New dad whips out SchoolGennie to provide ERP for informed decision-making on schools
As parents, we play a very vital role in shaping our child’s future. But how do we invest in our children’s education? Are we responsible and aware parents? How much do we know about the school our children attend, the teachers, and their involvement with our children and our children’s behavior? Is there a mechanism by which we as parents can be more aware and therefore involved with the educational system that we choose for our children?It is with these thoughts in mind that Amit Gupta started toying with the idea of ‘SchoolGennie’ in 2012. As a father interested in being involved in his child’s education, he was appalled at the lack of information that one could find on the internet regarding the schools. The one thing that stood out was the complete lack of any form of electronic records of any of the parameters that parents can use to judge schools. Hence, SchoolGennie was officially started in 2013.
YourStory caught up with Amit to understand a little more about SchoolGennie and what drives him.
I have a commerce background and have worked in several companies over the last 14 years in diverse areas such as sales, marketing and human resource management. I got involved with trying to find a good school for my child in 2009. It was then that I discovered the dearth of data and intelligence to equip parents to make a more informed decision regarding their child’s education, and the initial idea of SchoolGennie was formed.
I found a shared passion for technology and its ability to transform the educational space in Pardeep Goyal, whom I knew since 2010. We both joined hands and founded the company together.
The team currently comprises of four people. We run our technical operations from Chandigarh.
What SchoolGennie offers?
Our mission is to provide an electronic records portal (ERP) which is both integrated and comprehensive. The idea is to focus on each and every pain point of an educational institution and provide data to the schools on the basis of which decisions can be made. The main focus is on transparency and the availability of information to all the stakeholders such as teachers, administrative staff, parents etc.
For the ERP to go live in a school it takes about 10 days. We also organize training sessions. The idea is to have the customer as involved as possible so that the technology solution meets the demand. If the client requires additional support we also provide an accounts manager.
How is it different from other competitors?
Our product is a complete package. It is customizable depending on the institute’s needs and requirements. Rather than focusing on just one or two problem areas our ERP covers all the pain points of an institute. There are over 200 other companies in this space and I believe that it is our more exhaustive and comprehensive package that makes us different. We eventually hope to focus tools and methods that can measure academic and behavioral patterns of the child. This will help both educators and parents to take relevant decisions regarding the child’s future. This data can be further used by universities and employment agencies to make more informed and intelligent hiring choices.
Addressable market, funding plans
In India, there are ~125,000 private schools and all of them are our potential direct customers. At present, we are bootstrapped and follow a direct sales model where we go to the client and pitch our solution to them. We have two pilot projects involving schools in Gurgaon and Punjab and one more potential project in Jaipur.
We are of course on the lookout for investors who have a genuine interest in a technology startup in the educational space.
Your personal motivation and driving force
As a father, my driving force comes from a desire to want the best for my children and therefore by extensions for all children. I am driven by the fact that even if we can make a small difference in influencing the future of the next generation by investing in education then we would have achieved a lot.
To find out more about SchoolGennnie, you can visit them at www.schoolgennie.com
