Attempting success as an EdTech Startup
Being a first generation entrepreneur with no startup or VC experience in the family, I had some tough times wading through the complex maze of this whole new world. My challenge was further compounded as I had read and heard that achieving success as a startup in the field of education technology (EdTech) will be extremely difficult & painstaking. Although, I do agree that there are very few startups in this field which have achieved phenomenal success but that does not mean in any way that there can’t be billion dollar unicorns churning out in the near future.
As a person, I always had a positive outlook towards life. Challenges and hurdles tend to bring the best out of me, in fact I find life monotonous without any victories to be conquered. I thought that the opportunity is huge & vacant, definitely worth a shot! What is the worse that could happen, I can lose a lot of hard earned money, give up few years of professional corporate growth and face bouts of depression. I made up my mind (formed a partnership with my God) and ventured into the field of EdTech startup.
The journey so far has been absolutely phenomenal. I could never imagine there can be so many ups and downs in 60 minutes of my life. To begin with, I decided to develop a service offering which solves a real life problem through technology rather than create product first & then try and fit it into an artificial problem (This has been happening a lot these days). I got down to conducting an extensive market research wherein I contacted parents & students alike in my network. I also spoke to a number of teachers/tutors to understand their requirement for technology. Then, I got onto a drawing product to design an offering which is not available in the country, and as per my research on PlayStore, possibly not even across the world.
After series of deliberations & brainstorming sessions with my co-founders we developed WONK: India’s first tutor discovery & tuition booking app. Significant time had to be spent on technology & testing as it was the first of its kind to be developed. The biggest challenge (probably our biggest IP now) was to permit a user to book multiple classes over the course of the year for studying the full course. Booking a one off session is easy but trying to slot 100 classes is tricky. We did our best to make the app as user friendly as possible and allowing a tuition booking within 3 easy clicks.
The app was launched earlier this year and recorded its first 1,000 downloads within the first 2 weeks with low marketing budget. We have received good reviews on the PlayStore and at the time of filing this article our rating was about 4.6. Initially, being a startup we took some time to build our trust amongst the target market. The quality of tutors available on our application, convenience of booking, cost savings & many other factors were the clear best sellers attracting our users.
Finally, the first tutor booking was received to our joy. Then, many more trickled in over the course of next few days and then many-many more. Now, we are 15,000+ family consisting of over 9,000+ tutors from Delhi & Mumbai and rest being students & parents. On an average we are growing at over 40% month on month with negligible marketing efforts. The start has been exciting, the journey rollicking and god willing the success should be fulfilling. I am confident that with the support of our community and best wishes of everybody, soon India will have a huge success story in EdTech.
To know about my venture, visit www.myedge.in or download our app WONK here - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wonk&hl=en
