In this session of Entrepreneurs corner, my dear friend Aman Garg and I talk to Aman Gupta – Co-Founder at YouScore solutions. Aman and Aman go back to knowing each other and being good friends from their school days. We thank Aman for taking the time to chat with us and helping us understand the Ed-tech space and share his perspective which he has developed over the years while getting his hands dirty and working full time in the education space, leveraging his technology background to marry education with technology.
Aman Gupta, an IIT Delhi alumnus, left a cushy job and a stable consulting career at Deloitte to bring a positive change in the field of education through the path of entrepreneurship. This led to the genesis of YouScore solutions and their core technology platform Scobotic.
Scobotic through ‘SmartBooks’ is on track to usher in a wave of ‘personalized’ quality education – at scale.
Analyzing learning behaviors, identifying areas to strengthen, and helping students achieve more through high-quality personalized content is Scobotic’s goal. The intelligence behind Scobotic helps students identify any gaps in their knowledge or understanding. Once the gaps are identified, Scobotic can help deliver personalized content. Their latest offering is ‘Scobotic SmartBooks’ which is like the enhanced version of traditional books empowered by high-quality content, concept level assessments and personalized learning analytics.
Aman aims to deliver high-quality education to students from all demographics irrespective of their societal/economic background, gender, location. Hence, providing a level playing field.
From things going south, facing roadblocks/failures to celebrating small successes, Aman cherishes his start-up journey. Looking back, he would not have changed his decision to go into entrepreneurship.
Not willing to be just another brick in the wall and to create an identity for himself, Aman decided to make the jump into entrepreneurship.
Appreciating the time he spent at Deloitte, Aman wants to leverage his learnings from his corporate life. He hopes to take his start-up to a similar scale as his previous employer Deloitte one day! His enthusiasm and commitment, when he talks about living the life of an entrepreneur is infectious.
Aman talked to us about the challenges he faced while scaling his Ed-tech start-up. Though he covered many aspects, one thing which struck us hard was when he talks about product-market fit. Sometimes we may think and even be thoroughly convinced that the consumer needs a particular thing but the reality might be completely different. So it is very important to understand the market and assess the product-market fit without being emotional about your own ideas. Prototyping and user testing are of utmost importance and as an extension to that one should try making money with their MVP to make sure there is a fit. Watch the video for more interesting insights on this aspect and other challenges Aman discussed.
All stakeholders – be it students, investors or entrepreneurs – everyone has a very high level of confidence in technology having the power to revolutionize education in a big and positive way – This is the present state of Ed-Tech. Companies like Byjus and Toppr have helped to expand the market for Ed-Tech products by spreading awareness about the benefits of using technology to learn effectively at one’s own pace. For somebody starting new in the Ed-Tech space, they can leverage the groundwork done by these larger players.
The best time to be in Ed-Tech is Now, Thanks to rising levels of internet penetration
We are just witnessing the tip of the iceberg, in the coming 5-10 years, there’s going to be a huge difference in the way students learn things today. The education space is poised to soar. The entire ecosystem will dynamically change, and the education space will see a lot of action.
For someone just starting in the Ed-Tech space, persistence is very important. Understanding the sentiments and needs of students and teachers is of utmost importance. To prevail in Ed-tech, one needs to spend a lot of time understanding unmet needs and identifying product ideas which will help cater to these unmet needs. Ed-tech is a very lucrative domain to be in, but reiterating his thoughts again, Aman emphasized the importance of ‘sticking around’ or persisting.
In the past, the best of the best might not have chosen to teach as a career, but Ed-Tech is changing that. The power to reach millions and affect lives directly is luring the best brains into the field of teaching. For those with the passion for teaching but the need to work in a corporate job, they can now realize both goals at the same time with the help of Ed-Tech.
Aman ends his talk with some food for thought for all of us – The better the teaching quality, the better the students and the better will be our Nation!
Any entrepreneur seeking advise and help in their startup can reach out Aman at aman@youscore.in and checkout Scobotic smartbooks at http://www.scobotic.com/ .
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Awesome content and thank you so much for share your knowledge
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Well captured, Anshuman. A small note that Amans getting confusing in the article. Would be nice to replace it with Garg and Gupta.