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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