 20 years, building and leading companies including N26, Parship and Awin. He was born in Austria and studied business and information science at university.
There’s always a lightbulb moment before the beginning of a new venture. What was that moment for you?
I have three kids. During the pandemic, they have all been homeschooling. While I was working on one side of the table, they were studying on the other. I watched their frustrations with their learning experience - at one point in time, they actually fell asleep during a class.
This was the moment where I thought that education is so wrong. And yet it’s so important for our future. It reminded me of my own school, my experience and also how often in recruiting I interviewed people who had lacked the competencies to help solve the challenges ahead.
At that moment, I knew I needed to do something about it.
Tell us about your experience prior to launching your business?
My background is building technology-based products for organisations and then leading them to success. Throughout my career, I have been lucky to have the opportunity to constantly learn and grow personally and professionally with new roles in new industries and in different markets.
Previously, I founded Vivy, a personal health record and assistant. Together with 37 health insurance companies, we enabled 20 million people to manage their health.
I also helped to build N26 Bank as MD, was CTO at Parship, created award winning apps like ShareTheMeal for the UN World Food Programme and helped Awin to become a global affiliate network.
I am a Venture Partner at Founderslans, Advisor to the GreenTech Alliance, Member of the board of advisors to Sprk Global and Tomorrow Bank.
I love to support startups as a mentor and angel investor.
What inspired you to launch your business and what is the end goal?
While the lightbulb moment was clearly with my kids, my inspiration is to create a better tomorrow. I believe to create a future worth living in, we need a society which incorporates sustainability in all aspects of life.
As I am just one person, there is just so much you can do alone, but a community can make a much bigger impact.
My experience has taught me that the best multiplier is education. While it takes longer, it has a much bigger impact.
At ToU, we set ourselves out to educate and empower future creators. We will help them to build the right competencies that matter in the 21st century. Through ToU, learners will build not just knowledge but real skills, which they can then use to have a positive impact on the world around them.
ToU also connects learners with amazing mentors, role models and an amazing peer group to build a network for their growth. The next Google, Microsoft or Amazon will be a sustainable company and we will empower our learners to create or shape these companies.
Working with a co-founder can be tricky, so understanding and compromise is important. How have you both found the process of building a business together? What makes it work?
Finding a co-founder is a foundational part of any company and its success often depends on the relationship between the founders.
I was lucky that I knew my co-founder as we previously worked together. Several years after first working with each other, we reconnected thanks to a friend who knew we both cared about the same problem. After initial discussions and early collaboration with each other, we spent a full day together just getting to know each other better. We went through the ‘36 questions to fall in love’ with each other. They are really fun and insightful.
Later, we discussed the fundamentals of working together, which include:
Personal objectives
Expectations
Priorities
Incentives
Working Style & Culture
Roles & Responsibilities
What happens when we want to leave the company
Other topics, like legal and financial things
At the beginning, we spent a lot of time together and also spent time giving each other candid feedback to learn how we could work together.
What does your business offer its target audience?
We offer education and empowerment for people who dare to try and change their world; people who want to create a positive impact. We achieve this through our bachelor or master degree programmes.
Our learners often are people who have a job, and are considering switching careers or setting up a company.
Often, they are the ones who want to do something meaningful. With the bachelor programmes, we see people applying directly from school to join. Our programme enables them to learn flexibly, even while they work or travel the world. This empowers them to thrive.
The key programmes we offer are:
Professional Master in Sustainability, Entrepreneurship and Technology
(in collaboration with the renowned Vienna University of Business and Economics)Bachelor of Arts in Responsible Entrepreneurship
Bachelor of Arts in Product Experience & Design
Bachelor of Science in Technology & Data
How do you set yourself apart from other businesses in your industry?
We combine leading research with world class mentors on a modern, mobile, student centric platform. It’s literally a university in your pocket.
Learners develop through real world challenges, which they solve with mentors and bite-sized lessons. They get feedback on their competencies and they can connect globally in our 100+ learning hubs across 60 countries.
With all the success stories around entrepreneurship and how innovative people have to be to take the leap. How do you think you’ve innovated your sector and why?
Education hasn’t changed since I went to school. There are still lectures, when we know they are not the best or most effective way to build competencies.
Now with more and more learning happening digitally, education is just put into a video conference, but there is no innovation when it comes to making things more meaningful.
We designed ToU from the ground up with the learner at the heart of everything we do.
What plans do you have for Tomorrow’s Education over the next two years?
In the next two years, we will focus on improving the value for our learners. A key part of this is developing the platform, the programmes and our partnerships. Our learners will have exclusive access to resources for growth and be part of a community of doers, creators, change makers and entrepreneurs.
How does technological advancement speak to the strategic direction of your business?
A key part of our curriculum is the mobile first platform our learners use to study. We will further develop the platform, leveraging AI and VR. We will allow open challenges, letting learners publish their competency profiles, while also integrating the learnings we have as a business.
Describe your business in three words.
University (in) Your Pocket.
What are your top tips for entrepreneurs wanting to get their business out there?
Join our Bachelor or Masters Programme to learn skills relevant for the 21st Century and build your network for impact.
