Well, we are just a few days away from the Private Beta launch of our next big star — GyanLab.com. It has been a tough journey. Starting with B2B hardware maker labs to B2C offline learning programs to national level competitions to personalized learning platform using tech — it has been a lot of jumps, pivots, shutdowns, and finally we are arriving at a place where we want to be with GyanLab.com.
We have put together years of lessons learnt, insights and advice from the best in the industry into our efforts on building GyanLab.com. Once it launches, we will look out for all of you to give it a shot and give us real feedback because customer feedback is something that we listen to very carefully.
Here are some of the key mantras that we have incorporated while building our platform and will keep hanging on to once it launches. I am sure, many other edtech startup can surely make some use of these.
1. Sustainable business model
Unicorn, billion dollar valuation chase, millions of dollars can all go to waste. Unicorns can die in days, the local supermarket runs for as long as they want. A sustainable business model is key to success in edtech space. Time and again, almost all edtech startups have failed either due to not making enough money or not charging enough money for their products and / or services. Right from the day of launch, be focused on getting the right business model. Do regular tweaks, make minor pivots, run multiple models at the same time but just stay on course to finding the right business model. Crazy top line looks cool but solid bottomline actually makes your startup sexy (like, for real)
2. Don’t be afraid to charge Customers — nothing is really Free
Nothing in the world costs nothing — then why should your customer get anything from you for free? Are you fearful of having an inferior product? Or do you think just because you give someone something for free, they will be loyal to you? Nobody values free products in edtech. In education, free is always inferior. Have you seen Pre-schools, Schools, Colleges, Universities charge less? Have you seen Coaching Institutes charge less? They have built their niche and now charge as they want and customers do flock! So, don’t be afraid to charge customers. It will bring you a solid validation of whether people will eventually actually pay for it — real traction.
3. Don’t overprice, don’t underprice
Pricing is a very key aspect of any edtech product / service. Don’t underprice. Over time, you will realize it is better to have less number of customers paying more than having too many customers paying too little. As edtech entrepreneurs, our instincts always want us to give things at low prices — don’t get caught up in that web. Don’t overprice too. That can be the quickest thing to lose customers. The balance can be found over a small period of time based on reviews from prospective customers, existing successful products / services and similar products /services in other industries added to your experience of actually selling and taking feedback.
4. Serve Consumers — have a real relationship
Listen to your consumers. The product / service has been built for them and they have decent feedback for anything you build for them. The consumer also needs to feel important — needs to believe that you are in the game for them. They can single-handedly make or break you. If you service & work for your consumers well, there is no chance in hell that you will not end up making the right product, sell it at the right price and keep innovating with time. Have the heart and listen to your consumers.
5. Key influencers — keep them close
Find out who the key influencers are for your edtech startups. Is it schools, colleges, consultants, parents? Find them and cling on to them. Keep them close, make them sell your vision to your customers not as a favour to you but a proper business transaction. Make them also feel valuable in the whole equation. Your key influencers, if prepped properly, can do more of your selling than you can ever imagine or do it yourself.
6. Global trends, practices, habits — cultivate them
It is really good to know about your market and use those insights to successfully run your startup. But knowing global trends, what has worked where and how people have done some awesome things that you can probably pick, tweak and use in your case. Being aware is good — it makes your edtech startup strong.
7. Don’t replace educators / teachers — complement them
A vast majority of edtech startups are on a mission to simply replace teachers, tutors, educators — it doesn’t make a lot of sense to do that. We have always stayed on course to complement teachers and it is key for any edtech startup to do so. Make them your evangelists, make them your influencers. It is impossible to change the de-facto education system without policy level intervention. You cannot wait for that. Teachers are a critical part of the de-facto system, accept and embrace them to grow.
We are sure that these mantras are going to help us scale in a kickass manner. What do you think?
Drop off your comments / feedback for us. We are on LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter. Originally posted here.
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I have an ASK PRIYADEEP page on trh. You can ask me about EdTech and Student Entrepreneurship!
