Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Chalmers.
Hi Matthew , can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
TwoProfs is a small, bespoke, family-run tutoring and academic coaching business. On the one hand, you might think of us as academic overachievers. We met in Philly, doing PhDs at UPenn. Then we worked for about a decade as college professors. We’ve taught hundreds of students. We’ve written in field-leading journals. Kameliya has published her first book. We’ve travelled all over Europe and the Middle East for research. On the other hand, we’re local. We put down roots in the Shenandoah Valley. We have two kids. We love it. So, when the winds of change came for our academic jobs, we put our thinking caps on to figure out the best way to connect our educating skills and our deep experiences of learning to a broader, more diversified community. That’s where the business came from late in 2025.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Actually setting up the business was very straightforward. Getting our first clients was also relatively smooth. But we had our second child more or less at the same time as we finished our last university contracts! So one major challenge – and we’re still working through this – is growing a small business and doing the legwork to get more clients, self-employed, while juggling a new baby. We are also both originally from outside the US, so we can’t always rely on direct family.
Also challenging: figuring out the financials. There’s a lot going on with small business regulation (especially taxes etc.), and not all of it is intuitive.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about TwoProfs?
TwoProfs is an educating business: we do tutoring, we do college prep (including SAT/ACT prep and application assistance), and we do adult learning.We have recent experience with SAT prep, helping out college students in a bit of a pickle, especially with the 16-22 age-group. But really, whether someone is nine or ninety-nine; an individual or small group; in education, looking to get back into education, or long out of it; we can help.
That sounds like a bold claim. But we can make it because of our depth of educational experience. We sell learning improvement, essentially. The reason we are so good at it is because we have experienced it. We learned our way up to PhDs and out the other side to become college professors. We’ve worked at some of the best colleges in the country. We understand how the top end of learning works, and this puts us in a unique position to appreciate how the building blocks of education can slot together at any part of someone’s life.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
(I presume this is talking about Staunton?)
Best: we love the sense of community. The little things that make a small-town feel lived in (like the Christmas lights in Gypsy Hill Park)! We also like how our neighbors keep an eye out for one another. It’s also cool that for a small town there’s a lot of people who have travelled a long way before settling here. We share that experience, and so it’s neat to feel like there’s others in the same boast.
Dislike: honestly, not a huge amount. But it is a long way away from most of our family in Europe!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://twoprofs.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61587214850139
