Cindy Mi loved English so much as a child that she spent her lunch money in middle school on books and magazines to practice. By 15, she was good enough to tutor other students. At 17, she dropped out of high school to start a language-instruction company with her uncle. Today, 33-year-old Mi is co-founder of a startup that aims to give Chinese kids the kind of education American children receive in top U.S. schools. Called VIPKid, the company matches Chinese students age 5–12 with predominantly North American instructors to study English, math, science and other subjects. Classes take place online, typically for two or three 25-minute sessions each week. Mi is capitalizing on an alluring arbitrage opportunity. China has hundreds of millions of kids whose parents are willing to pay up if they can get high-quality education. In the U.S. and Canada, teachers are often underpaid. That’s fueled explosive growth at the three- yearold company, which started this year with 200 teachers and has grown to 5,000 working with 50,000 children. Next year, Mi anticipates she’ll expand to 25,000 instructors and 200,000 children. Over the years, education experts and teachers have criticized online learning, arguing that nothing can duplicate the face-to-face interaction of a physical classroom. Chinese parents are so bent on getting their kids the best education possible they’re sometimes willing to try unproven methods. Mi has recruited academic advisers from respected American universities, but she’s mindful of the challenges. “What keeps me up at night is not growth, it’s quality,” she says. “We need to be responsible for the learning outcome.” VIP-Kid has raised $125 million from venture firms including Sinovation Ventures, Northern Light Venture Capital, and Sequoia Capital China. Basketball legend Kobe Bryant has invested and advises Mi. Sinovation, led by former Google China chief Kaifu Lee, funded VIP-Kid when it was just an idea in Mi’s head. “We really felt education could be reshaped with the power of the internet,” Lee says. “The moment we met Cindy we knew we had to invest in her company.”

Questions for Discussion 

1. How would you describe Cindy Mi’s personal leadership style? 

2. What sources of power do you think she possesses? 

3. Which leader behaviors does she engage in? 

4. Do you think she is a charismatic leader? Why or why not?