Advait Shinde: CEO of GoGuardian - The leading player in powering K-12 digital learning environments

Advait Shinde: CEO of GoGuardian - The leading player in powering K-12 digital learning environments

Advait Shinde went from learning how to program in the 4th grade to co-founding GoGuardian , a 700+ person company that enables K-12 students to engage in a better learning experience.?

Advait graduated from UCLA in 2012 with a degree in Computer Science. Advait not only had a talent for programming but loved every part of building software. He interned at Google during college, which was a life changing experience. He was fortunate to attend the all hands meetings run by Larry and Sergey. Advait sat in the front row and hung onto every word they said. Advait realized that opportunities were endless and abundant, especially in the digital world. The only constraints were the ones you set in your mind.?

Seeing the founders of Google inspired Advait in the way he viewed the world, especially in K-12 education. Advait began looking at the education space and wondered why things were done a certain way. He realized that technology could be deployed to create a much improved experience for K-12. Advait had always loved learning but did not enjoy school. He felt that the idea of cramming for exams in order to get a good grade was archaic. Advait’s parents put immense pressure on him to perform as well. It was all about getting good grades, and learning was secondary.

It was 2014. Advait saw the internet as a massive unlock for education. Computers had been in schools for a few decades, but leveraging the internet to connect and monitor the success of students was in its infancy. Initially, they began talking to educators about deploying machine learning and data optimization for students. But after speaking with a number of educators, it was clear the big issues were much more mundane. The tablets given to children had become a distraction. Educators we’re struggling to stop kids from watching Netflix and Youtube in class.?

The first product GoGuardian built was a chrome extension to help teachers keep track of the devices. They quickly amassed 30,000 students. The team doubled down and started having a lot of conversations with administrators and educators across the country. They took a modern approach to product development. They wanted to build software that had a high quality user experience. And the value they provided was in their ability to synthesize feedback and quickly build features needed for the market.?

In the first year, Advait, his cofounders, and a handful of engineers lived and worked out of a small apartment in Hermosa Beach. Advait didn't take a salary and had no possessions. He coded all day and night working 14-16 hours per day. They would talk to educators during the day, build features for them in the evening and then show them the features the next day. Everyone was focused and highly motivated.

Within 6 months of starting, the company hit a major revenue milestone. And things took off from there. K-12 education is different from other industries in that if you can solve an educator’s? problems, you will likely be introduced to a significant network of interested parties. The software sold itself.?

At some point, it was apparent that the company should raise capital to accelerate their growth. Despite showing great early progress, they spoke to 80 investors to get their Series A done. Most of the challenges were that Investors were not excited by the K-12 vertical. After completing the raise, sales continued to dramatically rise, and they actually generated more revenue than their entire fundraise 3 months after closing the round.?

As the company has grown, Advait has focused on building a top flight leadership team. This team rose to the occasion during the start of Covid in 2020. Things got really crazy for the company during this time, especially when the lock downs started and schools went remote. They made the executive decision to give away their products for free in April 2020. It risked the company running out of cash but they knew it was the right thing to do. And thankfully, the hail mary turned out to have a positive impact on the business.?

The company is currently operating at a significant scale with 25 million students (about half the K-12 students in the US) using their products. And now, they are focusing on doing what they initially sought out to do, which is understanding how learning works using the data they have and building tools that drive engagement and improve outcomes. Advait believes the company is just at the beginning of what's possible in terms of how to teach kids.

Lessons learned -?

  • As an entrepreneur, you should follow your passions?
  • Think about how the future should be and create it
  • Approach customers with an inquisitive outlook. Learn about their issues and then find solutions
  • No matter how big or intense the challenge, know that you will get through it and be stronger for it

Puneet Gupta

Founder & CEO, Astrotalk | TEDx Speaker | Quora Top Writer

2 年

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Advait Shinde

Co-Founder at GoGuardian

2 年

Thanks Cole!

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