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asha chaudhry
very very nice mantras priyadeep! a lot of them are applicable to non edtech as well!
the 7th is the most interesting one and probably something many folks miss out on!
good luck for the private beta launch – do share the link when you’re ready so some of us can check it out!
Priyadeep Sinha
Thanks a lot, Asha 🙂 I will surely let you once the platform is live & running
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
Awesome stuff.
Wanted to share this excerpt with you from my article – https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/the-9-best-conversations-i-have-had-in-my-life-and-the-lessons-i-
4. Your own worth is sometimes unknown to you…
Circa -1999.
Place – Office of eVentures in Khaitan Bhavan (Churchgate) Mumbai.
People present – Neeraj Bhargava (CEO of eVentures) and me.
Situation – Diligence meeting on the funding of c2w by eVentures. The 3 open questions that needed to be addressed were:
1) Why doesn’t c2w generate revenue?
2) Who is on the team other than Alok?
3) Is there a client reference for c2w and its business?
Neeraj asked me the first question, “Why aren’t you charging any of your clients for their online contests?”
I replied, “The idea and concept of c2w is literally the first in the world. Brands would take a lot of time to understand it, to pay us. It’s something brands need to get addicted to before we ask them to pay.”
Neeraj then asked me, “Who else is on your team other than yourself?”
I gulped and replied, “Two junior webmasters.”
Neeraj came to the third question about providing a client’s reference and twisted it by asking me, “Alok, give me the name and number of your most demanding client. Someone, who has given you lots of business. I want to talk to someone who didn’t get swayed by your sweet talk to give you business just once, but rather someone who finds real value in what you do and gives you business repeatedly.”
My heart sank. Our toughest and most demanding client was Pepsi Mumbai, headed by a person called Thota Ranganath. In my mind, I assumed that this discussion was over. Ranga was not going to be kind about us and about our work because we could never satisfy his endless demands.
I gave Ranga’s reference and telephone number to Neeraj.
Neeraj immediately called Ranga in my presence which was absolutely nerve-wracking for me. I clearly heard Neeraj asking questions like, “Do you deal with c2w? How is their work? Do you like the team?”
He then asked, “Why don’t you compensate them?”
Ranga’s reply made Neeraj get up and walk out of the room.
A few minutes later Neeraj came back. He looked point blank at me and said,
“Alok! Ranga told me that he loves your ideas and work.”
Neeraj continued and said, “I asked Ranga the reason why Pepsi doesn’t compensate c2w?”
‘Ranga told me that “Alok never asks(!!)” and further added that Pepsi was actually worried if there was something fraudulent about c2w, because nobody works with Pepsi for free.’
Finally Neeraj dropped the atomic bomb on me. He said, “I also asked Ranga if he would ever consider working for c2w and with Alok. Ranga told me, “Of course! It sounds very exciting!”
Lesson learnt – True value lies in the eye of the beholder. Do your best and then let partners and well-wishers help you unlock the real value you have created.
(Ranga did join c2w as COO and went on to launch mobile2win in China as a co-founder with me.)
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
Also, this one:
For quite a few months now, I enjoy toying with topics that intrigue me and over the odd weekend try to convert them into simple PPTs. Pricing has always been a concept all of us (including me) struggle with. As you can see I had to speak to Master Yoda to figure out how to tackle this problem!
I’ve attempted to break down and analyse how one can price what one sells. This is just a reference guide. I would encourage you to add some more examples in the comments below!
Feedback is always welcome. Just be sure you don’t hit me with anything too hard 🙂
[Ps – If you are browsing via a mobile device, click on the IN logo (linkedin) and directly view this deck on slideshare. The UX is much better :-)]
Image link to PPT on slideshare
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Priyadeep Sinha
Alok, thank you soo much for sharing these lessons with me. It makes me believe more in myself. And, I will remember these lessons very vividly forever as we start growing GyanLab.com 🙂