The founder story
Built by a student who needed it most.
Founder & Freshman, BHHS
Ilay Koren
Founder, Peechu · 9th Grade, Beverly Hills High School
Transferred from LAUSD
Peechu Founder
BHHS Class of 2028
Chapter 1 — The move
From LAUSD to Beverly Hills High — and suddenly, everything was harder.
When Ilay Koren transferred from the Los Angeles Unified School District to Beverly Hills High School as a freshman, he quickly realized that the gap between the two systems was bigger than he expected. Math, in particular, hit like a wall. The curriculum moved faster. The expectations were higher. And Ilay was starting from behind.
"I walked into my first math class at BHHS and felt completely lost. Everyone around me seemed to already know the material. I was panicking by week two."
— Ilay Koren, Peechu founder
Chapter 2 — The search for help
He tried everything. None of it really worked.
Like most students in his position, Ilay turned to tutoring services. He tried online platforms, virtual sessions, and agency-matched tutors. Each one promised results. None of them solved the real problem.
Too expensiveProfessional tutors charged $80–150/hr. Not sustainable for most families, and the quality wasn't guaranteed.
Wrong materialGeneric tutors taught generic math — not the specific chapter, teacher style, or exam format Ilay was actually being tested on at BHHS.
Endless video callsVirtual sessions meant staring at a screen after already spending all day in school. Impersonal, tiring, and easy to cancel.
No real connectionThe tutors didn't go to his school. They'd never met his teacher. They didn't know which topics the class was actually struggling with.
Scheduling chaosCoordinating times, locations, and payments with external tutors added stress on top of an already stressful situation.
Language barrierAs someone navigating a new school environment, finding a tutor who understood his background — or spoke his language — felt impossible.
Chapter 3 — The realization
The best person to help him was already in the building.
One afternoon, a junior who sat near Ilay in the hallway explained an integration concept in five minutes that three hours of online tutoring hadn't made clear. That junior had taken the exact same class, with the exact same teacher, the year before. They knew what was on the test. They knew which problems the teacher loved. They knew because they'd just been there.
"That conversation was worth more than every tutoring session I'd paid for. I thought — why isn't there a system for this? Why isn't the school connecting us?"
— Ilay Koren
Ilay started sketching out an idea. A platform where juniors and seniors could teach freshmen and sophomores — at school, after hours, in a spare classroom, organized and paid through the school itself. He called it Peechu. Peer + teach. Students teaching students.
Chapter 4 — The advantages
Why student-to-student tutoring beats everything else.
Ilay didn't just want to fix his own problem. He wanted to build something that would work for every student who felt what he felt. Here's what makes peer tutoring — done right — genuinely better:
Right at school — sessions happen in vacant classrooms after school. No commute, no Zoom fatigue.
Genuinely affordable — student-set prices, typically $15–40/session. Not $150/hr.
Same teacher, same syllabus — your tutor took that exact class with that exact teacher. They know the test.
Real connection — someone who goes to your school, walks the same halls, and gets your experience.
Find someone who speaks your language — filter by language to learn in the way that makes most sense to you.
Teacher-approved — every tutor is vetted and approved by their subject teacher. Not random strangers.
No more video calls — face to face, in person, at school. The way learning was meant to happen.
Earn while you study — tutors earn cash or academic credit. Good grades become a real asset.
School-controlled & safe — payments through the school, rooms assigned by admin, parents notified of every session.
Scales to every school in the US — built to work at any school, anywhere, with minimal setup.
Today
From a hallway conversation to a real platform — piloting at BHHS.
Ilay is still a freshman at Beverly Hills High School. Peechu is now in its pilot phase at BHHS — with 24 approved tutors, 87 sessions booked in the first month, and a school administration that believes in what peer tutoring can do for its students. The goal is to bring Peechu to every school in the United States.
"I built the thing I needed when I was struggling. Now I want every student who transfers, who falls behind, or who just needs help — to find it in five minutes, in their own school, with someone who's been exactly where they are."
— Ilay Koren, Founder of Peechu